How many of you realized that the DJIA finished up for the week ending March 14, 2008? It’s amazing how quickly the glory day of a 400+ point gain can be washed away in our minds. The S&P 500 dropped 5 points, the NAZ was flat and the Russell 2000 was down 3. Not too bad considering…
Author: Alex Fotopoulos
Selling Calls on NYX and FWLT
With the chances of a quick recovery even farther away now, I sold some calls this morning. I started with NYX since I still own 100 shares and then moved to FWLT which didn’t hold support at a couple of points. My current calls on NYX are for March 80. With NYX trading under 60…
Will I hit my Goal?
Last July, when I turned 36, I created a Goal page (see the chart at the bottom of this post). My account balance was around $57,000 then. I projected that I could get to $92,260 by the time I hit my 37th birthday in July 2008. I was within $3,000 six months early, but then my account…
WTF HUM? – This is why you diversify
My mother-in-law is from Scotland. They have a saying over there that popped to my mind when I saw HUM this morning, “For F*ck Sake!” It was down 20% on sympathy with Well Point’s news that they were lowering earning forecasts. We have a huge bounce in the broader markets and I stand to recover…
Shorting Fannie Mae (FNM)
Barron’s had a really bearish article on Fannie Mae (FNM) in today’s paper (the one hits my driveway on Saturday morning) and sure enough the street agreed with their logic. FNM opened the day down and kept going. After closing at 22.77 on Friday it went down to 18.50 and back above 20 briefly. While FNM was trading around 19.76…
NASDAQ Composite ($COMP) Chart – March 7, 2008
Support from the low closing price in January broke this week for the S&P 500 ($INX) and the Dow Jones ($DJI). The intraday lows from January 23rd and 22nd respectfully haven’t been broken yet if you need something to help you sleep better. The NASDAQ Composite ($COMP) broke it’s January low closing price at the beginning…
Sold CMI Naked Puts + Sanity Check on Current Holdings
Back on February 22nd I entered a limit on Cummins, Inc (CMI) when it was above 53.00. That order hit just after market open this morning while CMI was trading around $47.75. I sold two April 45 naked puts (CDMPI) and received $388.50 after commissions. Since it has been a few weeks, I’m not sure, but…
Getting in Deeper on FWLT
I sold another naked put at the same strike as last week’s trade on FWLT (details here). I was smarter on my original entry point last week and only sold one naked put which allowed me to sell another today while FWLT was down from last week. While FWLT traded at 66.29, I sold one…
POT – Is There Anything Better?
Of course I’m talking about Potash Corp of Saskatchwan, Inc (NYSE: POT), the fertilizer and industrial feed company. It’s in the Basic Materials sector and Nonmetallic Mineral Mining Industry. It’s close enough related to MON which I have a position in that I won’t be trading any more Basic Materials companies for a little while to stay…