No option expiry to report today. I've been busy at work lately with the auditors up our asses. But today, I get some time to myself as my controller is not at work. (He caught me browsing before and had a talk with me before.)
Last Friday, the market continued to drop. My portfolio sank hard and fast. This week, I saw my portfolio fluctuate $15k. It's hard to swallow then you're watching all your paper gains disappear before your eyes!
I had a few short PUTs to roll out: $FB to Nov15, (2)-$NFLX Jan16 & (2)-$WMT Jan17! My buying power will be tied up for a while. I am staying cautious at this time. A little annoyed that I made those trades earlier in the week and it blew up in my face. If only, I let my shares assigned for $FB & $NFLX, I'd be able to walk away with a few hundred buckeroos... but I was scared and covered my ass with lower strike prices for $FB @ $77.50 and $NFLX @ $95.00. But time is of the essence.
Another missed opportunity, I closed my long PUTS @ $209.50 on $SPY just before the market crashed last Thursday. OPPORTUNITY WAS THERE FOR ME, but I squandered it all.
Anyways, time to move on and quit reminiscing. I have a number of options expiring on Sept18'15. I hope the market continues to stabilize and make a run back up to the levels where we have gotten so used to!
Friday, August 28, 2015
Thursday, August 20, 2015
Set to Expire: Aug 21st
Still hanging in there! I was sitting comfortably until today. Hindsight, I was getting a little reckless with my buying power. Now I have to watch my short PUT options like a hawk.
| Option | Position |
| FB 21AUG2015 91 P - Almost in the money! 4% drop spells trouble to me. | -1 |
| NFLX 21AUG2015 115 P - ITM, I will have to roll it out tomorrow | -1 |
| NFLX 21AUG2015 116 P - ITM, I will have to roll it out tomorrow | -1 |
| WMT 21AUG2015 60 P - OTM, this will expire worthless, I will lose $15 | 2 |
| WMT 21AUG2015 70 P ITM, I will have to roll it out tomorrow | -2 |
What happened this week or so?
I was looking for quick money and sometimes, it'll lead me into trouble. $FB & $NFLX were placed earlier this week. I thought it was OTM at the time I sold my PUTS. But today, it slapped me in the face. Now, I face assignment of shares @ my strike prices. But my exit strategy is to roll them down and out further down the road by tomorrow if they are below my strike prices.
I was looking for quick money and sometimes, it'll lead me into trouble. $FB & $NFLX were placed earlier this week. I thought it was OTM at the time I sold my PUTS. But today, it slapped me in the face. Now, I face assignment of shares @ my strike prices. But my exit strategy is to roll them down and out further down the road by tomorrow if they are below my strike prices.
On Monday, my covered call for $FTS.TO strike $38 for August 21, 2015 was assigned early due to ex-dividend date. I realized a gain of $785 and missed out collecting my dividend.
Lately, I've been dabbling with $SPY with long PUTs @ $209.5/$210 for Aug 28th. Thus far, I realized a net gain of $241.94 in few short days. Since all my positions are closed... Today, I initiated long CALLs @ $208 for Sept 18th. I'm playing both sides. I will follow where the money is going.
Monday, August 17, 2015
Second Goal Completed, What's Next?
Since I opened my Interactive Brokers (IB) account in September 2014, I am amazed at the rate I'm going at each month. Is this beginner's luck? Or did I awaken an inner calling?
From my last post regarding my goal, I mentioned that my second goal: "Create more income through option trading: $10,000." Once again, I exceeded my expectations and have surpassed my goal in eight months!! You can check out my Progress tab for updates.
Below are my current statistics in my IB account:
YTD: +28.31%
Since Inception: +41.14%
Stocks: 86.64%
Cash: 23.96%
Options: 2.85%
So what's next? I will continue to maintain my portfolio and take gains whenever I can to ensure capital preservation. Question now is what will the next few months bring? This is up in the air as the market is ever changing... and I must be prepared for it or I'll watch all my gains disappear.
Wednesday, August 12, 2015
Set to Expire: August 14th
Last week, I had ammo to fuel my trades. I wanted to make a quick buck. Now, I might be in some hot water!! It's going to get to a boiling point...
| Option | Position |
| AAPL 14AUG2015 105 P | -2 |
| FB 14AUG2015 89.5 P | -2 |
| SBUX 14AUG2015 55 P | -2 |
Tuesday, August 11, 2015
Ka-Ching!
Last Friday, I felt the trading force with me. One of my riskier option trades are buying CALLS. I put down $995 of my own money on the line! If $GOOG goes below my strike price of $630 within a week, my CALL will drop dramatically. But lucky for me, I hit the mother f'n load!
After the market closed on Monday, Google revealed they're going to re-organize and rename themselves as Alphabet Inc. After hour trading went on a frenzy after this announcement, $GOOG traded upwards to 6%!
So this morning, I was wide awake before 6:30am... itching to see how much I can cash out for! I set a limit to sell order for 43.95 and it filled shortly after.
2 day hold. +442%. Cashed out for $3399.41 net profit.
I wish I can do this everyday... but this opportunity does not come very often. Like I said in my previous post, August is my lucky month!!
You might wonder, what influenced my trade?
No one influenced me. This is a trade I made on my own discretion. Thing with buying a CALL is you must be bullish on the stock between the time you buy the CALL and expiration date. I looked at the chart and figured the support was at $630/share. So I decided to buy a CALL for $630 hoping to make some quick cash. Little did I know, I would hit a jackpot!
For the past year or two, Google struggled to make any headway. It wasn't moving anywhere while other stocks have made leaps and bounds.
I am a Google girl. Back in 2012, I bought shares of Google when people thought they were too expensive. But I still stuck with them.
PC
BOUGHT 1 GOOG Aug14'15 630 CALL @ 9.95
So this morning, I was wide awake before 6:30am... itching to see how much I can cash out for! I set a limit to sell order for 43.95 and it filled shortly after.
2 day hold. +442%. Cashed out for $3399.41 net profit.
I wish I can do this everyday... but this opportunity does not come very often. Like I said in my previous post, August is my lucky month!!
You might wonder, what influenced my trade?
No one influenced me. This is a trade I made on my own discretion. Thing with buying a CALL is you must be bullish on the stock between the time you buy the CALL and expiration date. I looked at the chart and figured the support was at $630/share. So I decided to buy a CALL for $630 hoping to make some quick cash. Little did I know, I would hit a jackpot!
For the past year or two, Google struggled to make any headway. It wasn't moving anywhere while other stocks have made leaps and bounds.
I am a Google girl. Back in 2012, I bought shares of Google when people thought they were too expensive. But I still stuck with them.
Friday, August 7, 2015
Set to Expire: August 7th
Short week for us Canadian folks! Of course, I slept in and didn't pay much attention to the open American markets.
I only have two options expiring today. Both are very out of the money. That means, it's money in the pocket for me! I get to keep my premiums collected from the start at the trade in the amount of $108.82 USD. Ka-Ching!
| Option | Position |
| FIT 07AUG2015 30 P | -1 |
| MA 07AUG2015 90 P | -1 |
Lately, I've been swayed to make money faster and it has gotten me into trouble. Deploying new strategies mean higher rewards and risks.
Slow and steady is the best way to kept your fortune, but it bores me to death.
Saturday, August 1, 2015
Option Trading: 1 year anniversary
August marks my 1 year anniversary of Option Trading! August 11th was my first trade in this journey... same day when I bought my first car! Summer months have always been lucky for me. I'm a summer baby. Things just fall into place for me in these few months of the year.
I'm not much of a trader, more of a buy and hold and wait for my dividends investor. I don't really use any technical or fundamental analysis. I trade what I like. Let's just say I have good tastes most of the time.
Before I learned options, I wanted to earn $500/mo from swing trading using my margin account to fund the trades. But I seem to find the wrong kind of stocks to play with and got stuck with just paying interest on the money I borrowed from my brokerage instead. I tend to hold onto losers and sell my winners.
Now with Options, I can trade with little to no actual money down and make consistent gains! All I need is buying power and I can keep my current stocks as is. As my portfolio grows, my buying power will also increase giving me opportunities to do more trades to create a steady stream of premiums.
June was a disappointment, but I still pulled through. July proved to be my biggest gainer to date!
I'm up 11.23%! From my options, I realized a net gain of $2,059.87. I closed a lot of my positions early. My commissions for the month was $59.98 USD.
Of course, this does not make up for the actual gains I had for the month. I hold 25 shares respectively for $GOOG & $GOOGL. They spiked up in price and brought my overall portfolio with them to over $100k. Unfortunately, I sold off 15 shares of $GOOG @ $580 with a GTC order that I had set previously from months ahead. To be truthful, I was getting fed up with Google for not moving for the past couple of years, while other stocks have made leaps and bounds.
I used my proceeds from my $GOOG sale to buy 10 shares of $UHAL @ $347.08. Buying growth stocks have its perks with bigger appreciation in stock price, but it also has a down side if it doesn't move or falls below your buy in price. Another con is most of them doesn't pay a dividend.
Before I learned options, I wanted to earn $500/mo from swing trading using my margin account to fund the trades. But I seem to find the wrong kind of stocks to play with and got stuck with just paying interest on the money I borrowed from my brokerage instead. I tend to hold onto losers and sell my winners.
Now with Options, I can trade with little to no actual money down and make consistent gains! All I need is buying power and I can keep my current stocks as is. As my portfolio grows, my buying power will also increase giving me opportunities to do more trades to create a steady stream of premiums.
June was a disappointment, but I still pulled through. July proved to be my biggest gainer to date!
I'm up 11.23%! From my options, I realized a net gain of $2,059.87. I closed a lot of my positions early. My commissions for the month was $59.98 USD.
Of course, this does not make up for the actual gains I had for the month. I hold 25 shares respectively for $GOOG & $GOOGL. They spiked up in price and brought my overall portfolio with them to over $100k. Unfortunately, I sold off 15 shares of $GOOG @ $580 with a GTC order that I had set previously from months ahead. To be truthful, I was getting fed up with Google for not moving for the past couple of years, while other stocks have made leaps and bounds.
I used my proceeds from my $GOOG sale to buy 10 shares of $UHAL @ $347.08. Buying growth stocks have its perks with bigger appreciation in stock price, but it also has a down side if it doesn't move or falls below your buy in price. Another con is most of them doesn't pay a dividend.
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