Saturday, January 21, 2017

Trade Recap for Jan 20, 2016

Interactive Brokers is great in low commissions and no assignment fees but cruel to those traders who do not trade within the minimum cap.  I did not trade for Nov/Dec 2016 and were hit with fees:

2016-12-02Balance of Monthly Minimum Fee for Nov 2016-12.03
2016-12-02US Securities and Futures Value Bundle for Nov 2016-13.44
2016-12-02OPRA (US OPTIONS EXCHANGES) (NP,L1) FOR NOV 2016-2.02
2017-01-04Balance of Monthly Minimum Fee for Dec 2016-12.35
2017-01-04US Securities and Futures Value Bundle for Dec 2016-13.43
2017-01-04OPRA (US OPTIONS EXCHANGES) (NP,L1) FOR DEC 2016-2.01
In order for me to get a credit for those fees:

1)  Trade a minimum of $10USD in commission to eliminate the monthly minimum fee

2)  Trade a minimum of $20USD in commission to eliminate the US options exchange fee

3)  Trade a minimum of $30USD in commission to eliminate the US security and future value bundle fee (I am thinking of discontinuing the subscription for this one and just using Google real time to place my orders if need be)



TFSASHARESAVG COST
EMA.TOAdded 100$45.55
FTS.TOAdded 100$41.23
RPI.UNAdded 200$23.57
RRSP
SRU.UNAdded 100$31.85
NON-REG
TEVAAssigned 100$34.00
TEVASold-$34.10
PEY.TOAssigned 100$30.00

OptionAccounts (Position)
TEVA 13JAN2017 34 P
BMY 20JAN2017 64.5 C
Got assigned (-1)
(-1)
KO 20JAN2017 40 P(-1)
PEY 20JAN2017 30 P Got assigned (-1)
WMT 20JAN2017 60 P(-2)

There are many ways to play the options market.  I am mostly a option seller.

By selling naked puts, I am collecting a premium from the start of the day I open the position.  My goal here is to sell out of the money (OTM) below market value to avoid assignment and collect premiums.  If you want to own the stock anyways, this is a great way to get the stock at the price you're willing to pay with additional premium.  

By selling covered calls, I am collecting a premium from the start of day I open the position.  My goal here is to sell out of the money (OTM) above market value to avoid assignment and collect premiums.  If you want to sell the stock anyways, this is a great way to get rid of the stock at the price you're willing to sell with additional premium.

As you can see, two of my puts were assigned as the stock price reached below my strike price.  As a put seller, I am obligated to buy shares if the share price dips below my strike price as did for $TEVA and $PEY.TO.  For $TEVA, I was able to sell my shares for a higher price the next week (Phew, it is currently trading at $33.23 as of Jan 20th, but I still have another put in play that has not expired yet).  For $PEY.TO, I may sell a covered call at a higher price further out date to get a premium.  It is a monthly payer, so I do not mind holding this for a while.

If you do not want to own the stock or sell the stock (do not have the shares which is a naked call), there is another way of avoiding assignment by closing your position for a loss and reopening another position on a further out date for a higher premium to offset your loss.

Sometimes, I like to make bets on the direction of the market by buying PUT on $SPY if I am bearish or by buying CALL on $SPY if I am bullish for the particular time frame.  I will buy puts/calls and if I'm right, I can make money pretty fast if I hit my target strike price and it goes beyond that.  If I'm wrong, well I can lose my bet pretty fast too.  By buying options, I am only losing the premiums I pay for and is very time sensitive.  This by far is risky and you need to be very aware of the market conditions.  


Friday, January 20, 2017

My humble beginnings

In my early 20s, I used to write down my thoughts in a journal everyday to pass by time as I hitched a ride with my dad first thing in the morning at six.  My work didn't start till 9am, so I'd wait for him till he finish his morning route from the suburbs of Vancouver to Downtown.  My days were long, it was my first job and I worked hard yet I wasn't rewarded in pay.  Making $10 per hour is poverty line, yet I felt lucky "at that time" to be given a chance to work in an office setting for a college drop out.  For the next three years, I didn't get any pay increase and I never asked which hindered my accumulation of wealth on a faster scale.  Each year, I'd get a bonus of maybe $500 and I thought I was happy with that.  

What triggered me to make a change?  My controller asked me to seal the envelope to the bonuses of the employees on the payroll, she was too lazy to do it herself.  I was curious as to what kind of bonus others were getting, so I peeked.  To my dismay, a store manager's bonus exceeded my yearly salary.  I worked so hard day in and day out, yet they did not reward me.  That's when I decided to call it quits.  I even gave myself a deadline.

Working 9am-5pm didn't give me many chances to go on work interviews.  But I managed to snag an interview that's an hour drive away and told them I had to leave early for work that day.  They asked, "What was I doing?"  I just told them it's a personal matter.  Luck was on my side, I got offered the position at $23k per year and I accepted.

I gave in my resignation and my two weeks notice, still I was emotional.  They accepted it and started interviewing candidates.  My replacement started soon after before I was to leave.  She only worked a couple days before quitting.  So now, they had no one to replace me and pulled me aside offering to match what I was getting at the other position.  I lied and told them $25k and they were willing to match it (they knew they were underpaying me all these years), but I declined and decided to move on to the new company.

That decision proved to be right move as I've managed to gain yearly raises there after.  From there, I haven't really put my thoughts down on paper on each passing day.  Most are private to share.  Point of this little tidbit on my humble beginnings is that I should start documenting my progress in my stock portfolio, what trades I may make, my thoughts of the trade or it'll just become a distant memory.

Tuesday, January 17, 2017

Time to reset

Holy crap has it really been half a year since I last blogged?  This blog was meant to keep me in line with tracking my progress in my trading accounts especially my Interactive Brokers, but I've totally neglected my portfolio for the most part of 2016.  Time to reset as the new year is well under its way.

I sold off solid stocks and left too much cash sitting in all three accounts doing nothing for most of 2016.  Essentially, I over traded in my IB account.


IB NON-REGQT TFSAQT RRSP
2015105,434.0153,435.2071,624.34
2016116,132.9054,725.7194,716.14*
10.15%2.42%32.24%

*Added $6500 to QT RRSP in 2016