Glad to be back home. Not going to jinx myself but we’re getting close. Very, very close. And I don’t mean to market capitulation (although that’s getting awfully close too).
Lunch time!
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Friday, July 11, 2008
Daily Update – July 10-11, 2008
Okay.. my head hurts from today’s action. Luckily, my hedges kicked in. Something tells me Monday’s going to be a big day, one way or another.
Yesterday’s action consisted of 2 contracts sold for a profit of $268. I think the contracts I sold were WFR. Probably. Yeah I’m almost sure.
Today’s action? Well after the wild swings and rumormongering, I decided to take a big chunk of profits off the table, even if their trends hadn’t broken. This may or may not play out in my favor but if the Fed is bailing out FRE and FNM, I don’t care to take chances on the short side with financials.
Today’s action consisted of 10 contracts sold: Remaining LM contracts, remaining WFR contracts, and my entire TIF lot. I may re-enter TIF Monday or Tuesday but I’m not entirely sure yet. I had a decent gain on TIF and since I’d prefer to have the cash on hand I’ll take the profits. No reason not to take profits, right?
Profits for today: $1,229. That’s right, I took $1,229 from the market today. And yes, my account once again has hit a new high.
In all honesty, I think the past two-three weeks has been fairly easy to trade. If this continues, I should hit 10k by the end of the month. However, a couple of things to note. First, I think the run on the financial sector’s done for now. If the Fed is bailing out FRE and FNM, I’m expecting a modest rally in the XLF. Second, my risk has remained the same since I went on this winning streak. According to the rules I have in place, I should be trading about twice the position size per position with the run up in my account. That being said, I haven’t increased my risk due to the fact that we are in a bear market. I’ve been so delta negative I was not about to risk losing everything. The new risk rules will go into effect at the start of August. Just gotta make sure I haven’t lost my account by then!
So for now, I’m running at a reduced position size for the rest of the month. I’m currently 2:1 short with some DIA/SPY puts in place as a hedge. The Investing Adventures’ account is now at a new high. Total return on investment since I started last year is about 62.5%. It can be done. You can survive in the stock market!
I’m off to Pittsburgh Monday for a conference. I’ll be bored trading over there. Enjoy the weekend!
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Daily Update – July 8-9, 2008
I know, I didn’t post an update yesterday. I was pissed, plain and simple. That and we received about 3 inches of rain in less than an hour so I had to go pick up my wife since I didn’t want her driving in that mess. Anyways, yesterday was a mess.
Yesterday’s Trades: 4 contracts traded. Closed out V puts for a loss and BHP for a small gain.
Yesterday’s Profit / Loss: -$84
No new account highs 
Toward the close, not only was I in a better mood, I was pissed I sold my V and BHP puts. But that’s how life goes. In retrospect, I should have never sold BHP since it didn’t violate any of my rules. No matter.
Today’s Trades: 0 Sales
Today’s Profit / Loss: None
Today’s Profit / Loss On Paper: 
And that’s why today I’m in a hell of a mood. Second $1k day in the past couple of weeks.
*** New Account High ***
P.S. I’m only giddy until I hit $10k. At this rate, it may happen by the end of the summer. I don’t expect it to but one never knows. I would like to see $10k by the end of the year though.
Monday, July 7, 2008
Daily Update – July 7, 2008
Hope everyone had a great 4th of July. While I enjoyed the break, I was itching to get back into the market. The morning action wasn’t a surprise and neither was the dip in my account. I’m about 50% cash right now so I’m feeling fairly comfortable. I’m still heavily negative delta which is a concern. I can’t for the life of me hold on to any calls without getting stopped out. I may end up hedging against a bounce with some index calls but I need to figure out how to implement that into my trading plan. A contingency plan of sorts I suppose.
Contracts traded: 9 (ILMN loss, V roll, STT roll)
Profit / Loss : $933
*** New Account High ***
I’m now looking at a 30% profit from my initial investment last year + the loan I gave my account earlier this year. The longer this keeps up,the more I’m thinking maybe things are falling into place. We shall see I suppose!
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Daily Update – July 3, 2008
7 contracts for a profit of $340. Ever so slightly eeked out a gain on paper overall and so we’ve gotten a new high for the portfolio! Have a great 4th of July folks and I’ll see you back on Monday!