DIA « Investing Adventures

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Flying Back Home & A Daily Update – July 14, 2008

Filed under: Investing Resources, Market Pulse — Tags: DIA, Reading Material, SPY, STT — Jorge @ 1:35 am

Airport at 4am.. bleh. I just hope I miss the early morning showers/storms they’re predicting back in Gainesville today.

Total Contracts Traded: 11

I sold off the rest of my STT contracts yesterday as they report this morning. One of two things will happen. When they report, the selloff will be horrible and I’ll feel bad for not leaving some of my shorts on the table. Or after they report, STT rallies as investors will have more clarity into their business. Either way, I don’t care to play earnings and STT’s given me a cool 200%+ return so who can complain.

Within the first 15 minutes, my DIA/SPY calls used to hedge against any upside were stopped out. After seeing the pre-morning action and noticed futures ever so slowly declining, I put the stops in place which were immediately hit. Needless to say, it worked out fairly well. I did re-enter into some hedged positions but that may have been a mistake. I’ll know more when I land later this morning.

Profits: $377

Yes, I’m hitting new highs. I re-read parts of Trading in the Zone and should have a post sometime in the next couple of days regarding the last chapter in the book.

First leg of my journey home begins in about an hour. I’m upset I’ll be missing the market open but hopefully the markets don’t tank too hard without me in the game.

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Friday, July 11, 2008

Daily Update – July 10-11, 2008

Filed under: Equities, Index and ETFs, Portfolio Progress — Tags: DIA, Discount Window, FNM, FRE, Hedging, LM, Pittsburgh, SPY, TIF, WFR — Jorge @ 1:18 pm

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!

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