I had no options expire today, so I’ll give a short account summary instead. This is what’s in my account right now: +300 shares of IWM +100 shares of MDY +100 shares of DIS -1,300 shares of TLT -800 contracts on TLT July $127 covered puts My account balance has been massacred by the run…
Author: Alex Fotopoulos
End of the Month Summary – May 2016
Short-term memory can be deceiving sometimes and that’s one of the many reasons I find it important to keep a trader’s journal. If I had not looked back to see my balance at the end of April, I would’ve thought I had killed it in May. Instead, I simply came back strong from the mid-month…
Closed TLT June Call Options
I spent some money today, $3,752.39 to be exact. As I did at the end of May, I closed out my ratio spread on TLT that included short in the money calls. TLT dropped hard at the open, down nearly a $1 and I jumped on the opportunity to get out of my short option…
Options Expiration – May 2016
I only had two options expire today – 10 TLT May $125 covered puts and three TLT May $134 naked calls. Both legs were set to expire worthless and I planned to sell new puts and calls for July, but margin limitations didn’t agree with my plans. Since both legs were far enough out of…
End of the Month Summary – April 2016
My account continued to regain value in April even after March’s amazing month of gains. My account value peaked a few thousand dollars higher than I finished, but still am happy to have another solid month in the books. I expect May to help me again, but it will really depend on how bonds move…
Closed TLT May Call Ratio Spread
Taking a loss is never fun, but I should’ve done it sooner maybe. My ratio call spread on TLT set to expire in May didn’t quite go as planned. While TLT was trading at $128.43 this afternoon, I bought to close 10 TLT May $126 calls for $2.85 each and sold to close 20 TLT…
Options Expiration – April 2016
Once again, I have no options expiring today. I haven’t even made a trade in weeks. So, I’ll give a portfolio update instead. I was planning to sell covered calls on my IWM, MDY, DIS shares, but the charts showed a lot of upside available and I waited. Now, I’m thinking about it again and…
End of the Month Summary – March 2016
March was a fantastic month for nearly everyone who was long stocks. My gains were cut by my short position on TLT, the 20-year Treasury ETF, but I still had a really good month. My stock ETFs produced all of my gains. My TLT shares that I’m short cost me $3,884, but my options on…
SPY Chart – April 1, 2016
The chart below shows the monthly prices for the past year on SPY, an S&P 500 Index ETF, after closing the week at $206.92, on April 1, 2016. Technical indicators can be cruel sometimes. As with every stock and index prediction tool, sometimes they give false positives. If they didn’t, everyone would use them and nobody would fall prey…