First January Trade

I placed my first January trade for 2010. I will continue with the Bear call spreads as I feel the market is going to either hold this flat line position or start to drop a little bit as we go into the new year.
I have opened the Bear call 115/116 spread for a ROI of 18%. I decided to put a little more money behind this trade incase the market once again decides not to move much.

December Results

In December I only had the one SPY trade as the market pretty much stayed flat and didn't allow me to enter any other positions.
My one trade was successfull. It had a great return, but unfortunately I didn't put a lot of money behind the trade as I was expecting to be able to enter more positions.

The Bear call 114/115 spread expired successfully for a ROI of 24% for + $839.

Since this was the only trade for december that means I was only up 5.8% in my account for the month, but I will take a positive month any day. My account is now at $15,300.

I started this project in June of 2009. My goal was to be profitable by the end of the year trading the S&P 500 market. After 7 months, the S&P is up 23%. My project 10,000 account is up 53%.

First December trade

I have placed my first Dec 09 trade. I feel the SPY has been showing a lot of resistance at the 111 -112 range. I feel this will hold and people will take some profits next week. I think SPY will fall to the 106 level where we will see it bounce. If SPY closes above 113 then I will exit this trade and re-evaluate. If SPY does fall to around 106 and starts to show signs of support then I will take profits on this trade and look at entering a new position there.

DEC 09 115/114 Bear Call Spread for a ROI of  24%

November 2009 results

Nov ended up being an "almost" month. I came close to almost having to close my positions as the SPY came close to breaking the 112 level during expiration week. Luckily the resistance at 111 was strong and held there.

I also missed out on a great trade when I correctly predicted the bounce at ~103 level, but just missed getting into the trade. That trade could have easily brought in another $500 in profit this month. Overall though I can't complain, as any positive month is a good month as far as I'm concerned. I only made two trades for the month of November, but both were successful. I only used about $7500 in trades this month because I was leaving some money available to make more trades. My average ROI for those two trades was 12%.

My total results for the month of Nov were +$860 which is a +6% for my account. This puts my account at approx. $14,460.

Second postion

I opened another SPY Bear Call spread as the index has shown strong selling resistance at the 110 level.

Opened position: NOV SPY 112/113 Bear Call Spread for a 10% ROI

I really missed out on easy money by not buying in at the 104 level when we bounced earlier. I'm still kicking myself for missing that.

Missed it

I missed the bounce. My plan was to take profits on my SPY Bear Call spread and open a Bull put spread when it bounced at the 104 level. I hesitated and it bounced too quickly. Definitely missed out on some easy profits.

First Nov trade

I opened my first Nov trade today with a Bear Call Spread as I think we will see some profit taking over the next couple weeks. If the SPY drops down below the 105 level then I will look at taking profits on this trade and opening a Bull Put Spread as I think we will stay between the 103 to 113 range before Nov expiration.

Nov 09 Bear Call Spread 114/115  ROI of 14%

Oct results

Oct worked well as all my trades expired successfully.

I ended up +13% for the month, for a total of $1,650 in profit.

This puts my account a little over $13,600.
Since June 2009, I am now up a little over 35%.

GS Trade

I decided to open a new trade in the aggressive account. With Goldman Sachs announcing earnings next week, I think the stock is going to continue to rise on expectations that they will again announce good earnings.

I purchased a
Oct 09 195 Call @ 2.72

I will probably look at selling the call before the actual announcement, since Oct expiration is a couple days later.

Last Oct trade

I decided to enter my last Oct 09 trade by placing

Oct 09 SPY  101/100 Bull Put Spread for a ROI of 16%

I think the 103-102 level looks strong and I think this will hold for the next two weeks till expiration.

SPY and GLD trades

I decided to take profits on the SPY 109/110 Bear Call Spread since it looks like buyers are coming in at around the 102 level.
I also decided to get out of my GLD 100/101 Bear Call Spread as GLD seems to have bounced.

The SPY trade netted $280 for a + 16% ROI

The GLD trade broke even for no profit.

I still have the Oct 09 GLD 97/96 Bull Put Spread open, and I will be looking to purchase a Oct 09 SPY 99/100 Bull Put Spread possibly on monday as I think the market is showing buying support at the 102 level.

SPY trade

Market has broken through the SPY 105 level today and is currently trading below 104. If it continues to fall and breaks below 103 at some point today or tomorrow then I will look to take profits on my 101/102 Bear call spread.  I will then watch the market and look at opening a 99/98 Bull Put Spread if the market starts to bounce off the 100 support line.

Added another position in GLD to create Iron Condor

The 97 support line looks like it will hold as GLD has had a nice rally off of it. I decided to add another trade in, and if GLD rallies strong and breaks 100 I will get out of my earlier 101/102 Bear calls spread. Otherwise I will see if GLD can finish in between my two trades.

Opened:

Oct 09 96/95 Bull Put Spread for a ROI of 15%

RIMM trade

I closed my RIMM trade this morning with very nice profits.

I paid $2.72 for the 90 Call and $9.45 for the 90 Put.
Sold the 90 Call for .10 and the 90 Put for $19.80 this morning.

This ended up being a + 64% gain for $2,380 profit.

RIMM Straddle trade

For my aggressive account I decided to do a RIMM straddle trade with it's earnings annoucement this afternoon. This stock is getting a lot of attention and I think we will get a nice move either way depeneding on the announcement.

RIMM Oct 09  90 Purchase CALL/PUT Straddle

Watching market

If we break through the 105 level, which I think we will, I will be looking to close out of my SPY bear call spread early and take profits. I will then look to open a bull put spread where ever we bounce.

I will be using a similar strategy with the GLD trade.

GLD Oct trade

Placed a trade on GLD for Oct 09 expiration. The 100 resistance looks pretty strong, so I have placed the

GLD  109/110 Bear Call Spread    with a ROI of 25%


If it breaks the 100 resistance level than I will cover the lower leg position and hold the call in hopes that breaking the 100 level starts a rally.

First Oct Spread Trade

Placed my first spread trade for Oct 09 expiration. I feel like the market is due for a little pull back off some profit taking. I'm loving the SPY chart right now as it looks like it has hit its peak and starting a nice little pull back.

SPY 109/110 Bear Call Spread  with ROI of 28%

The next two lower resistance levels are about 105 and 101. I will be watching this trade closely. If we bounce at 105 and start back up I will probably exit this position quickly as I'm hoping we fall through that support line.
If we break through 105 and hit the 101 support line quickly ( within two weeks ) I will be looking at selling out of this position for a smaller gain and possibly opening a Bull Put Spread if the market looks like it is ready to rally back.

Sept 2009 Performance

Options Experation is today and all three of my credit spread trades expired successfully.

GOOG 430/420 Bull Put Spread   +17%
SPY 95/94 Bull Put Spread   +12%
GLD  96/95 Bull Put Spread  +15%

Conservative trading account made $900  for the month of Sept 2009 for a +8.5% gain.
 This puts the conservative trading account at a little over $12,000 now. 

New Aggressive Account

I've decided to open another virtual options account where I my trading style will be a little more aggressive.
Most of my trades will be straight call and put options. Currently my strategy for this account will be to look for stocks that are in squeeze positions and make a trade play on the break out.

I will start this account with $10,000 as well.

My first trade with this account is:

POT October 100 call

Potash just broke out of a squeeze play and I think it will break through 100 easily.

I will post my September spread results for my other account either tomorrow or monday after options have successfully expired.

Sept trade

Opened another Sept trade with GLD. I feel that Gold prices will continue to be strong for the next couple weeks.

GLD 95/96 bull put spread ROI 15%

Sept trades

I have entered two new trades for Sept.

SPY 94/95 bull put spread for 12% ROI and
GOOG 420/430 bull put spread for 17% ROI

both trades are around 75% probability.

AUG Update

Wow, been a while since I updated. I was on vacation for 3 weeks in August so I didn't get a chance to update on my trades. Aug ended up being my worst trading month so far as the FSLR and MA trades killed me. I made the mistake of entering the MA trade without noticing that they were going to be releasing earnings a week later. When they blew out earnings the stock jumped almost 10% and it immediately put my trade in jeopardy. FSLR just completely tanked. Those two trades wiped away all the profits from my other trades for the month and I ended up down about 2% of a loss of $250 for the month.

Aug FSLR spread

After taking profits on the AZO trade I decided to use some of that freed capital to open a spread trade on FSLR.
It looks like FSLR should have some good support at 140 level.

Aug FSLR 130/135 Bull Put Spread

If the trade can expire in 2 weeks successfully then I will get $400 for a 16% return.

Took profit in Aug AZO position

I sold out of my Aug AZO position because AZO has dropped down to where there won't be much more profit available vs the risk of the trade going back up.

Final profit on the trade was + $325 for a 13% gain.

Aug MA Spread

We are at that magical 3 1/2 weeks till expiration point where I like to make most my trades.
I have picked my third Credit spread trade for Aug expiration to be:

MA 200/210 Bear Call Spread

Probability calculation of 75% and a ROI of 19% for $550.

All of my picks seem to be at the upper resistance and are all starting to turn over, along with the whole market. I'm hoping my prediction of a whole market pull back for the next couple weeks holds and all my bearish position finish.

I'm still looking for at least one more Credit spread trade for Aug.

Aug AMZN Spread

I just entered my second credit spread for Aug which is the

AMZN 90/95 Bear Credit Spread

Probability calculation was 76%. If the credit spread expires on expiration day I will return 18% for $400.

August AZO Spread

Placed my first Aug Credit Spread with AZO.
Probability Calculation was 73%, and after the little run the market has had I think the market will make a nice pull back some time over the next few weeks so I am keeping a nuetral/bearish attitude on the market as a whole.

AZO 165/170 Bear Call Spread, if the option successfully expires on Aug 21st then I will make a 18% gain of $450.

July Credit Spreads

July ended up being a positive month. I would have hit my 15% goal if FSLR wouldn't have crapped out on me again this month. I ended up making a total of 5 trades with 4 of the trades being profitable. This meets my goal of keeping at least a 70% correctness rate on my trades.

BBY 31/30 Bull Put Spread +13% +$300
BIDU 250/145 Bull Put Spread +19% +$375
SPY 87/86 Bull Put Spread +10% +$400

FSLR 150/145 Bull Put Spread -16% -$475
FSLR 180/185 Bear Call Spread +14% +$240

When FSLR went the wrong way on me I was able to close out the position and immediately move into an opposite position to retrieve back some of my lost money.

Overall for July + 9% + $915

$10,000

I have moved my virtual account up to $10,000 to allow me to make more trades.

June Credit Spreads

June turned into a losing month as the market retreated and I made some beginner mistakes trying to fully get out of my credit spread positions to take losses.
I made 3 Credit Spread trades in June and only one was profitable. Unfortunately the two losses were big as I am still learning proper exit strategies. This is why I am using a virtual account first before I start using my real money. =)

Fed Ex (FDX) Bull Put Spread -29% -$450
First Solar (FSLR) Bull Put Spread -38% -$845
Best Buy (BBY) Bull Put Spread +13% + 200

Overall for June -21% -$1095

Sold June Potash Calls

Sold my Jun 90 Calls today for a nice 21% gain.

First options spread successfull

The BBY Bear Call spread was successfull as the options expired and left me with the $230 premium. The trade was $1000 with $230 profit for a 23% ROI.

May Spread

My Best Buy (BBY) Bear Call Spread successfully expired today for a 26% gain of $250.

Potash

Bought June 90 Call for Potash (POT)

First Option Spread Trade

Time to do my first options spread trade. I decided to do a Bear Call Spread with best buy. The stock looks like it is going to hit resistance at $40 and trade down for a little bit. I bought the May 41 Calls and Sold the May 40 Calls. If the trade goes as planned this should be a 23% ROI. We will see if this trade works out.

Project 5,000

I have started taking classes to learn technical chart analysis and stock options. My future goal is to be come comfortable enough trading options strategies so that I can begin trading them with real money starting Jan 2010. I have decided to start my own learning project by using OptionsXpress to trade with a virtual account of $5,000 for the next 8 months to track my performance to help decide whether or not I will be ready to trade with my own real money.

I will post my trades and analysis in this blog to once again keep a history of my decisions, success/failures as a reference guide for myself.

The hard way

So after many good trades and plenty of bad trades in probably one of the toughest market years, I have been able to gain a lot of experience.  Like a lot of people out there I have lost money overall for the last 12 months, but nothing big. I went into this experience with a small chunk of expendable money knowing full well I would probably lose most of it, but in reality didn't actually lose as much as I would have thought. I am now moving on to gain more knowledge on the other side of stocks, which is the technical analysis. I belive that a great trader must be able to understand both the fundamentals of a stock and also be able to read the technicals of a stock to have a better advantage of understanding where a stock is currently at in the market. 

I have also been a huge fan of the power of stock options and the ability to use options as leverage in your trades. I of course know the huge risk that is involved in using leverage in your trades as we have all seen the collapses of many companies and hedge funds who got greedy and went broke using it.

I am currently enrolled in a technical analysis and options course to begin gaining knowledge and experience in options. Since options are so risky, I will be using OptionsXpress to do virtual options trading until I can consistently get 80% of my trades profitable before I begin trading options with real money.

I will of course continue to use this blog as my way of tracking my performance and history. It serves as a great way to remind me of by successfull and unsuccessfull decisions.

Bear Market Rally...

I'm going to have to agree with the analyst that this is another bear market rally on speculation news. I believe we will be back into the DOW 6500 -6800 by end of next week. So my play for next week is Financial Bear 3x Shares (FAZ)

Bought FAZ @ $39

CAT

Bought CAT @ 39.25

Go Obama and the Infastructure play

That was quick

Oil spiked during the first week of 2009, which caused BPZ to almost double in price. I knew oil would eventually climb back up, just wasn't expecting it to happen so quick.
I decided to take profits and sold BPZ @ $9.00 (+90%)

If oil falls back down then I will buy back into BPZ.