Aug puts on SSO and BRKB

Reopened a Oct synthetic long on BP, at 38 instead of 37 this time. They're saying that they'll need another 24 hours to determine the success of the cap, so hopefully we'll get some good news over the weekend. If not, then hopefully we'll get some good news on the relief well by the end of the month. If not, then I'll just have to be happy buying BP at $38 in 3 months and then selling covered calls on it - or just buying to close and taking a small hit.

7/16/2010 3:51:20 PM

just curious, wouldn't you want put you shorted on a synthetic long to be OTM, and the call ITM? Neutral activity would still keep the put ITM at 38?

[Edited on July 16, 2010 at 5:03 PM. Reason : n/m just saw the days trading range, 38 was OTM/ATM the first half hour]

7/16/2010 5:01:46 PM

I was hoping BP would hold up to start the day, I was going to grab some lottery (that is after-all the only play on BP at the moment) Aug 35Ps on the failing of the pressure test but it gapped open lower and I didn't want to pay that price. So far, the results of the test aren't looking great

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2010/07/pressure-test-failing-stopping-short-of.html

but not a disaster yet.

7/16/2010 5:51:14 PM

Picked up some BAC today.

Might sell some 14 calls for Friday before close.

7/19/2010 3:13:12 PM

I'd enjoy it if BAC could stop this 3month slide.

7/19/2010 5:24:04 PM

Yep. Twould be nice.

Despite the downgrade, most still regard it as an outperformer.

7/19/2010 6:52:30 PM

Picked up a bit of EWY today (South Korea ETF) and immediately sold Aug 48 calls.

Bought back the Aug SSO puts I sold on 7/16 and pocketed ~.60 per share. Planning on reselling on a down day, but who knows how this week will turn out.

Closed Aug 130 calls on AMZN before the afternoon rally and reopened afterwards.

7/20/2010 6:59:02 PM

What do you all think of GE?

7/21/2010 11:36:00 AM

Buy some and sit on it.

Healthy dividend and cheap at the moment.

7/21/2010 3:51:42 PM

picked up puts on $v.

7/21/2010 3:52:17 PM

Why, what's happening with V?

7/21/2010 3:56:33 PM

Quote :

"Picked up a bit of EWY today (South Korea ETF) and immediately sold Aug 48 calls."

Sold Aug 47 puts today so I've got a lucrative little (covered) strangle. $1.41 per call and $1.50 per put has me pocketing $2.91 per share, or about 6% in a month.

Quote :

"Bought back the Aug SSO puts I sold on 7/16 and pocketed ~.60 per share. Planning on reselling on a down day, but who knows how this week will turn out."

Resold today for another .60 per share.

7/21/2010 4:27:07 PM

Quote :

"Resold today for another .60 per share."

Bought back today for another $1.02 per share.

7/22/2010 1:54:08 PM

Interesting article on aapl http://www.cnbc.com/id/38360246/

7/22/2010 2:31:47 PM

I hope you aren't still holding NFLX and AMZN?

7/22/2010 5:38:28 PM

^

7/22/2010 6:38:44 PM

I had all of my NFLX called away in June at $105 IIRC. In July I wrote puts at 110 and 115 and both expired without the stock being put to me. I've got a small number of Aug $115 puts out right now, but if the stock stays flat and I pay $115 for it, I can get a healthy return writing Sep calls and probably get my bottom line below $110 if not $105.

I've got a bit of AMZN that I picked up around $125. I'm not too worried about the recent fluctuation as I've mostly been selling and buying back various covered calls on it and getting a good return.

7/23/2010 5:58:24 PM

Quote :

"I've got a small number of Aug $115 puts out right now"

Make that aug $110 puts sold for $5.40. I didn't have my spreadsheet in front of me when I wrote that.

Also, I'm up 300% on my BP synthetic long. It doesn't expire until Oct, so I'm not planning on cashing it anytime soon. I may whenever they announce the relief well.

7/26/2010 2:00:05 PM

BTW, RST was downgraded on weak earnings and is now at it's lowest price since February.

7/26/2010 2:43:34 PM

My company must be the only one on the market who dramatically beat earnings estimates, illustrated a surge in revenue over the previous quarter and YTD. Yet, whose shares are down 2.5% for the day.

gimme a fucking break

7/28/2010 10:14:28 AM

^ market direction and technicals are trumping company-specific fundamentals right now

7/28/2010 10:31:20 AM

Got in TEVA at 49.

7/28/2010 4:47:13 PM

Quote :

"Ten Stock-Market Myths That Just Won't Die"

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB128000197220920621.html

7/29/2010 12:33:17 PM

picked up some CLNE

7/29/2010 3:22:38 PM

setting trailing stops on TYH & FAS

8/2/2010 10:55:40 AM

RST reports earnings on Thursday. It's still fairly cheap compared to where it's been the past few months.

8/2/2010 2:50:07 PM

http://www.cnbc.com/id/38522555

8/2/2010 5:05:59 PM

Can someone tell why UL dropped 5% today?

8/5/2010 2:30:35 PM

Quote :

"Unilever PLC's (UL:$27.88,00$-1.4500,-4.94%) U.S. shares fell 4.8% after the consumer-goods giant's results showed lower sales prices hurt its margins. Underlying sales growth was 3.6% year on year, lagging behind analysts' expectations of 3.9% growth."

8/5/2010 2:38:14 PM

Jesus Christ. Every time I sell PCLN it goes up 30%. Am I being Punk'd?

Fuck me, RST is taking a beating after hours because of earnings.

8/5/2010 5:10:00 PM

anyone have feelings about SA? This really old wealthy jewish dude i know has been talking about it for months

8/6/2010 1:26:45 AM

Quote :

"I hope you aren't still holding NFLX and AMZN?"

AMZN has recovered nicely and is actually near a 3 month high right now. I was planning on a longer recovery and sold Sept $130 calls in the hopes that I could close and reopen the position over the next month or so. Whoops.

NFLX is back over the $110 strike price of my Aug puts so I'm happy.

My biggest winner right now is the synthetic long I did on BP. I spent $155 to open it on 7/16 and now I'm up around $2350.

8/6/2010 4:22:14 PM

Went in for some UL today pre-market.

8/6/2010 5:16:51 PM

^^ Did you get torched in '08? Because in reading through this thread, it seems like you have to be up 200% by doing nothing but buying dips. I can only imagine if you were trying that in 08 that you bled.


...

I've been having quite a bit of success by just following a few sentiment/contrarian blogs focused on the gold market and have just been buying and selling options at the extremes on the GLD etf. I've booked 6% on those positions this month (worth about 2% of my overall account) and I've probably spent a grand total of 2 hrs reading and maybe 10 minutes opening/closing positions.

8/6/2010 5:24:21 PM

I got hit pretty hard in 08. Since the bottom I've seen about a 130%-140% return. After riding a few stocks all the way down I changed strategies and started doing a lot of option trading on FAS, FAZ, and a few other 3x ETFs before they restructured those. I would close and reopen positions as often as 10 times a week and was getting a 5% cash return monthly on just those options. Right now I'm looking at a 2-3% monthly cash return on options, though I still have a healthy number of longs that I'm planning to ride for a while.

8/6/2010 7:46:25 PM

I'm a stock investor (Conservative/Value), but I'd like to learn a bit about options and options trading.

Anyone recommend any "for dummies" websites as an introduction to options trading/investment strategies, etc?

8/6/2010 8:37:59 PM

bad bad day for me. and probably most of you as well

8/11/2010 12:53:52 PM

Everything on my watch list is down except Netflix.
Thinking of picking up some BAC after the new 52 week low it hit today.

[Edited on August 11, 2010 at 2:33 PM. Reason : l]

8/11/2010 2:33:01 PM

It reminds me of the old proverb "Taketh the good; taketh the bad. Taketh them both and thus are the facts of life."

I closed some calls on AA, YUM, and JBHT (the JBHT calls were only a day old but yielded .50 per share).

Reopened puts on SSO at Aug 37 and Sept 36.

8/11/2010 2:49:50 PM

Actually think I'm going to pass on the BAC thing. Even the "good" with them hasn't been so hot lately and I'm not looking for a long term investment.

8/11/2010 3:23:31 PM

a minute before closing bell i accidentally place a sell order instead of a buy on TYH idiot

8/11/2010 5:00:58 PM

someone who would know better should try and answer but is it possible that by simply flooding the system with requests/trades that you cause a crash then somehow cash in on it, like say have a program at the ready that will make a request if the top 100 stocks dip a certain amount in one day and then causing the crash to activate it?

http://consumerist.com/2010/08/robot-traders-leaving-behind-bizzarre-crop-circles-in-market-data.html

8/11/2010 11:43:15 PM

The gains from potash today alone would cover the cost of my entire week's suite at the venetian for labor day week

Is it bad luck to pay for a vegas vacation with a 27% one day gainer?

Let it ride keep eating that meat in the eastern hemisphere

8/17/2010 4:04:38 PM

Merger talks, that gap will probably fill, couldn't hurt to take profits. Just curious, but what happened to the "Liquidating half my portfolio" "Sitting out this recession" talk and the BP talk? Doesn't really line up with longing POT, one of the more volatile stocks in an even more volatile sector the last 36 months???

edit-Noticed you made an interesting analysis on July 1. Would have caught that proverbial knife at the best time.




[Edited on August 17, 2010 at 4:20 PM. Reason : .]

8/17/2010 4:18:35 PM

I'd take profits.

8/17/2010 4:20:03 PM

Bought pot oct 08 at 99 same day bought aapl for 103.

And yes I'm still in mmkt and bonds for half my portfolio.

Part of my heavy commodity-materials portfolio that is designed to fight the inevitable dollar devaluing

8/18/2010 4:23:45 PM

fuck this shit

i'm buying

8/19/2010 3:07:35 PM

picked up some EDC, TYH, and BDD

8/19/2010 3:09:13 PM

I'm pretty happy with the market right now. I've got a good number of calls that expire tomorrow and as of right now everything but VZ and T is below it's strike price. This time last week I was looking at about 25% of my portfolio being called away.

8/19/2010 4:04:42 PM

Any reason you just let your stock get called away rather than to roll?

I'm faced with just that, I sold a call on one of my positions thinking it wouldn't land ITM by expiration. It just barely is but I see continued upside in the stock. As there will be no premium left in the call, to buy it back tomorrow essentially just means I'm out the cost of commission to open/close it, no? I'm planning on selling a farther out in strike/time call and buying a near term strike/call with the proceeds to try and get a little leverage. This is an IRA so I can't go naked and need to maintain the position (though maybe my broker can handle a calendar spread just fine and I just don't realize it).

8/19/2010 4:46:32 PM