A couple of weeks ago, I talked about closing my only April option contracts that made it to expiration, but I decided to let it play out. Today, that decision proved to be wise. My two UWM April $72 puts expired worthless. I’ll pocket a realized gain of $808.45, which is a gain of 5.95% or…
Author: Alex Fotopoulos
S&P 500 Index Chart – Timing is Everything
The chart below shows the daily prices for the past six months on the S&P 500 index (SPX) after the index closed at 1,865.09 on Friday, April 4, 2014. Traders will be watching to see if the trend line of higher lows holds support at the beginning of the week. If not, the SPX could…
Option Trades on SPY & UWM
I wrote recently that I had a limit order in place to close my far out-of-the-money UWM April $72 puts. Well, the order expired before I found a taker on the other side of the trade. By then, I decided UWM wasn’t worth closing for 10 cents and changed my order to close if I…
End of Month Summary – March 2014
March flew by me before I even realized that I only made three trades for the month. Actually, I traded three different contracts, but only made two trades since I closed and opened Ford puts in a calendar spread. XLF was the only new position that I opened and it finally moved to a paper…
DJIA Chart – What Now?
I charted the daily prices for the past six months on the Dow Jones Industrial Average ($DJIA, $INDU, $DJI, the Dow) after the index closed for the week at 16,302.77 on Friday, March 21, 2014. The DJIA is still slightly below its 2013 closing level, but up from its dip that ended in early February. As…
Sold XLF Naked Puts ITM
Almost two and a half months ago, I mentioned that I was considering a bullish spread on XLF, the Financial Select Sector Spider. It was trading around $22.00 that day. Before I placed an order over the next week, it started to falter and fell more than $1.50 from its high. I stopped following it…
Rolled Ford Puts from March to May
Ford (F) hasn’t quite behaved like I expected it to yet, but I still see some potential left in it or at least a good way to make money if it doesn’t sink much more. F fell as low as $14.41 at the beginning of February and I figured I’d be forced into taking a…
End of Month Summary – February 2014
The bull market showed it isn’t dead yet during February as the markets recovered (at least the main indexes did, except for the Dow) from recent lows and moved into positive territory. I maintained my lead over the indexes for the year-to-date, but the margin narrowed slightly. I have some in-the-money puts that can give me a better…
Closed DIS & SSO Naked Puts
I’d be a happy man if this year could continue acting the way it has started the year so far. My account is up and the market is essentially flat. If we don’t see a good correction, we need an extended sideways consolidation period at least. Some 5-7% mini-corrections sprinkled in will help keep volatility…