October Option/Stock Performance

Every month, I try to post a option/stock progress report of my non-registered Interactive Brokers account to keep track of my performance or at least I try to.  
Even though, I took a big loss from $BTE.TO (-$9,287.00) and some bad option plays, I still managed to stay afloat overall.  One of my biggest problems with trading is not knowing when to take a loss until it's too late.  Now, I can say good riddance and move on.

Lately, I've been chatting a lot on Twitter rather than focusing on the bigger picture at hand.  I have become lazy, unfocused just to get a few laughs during the day to pass by time.  

It is time for me to clean up my act and bring my portfolio to the next level.  

Set to Expire: Oct 28th

Option	Accounts (Position)
SBUX 30OCT2015 50 P	(-2)
SWKS 30OCT2015 70 P	(-1)

My two short PUTs for the week.  Looking to lock in $137.00 by the end of Friday, but $SBUX earnings is tomorrow.  Will it beat or will it head down in a ball of fiery? 

Today, I closed 2 of my short PUTs for $FIT with a strike of $30.00.  Right now, I am very OTM on them, but I do not want to get caught in a earning release surprise for the worst.  I managed to walk away with a small gain of $90 which I am bittersweet about.

That's it for today.  Till next time.  

Set to expire: Oct 23, 2015

Yes, I'm still around.  No, I have not been updating my trades every week or every single trade I make on Twitter.  October would have been a profitable month, but I screwed up with just one-two trades.

1) Lost $500 on $YUM short put @ $75.00
2) Lost $200 on $SPY long put @ $197.50

It is what it is.  I'll survive another week.  

Option	Accounts (Position)
AXP 23OCT2015 74.5 P	(1)
GILD 23OCT2015 98 P	(-1)
KMI 23OCT2015 30 P	(-1)
SWKS 23OCT2015 74 P	(-1)
V 23OCT2015 65 P	(-1)

All of these trades I've put on in the last few days, except for Visa.  Selling PUTS, if all goes according to plan, I will pocket $110.36 that I have already collected.  All of them seem to be OTM, but I've been screwed before.  So this may be the last of the PUTS I will sell until I come up with a steady game plan. 

$AXP released their earnings after closing today.  I bought the PUT a couple days ago for 35c.  I risked $35 + commission to watch $AXP burn.  I will be looking to close my position early tomorrow for a pretty coin I hope.  The reason for my trade is American Express lost a big retailer ($COST) to $MA.  It is not accepted widely by all retailers... 

Lately, other's have been questioning the way I trade as I've had troubles with a few big names such as $WMT, $YUM, $NFLX.  This is causing me to re-evaluate the way I trade options and the risks I have taken on.  I usually sell PUTs that are very out of the money (OTM) to avoid assignment of the shares at my strike prices.  

The market made a sharp turn on August 21st.. and some stocks have threw up on me literally.  I am very much in recovery mode still.  

Set to Expire: Oct 2nd

Option	(Position)
AAPL 02OCT2015 111 C	(Closed my position for $41 gain)  1
V 02OCT2015 73 C	(Sold for 20c premium) -1
V 02OCT2015 68.5 P	(Sold for 23c premium) -1

Last Friday, I put on a STRANGLE on $V.  This is a weekly trade for me.  In order for me to keep my premiums that I collected when I sold my CALL/PUT, I need $V to trade in between $68.50-$73.00 by Oct 2, 2015.

Whenever I open up new positions, the market usually tanks right after causing me a headache.  If only I had been more patient, I would have gotten more premiums on my PUT.  Stay calm and wait it out.  Writing this today, I am out of harm's way... but who knows what will happen in the next two trading days that will follow.  

TD.TO - stock/option trade

I have some cash sitting around... basically earning next to nothing in my Interactive Brokers account.  When I am bored, I tend to trade more recklessly than not.  My methods are not recommended to the average investor by any means.

This is an example of what I do to try to make a few bucks.  Risking $5135.00 to make only $50 in 4 days by buying 100 shares of $TD.TO and selling a covered call.  

The only reason I can make this trade is the beauty of no assignment fees at Interactive Brokers.  My commissions were $2.50.  My net profit is $47.50 resulting 1% gain.  

Set to Expire: Sept 25th

Welcome to another edition of my options expiring for September 25th!

Option	Position
GOOG 25SEP2015 655 C (I lose $85)	1
KO 25SEP2015 39 P (I gain $18)	-1
PEP 25SEP2015 92.5 P (I gain $24	-1

What did I get myself into this week?  

1. I decided to gamble with another $GOOG CALL that didn't quite work out losing $85.00.  OUCH.  I also did $AAPL CALL which I ended up with a small gain of a buck after all said and done lol.  I thought I had made more but I got my premiums wrong.  I think I'll stop with long CALLS.
2. Selling PUTS on $KO & $PEP on Monday for a quick turn around profit of $42.00.  Tuesday would have given me more premiums.  My timing is always off.
3. Bought 20 shares of $RCL and sold at end of day for $8 gain. 
4. Bought 100 shares of $TD.TO @ $51.35 and sold a CALL for $51.50 expiring Sept 25th.  If $TD.TO stays above $51.50 today, I will let it assign and gain $49.00 from this short trade.  

This week, I made Interactive Brokers money by trading a lot for minimal gains.

Suck it up and eat my losses!

Nice gain today but it won't help my CALLS.  I'm going to eat my losses for the first time since I started trading options!  It's my stubbornness that led me to this loss.  

Option	Position
FIT 18SEP2015 55 C (-395)	1
SBUX 18SEP2015 62.5 C  (-54)	2
SPY 18SEP2015 208 C (-688)	6
WMT 18SEP2015 60 P (STC for a smaller loss)	1
WMT 18SEP2015 72.5 P (I haven't decided yet)	-1

August Option/Stock Performance

Opps I forgot to post up my August Option/Stock Performance.  It was a good run, but the bear is starting to show its claws!  I'm still up but not at its elated highs.  I made some moves that were questionable and it's starting to bite me in the arse.  Time will only tell whether I can pull through this rut or not!

Quiet Times

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!   

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
SBUX 21AUG2015 54 P  -  Today, I closed for 1c.  Realized $44.71.	-2
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.

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.  

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.

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

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!

PC‏@PC_Trades

BOUGHT 1 GOOG Aug14'15 630 CALL @ 9.95

9:55 AM - 7 Aug 2015

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.  

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.

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.  


  

Set to Expire: July 31st

July was full of earning reports.  My Good-to-Cancel (GTC) order for $GOOG got filled at the last minute of the trading day for $580 per share on July 16th just before Google spiked up in after hours.  I sold off 60% of my shares of $GOOG and made a pretty penny of it.  I'm a little disappointed that I held all these years only to sell it off just before it really jumped in price.  It's a curse I tell ya!

Option	Position
FB 31JUL2015 85 P	-1
MA 31JUL2015 91 P	-1
SBUX 31JUL2015 57.5 C	1

I'm going to let my PUTS expire worthless as they're pretty out of the money in today's market.  I am looking to forward to keeping the $168.42 premiums I collected in less than a week of opening the trades.  

As for my earnings play call for $SBUX, I think I'll have to take a loss in this one.  I need $SBUX to go above $58.50/share by tomorrow in order for me to break even.  Most I can lose is $100 of my own money.

Set to Expire: July 17, 2015

There are a couple of options expiring today.  Both will expire worthless.  

Option	Position
GILD 17JUL2015 130 C	1
YUM 17JUL2015 80 P	-1

What does this all mean?

For $GILD, I bought 1 contract of CALL $130 for 0.38.  Each contract represents 100 shares, so I paid $38.00 (100 shares @ $0.38).  Since $GILD did not go over $130 by my expiry date which is today, my CALL will expire worthless and I lose $38.  <-- in order for me to profit from this trade, I need $GILD to go near or above my strike before my expiry date and sell my CALL for a profit.

For $YUM, I sold 1 contract of PUT $80 for 0.25.  Each contract represents 100 shares, so I collected $25.00 (100 shares @ $0.25).  Since $YUM did not go below $80 by my expiry date which is today, my PUT will expire worthless and I gain $25.00.  This trade requires margin room to make.  <-- in order for me to profit from this trade, I need $YUM to stay above my strike before my expiry date or end up getting assigned $YUM 100 shares @ $80.

Today, my total realized loss will be $13.  

There are a lot of ways to play the OPTION market.  I'm just picking away at it little by little with calculated risks.  

June Option/Stock Performance

June ended tragically for me.  Down a whopping 3.73% in my overall IB portfolio!!  I'm a little pissed off.  I was doing so well till this past Monday.

I traded a shitload of options this month.  So much so that I was able to bring my spectacular loss from $WMT spread out into the brink of greenness for the month ending to the tune of $504.47 in realized gains.  That's right folks, I'm staying above waters!

What else happened in June?  

-Added 44 shares @ $27.50 of $AW.UN to my TFSA.  Cash collected from my other stocks within the account.
-I didn't bother rolling out my $PEY.TO so I let it get assigned for 100 @ $34.00.  Right now, I'm down $314.00 in paper loss.
-I quit my 6 year part-time job to free up my every second Sundays.
-I turned 34.  I feel old now.
-I scratch my fiance's truck while rounding the corner too tightly.  It's a boo boo that was totally avoidable if I had been careful.  
-My car won't start even after replacing the battery.  It's still not fixed yet.    

Life don't always go your way.  Make the best of it.  

Set to Expire: June 26, 2015

This is my only action for the week.  It's a nail bitter!  

Option	Position
FEYE 26JUN2015 50 P	-1

Days to expiration (DTE) is 3 days away when I sold this PUT above yesterday as indicated in my Twitter feed.  A quick $10 play here or could this be a $5,000 mistake?

My 2nd day away from DTE... $FEYE dropped 2.33%!!  Sad face.  Come Friday, I need $FEYE to stay strong and above $50/share to let my PUT option expire worthless so I can keep my premium I collected.  

Set to Expire: June 19, 2015

Option	Position	# Days Held
MA 19JUN2015 91 P	-1	7
V 19JUN2015 70 C	1	84
WMT 19JUN2015 70 P	5	86
WMT 19JUN2015 75 P	-5	86
WYN 19JUN2015 82.5 P	-1	37
FTS.TO 19Jun2015 CC	-1	39
PTE.TO 19Jun2015 P	-1	35
DOL.TO 19Jun2015 P	-1	19

Greens will expire worthless.

Reds are in trouble.

Strike through, position has been closed.  

Figure it all out folks.

I closed a shitload of my positions early this month (8 to be precise) to realize a gain of $874.04.  But come Friday, I might have to close $WMT for a big loss.  Maybe, I'll be break even.  Hoping for a strong two day showing!  

I'm too lazy to get to the bitty gritty details.  My commission costs are through the roof $4.50 CAD & $59.63 USD.  HOLLA!