My Trading > My Trading Journal > August 23, 2012

My Trading Journal

August 23, 2012

4:49 pm (PST)

POSITIONS - UPDATE:

  • ANN was even.
  • DELL was down almost 4% to 11.24. It's getting close to my strike of 11, but still not a big worry.
  • SNE was down a bit.

POSITIONS - NEW:

I sold 150 December 10/11 put spreads at 0.40 on Staples (SPLS). At 0.40, the return on the trade would be 66% in 4 months. The downside is that the spread is close to the market so I could easily get exercised. But I don't think I would mind if that happened. The longer-term length of this trade (compared to my typical 1 to 2 month option writing) has 2 advantages. First, I don't have to worry about getting my money tied up in an exercise for a while. And, secondly, it gives a while for the stock to recover.

SPLS is a stock I know well. I lost almost $26,000 on a 15/16 out spread back in May. Then made $3,000 on a credit spread a month later. Then broke even on another put spread a month later. I also made about $3,400 on a swing trade last week. I might try to get filled again tommorow.



I also bought 18,500 shares at 10.96. I'm not looking for a large move. Even a 2-3% move in 2 days would be a $3,000-$5,000 profit.

OTHER:

I tried again to get filled on Under Armour (UA) but didn't.

Facebook was about even. Normally, I don't care about trading a high profile stock. But Facebook is oversold, and will be undervalued if it trades down to 15 or so. Also, Facebok is a particularly volatile stock, so if it drops down to 15 very quickly, I think it could easily bounce up 10-20% to 17-18 in only a few days. Although there is tons of Facebook stock bashing going on right now, there is also an undercurrent of silent interest building in the stock here.

Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) was down a lot after-hours yesterday. I thought about buying the stock today, but I actually slept thru the whole market today. Tommorow I may put on a put credit spread. I actually currently have on a 100 September 21/22 call credit spreads right now. I could write the put spreads without having to post additional margin.

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