I was planning to ride my VXX naked call all of the way to expiration and then sell covered puts on it for as long as I could ride it. Once I saw $SPX hit resistance around its 200 day moving average I started wondering if my downside risk was greater than my upside potential…
Author: Alex Fotopoulos
S&P 500 Chart – Moving Averages with a Bullish Crossover
This S&P 500 ($SPX) chart shows the past three months of daily prices after the index finished the week at 1,244.28 on Friday, December 2, 2011. The large cap index just finished its second best weekly point gain ever, but is facing resistance from its 200 day moving average (dma) now. Although the SPX has made…
Sold DIA Naked Put
Yesterday I mentioned my plans to come in on either direction the jobs data pointed us. Although the details within the jobs data were mixed, the headline number helped push the scrum to the bulls’ side to start the day. Seeing the ECB showing more teeth in their snarl helped too. (The ECB is reported…
Closed TWM Naked Puts
Yesterday I mentioned that I might have to close these puts early if small caps continued to rise. This morning in my month end summary I referenced the move again when I said I need to be better about closing positions early when I have a good profit. Soon after I wrote that I decided…
End of Month Summary – November 2011
November showed how good October was. It made flat feel like a loss after having such easy money the month before. I gained a little, but was essentially flat. I could’ve done better if I didn’t pull back on my risk exposure as much as I did, but sometimes it’s better to reduce risk and…
Sold DDM Naked Put
Like most bullish investors, I woke up to see some exciting futures this morning only to see them improve even more with each piece of data and news story that hit the wires. I was considering opening more exposure on Monday (and obviously should’ve), but the opening pop was so strong that I thought I…
DJIA Chart – November 25, 2011
I charted the Dow Jones Industrial Average ($INDU, $DJI, DJIA), after the markets closed on Friday, November 25, 2011, after the Dow closed for the week at 11,231.78. The Dow is almost in no man’s land on its chart. It’s below its 10, 20, 50, 100 and 200 day moving averages and has decent space before…
Sold UCO January Naked Puts
It’s not that oil looks like it is going to shoot all that much higher from here, but maybe more that I don’t think it’s going to tank to ridiculously low levels. My current oil exposure is all in UCO and includes 300 shares long, plus a December 32 naked put and three January 40…
Shifting Risk with MVV, SSO and TBT + A Trading Model Change
As I mentioned last week with my TWM trade and in my $SPX chart on Sunday, I’ve grown more bearish lately and I made some more changes today. I started with a basic sell to lighten my overall exposure to the markets. I sold 200 shares of SSO for $41.88 and received $8,375.01 after commissions. I…