The only option I had expire today was on UUP. My five UUP June $23 long puts expired worthless and I lost my full investment of $141.86.
I’m actually out of town today, taking advantage of the strong dollar while I’m in Greece. UUP was trading at $23.26 when I made my trade in late January, close to its bottom of the year – the exact wrong time to buy a put. I wrote this a few days ago, on Tuesday, when UUP was trading at $24.72. That’s 6.28% higher than it was when I made my trade, which means that if the dollar holds its strength against the euro while I’m away, I negated most of the dollar appreciation that I was hedging against in the other direction. In other words, the stronger dollar means I’ll save something close to $160 over what I thought I’d spend. It’s basically nothing, but had the dollar gone the other way, I’d have been happy with my trade. Now it’s just a wash.
My original plan was to double the number of puts I was long, but quickly saw UUP was done with its decline. I held on to the puts just in case it had a major reversal. If I had sold them, even a month ago, I wouldn’t have made more than a few bucks.
So, that’s it for me for a couple of weeks at least. I know I’ll be swamped when I return and doubt I’ll get a trade in for my own account before my end of the month summary.