The May 4th edition of Barron’s had a bullish article on Schlumberger Ltd (NYSE:SLB) which led me to check its option prices. Before I detail that part, here are a couple of the quotes that helped formulate my trade decision: Schlumberger’s shares could rise 20%-25% in the next 24 months, to 60. And if there were…
Author: Alex Fotopoulos
S&P 500 Index Chart – May 1, 2009
I charted the S&P 500 ($SPX.X) after it closed at $877.52 on Friday, May 1st. While this bear market rally has lasted longer than I expected I still think it faces some sizeable obstacles in the near term. The farthest away and possibly most important is the trend line (A) of lower highs going back for the past year. …
Month End Summary – April 2009
I ended April with balance of $69,417.47 according to TD Ameritrade and $69,758.27 according to Quicken (something hasn’t settled I guess is the difference). While I could have made more if I was more heavily invested, I’m still pretty psyched with the returns I’ve had year to date and also since the end of March when I…
Mixed Bag of Emotions
I think I’m starting to fall prey to letting my emotions enter my trading decisions. I’ve been far too underinvested ever since I said it was time to buy. After not listening to my own advice and getting deeper into the markets I’ve come up with too many excuses to get in too fast on any…
Option Trade: DIA Vertical Call Spread for Credit
I’ve talked about the Dow Jones having a hard time reaching and staying above the 8,150 area for a while. This morning after the bad GDP numbers were released the Dow soared and made it above that range. Continuing in my non-believer mindset I checked the options Dow tracking ETF DIA. In an unusual trade for me I…
Sold USO May 26 Naked Puts
I exited my last USO position with a loss. That was on March 23rd. Now that I’ve waited 30 days I can trade it again without having to worry about the tax implications from the wash rule stopping me from writing off my loss on the underlying stock last time around. I’m longer term bullish on the…
2 DJIA Charts – Ending April 24, 2009
Today I’m posting two views of the Dow Jones ($DJI) chart. One is for the past six months and the other is only for the past one month. On the six month chart I attempted to draw the same trend lines as I did two weeks ago with my April 9th Dow Jones Chart. I…
Sold FWLT Naked Puts
I own Foster Wheeler (FWLT) in my IRA and charted FWLT early this afternoon to decide if I should keep it or not. Not only did I decide to keep it and put a limit order for out of the money covered calls in my IRA, I checked the put options for my taxable account. The premiums…
Bullish on Gold (GLD) Near Term
With my continuing bearish attitude towards the overall markets I moved my attention to gold and more specifically the major gold ETF, GLD. I started with a limit order on a debit vertical call spread, but decided to switch it to a put spread for a credit. The risk was close to the same since I was…