September was very very good to me. I increased my account balance by approximately $7,500 including the $4,000 deposit I made at the beginning of the month. It’s crazy to see that kind of gain in one month for me with the type of investing I do. I’m all about the slow and steady, but a lot was down at the end of August for me, including the two long positions I’m holding. Those two came back to life and all of my options closed for a profit. I also had a good final week of the month aided by the Fed’s rate cut. I find it interesting to note that my total account balance was down near $7,500 after the dot com bust and now I can add that much in one month.
My latest stats are listed below. I’m still way above the major index’s returns. I’d be close to 200% invested now if all of my options were assigned at their strike prices. I’m so far out-of-the-money on a bunch of them that I don’t feel I’m taking a big risk overall. I want to see how the next few days play out and expect to sell some more options before the next expiration. I sold more in premiums last week than I ever have in a single week, $2708.75. I also received $111.20 in dividends from my money market I’m holding my cash in until more options are assigned and I’m forced to buy. I think I can feel the IRS getting ready to knock on my door next April. With the returns I’m getting, I’d rather pay the taxes on my 23+% YTD gain so far than just sit on the 8-% gain delivered by the S&P 500 year to date if I had stuck my money in an index fund.
- Current Account Value: Ameritrade: $69,493.08, Quicken $69,577.53
- Annualized return year to date: 34.88%
- YTD % change (using quicken report Average Annual Return Current Year): 23.31%
- 12 month trailing return: 35.72%
- Deposited $4,000.00 on 9/4/07
- S&P 500 % Change year to date: 7.9%
- Dow Jones % Change year to date: 11.85%
- Market Volatility:
- CBOE Market Volatility Index (^VIX): 18.00
- NASDAQ Volatility Index (^VXN): 21.01
good man… keep it up…
all the best…