AJ

So now that the Fed decision is over, we can start looking at some options again. CTRP looks interesting. It was able to hold the 54ish area as support, which it previously found as resistance. IBD always has good things to say about it. Earnings are in a week though, so be careful.

Labels: CTRP

If November and December are strong months, this position could do well. Bought 2 options over the past couple of days. I guess the fed meeting could determine the fate of this position.

Labels: DIA

Finally got rid of this one. I had 2 positions on this, one which I sold for a loss, this one for a gain. The average gain was about 70 bucks, after commissions it was around 40. Was this gain worth the pain and agony? Neope ... :) Did it make me wiser? Hopefully.
Few things I learnt from this-
1. Don't hold options through earnings, unless it's an earnings specific play.
2. Don't buy deep in the money options on volatile stocks, especially if the stock price is in triple digits.

Labels: POT, Profit

Wow .. what the heck was that .. nearly a 20 dollar intra-day move .. I was lucky I was busy with meetings all morning, else I would've definitely sold in panic. I did get out of the meeting for a few minutes to check up on this position .. Down 1K at the open. Not a good feeling. Just walked away from my computer.
I stopped back again in the afternoon put a mental stop below 104, was getting ready to sell the position. Just a minute or so after, it had one of the most phenomenal runs I've ever seen. Still can't figure out the reason, but once it started, a short squeeze must've taken over. Volume on the upside was huge. At one time I remember seeing the spread 12.50/15.00.. scary. I'm still holding onto the position.

I'm not out of the woods yet, but will try to be more careful and not let the position run away from me. One lesson I've learnt though, never trade straight calls or puts on something this volatile... the heart ache is just not worth it.

Labels: POT

I haven't traded any options. It's too volatile out there for my taste. I'm not a day trader, and the past few days have been a day trader's delight. I'm mainly concentrating on building a strong stock portfolio. I feel that's pretty important as your stock position should be making money for you on the side without you having to touch it very often. But recently I found myself concentrating more on my options trading rather than my stock portfolio.
There were a few stocks in my portfolio that weren't moving much, if not at all, so I sold a few names, started buying stronger ones. Once I'm happy with my stock portfolio, I will concentrate on my 'fun' money....for options.
POT reports tomorrow... if they screw up, I'll finally cut it loose for a sizeable loss. That should make me look for some other names.
It's still very volatile out there, so trade carefully!

I'll be building up this position with time. I would have preferred Dec expiration, but there weren't any.

Update: Since it moved down so quickly, I might just be throwing more money in a losing position if I add on to this position. I'll just hold this, if I can get my money back, or close to it, I'll be happy.

Labels: OIH

This stock has been trying to break 67 for a while, yesterday it did, but couldn't close above it. Today it finally closed above 67... but it did form a Hanging Man like pattern, so it could pull back, which could be ideal for a lower risk entry point if it finds support around the previous resistance of 67.

Labels: ROP

Yep, now I know why I had 'Don't average down' in my rules. It doubles the pain when the stock goes against you. My timing on this trade has been completely off. Right now, IMO, it looks oversold, which would be a good time to add this... but too scared to do it at the moment.
The other thing is options expiration on Friday. This could get pinned to either 105 (ouch) or 110.

Labels: loss, POT

I didn't time this as well as I would have liked. I bought it, what looked to me, a break of a cup and handle pattern. But it didn't go too far beyond that. An ideal entry IMO, would have been close to 110, there was some pretty good intra-day support. I should've been more patient.
So I've broken one of my rules again, never to average down on anything. If it goes down tomorrow, this could really hurt me.

POT reports sometime next week. A run-up into the earnings would be nice :)

I've been holding a very small stock position in HLIT, which I might add to. It looks like it's broken above resistance around the 11 area.

There was an article about this in IBD, which could bring it some visibility.

There was this question ..

IBD: Would you consider being acquired?
Harshman: Our strategy right now is one of independence. That's not to say we wouldn't take any outside offer seriously.

..which made me look at the OBV. It seems to be in an uptrend. "Smart" money accumulating this stock? Time will tell.

Disclosure: Yes, I own this stock.

Labels: HLIT

RIG has been forming a nice series of well defined support and resistance levels. Could this pattern continue? Perhaps the next resistance level could be around the 120-121 area, which is the 52 week high.

Labels: RIG

Bought this on a breakout of around 113.50 .. but it soon hit a wall at 114. One thing I need to work on is to put in a bid and wait for it to get hit. I usually just match the Ask at the time, and I lose money on the spread itself.
Looking at the POT chart with my bullish goggles on, does that look like a cup and handle ?? This could be strong on a good break of 114.

Labels: POT

Wow, what a day. I did want to see a pullback, but wasn't expecting the rug to be pulled from under our feet. Anyway, it is what it is.

I had 2 trades, one profit, the other loss. Evened out towards the end of the day. Could have been worse.

Sell - 1 OIH Nov 95 Call @ 12.70 (Bought @ 10.80)

I bought this one a break of 200. I wasn't expecting it to go up too much today, but it did make a pretty decent move up. When the upward trendline was broken, I put an alert if it went below 202.50. Once the alert was triggered, I sold it when the stock went above that level, and became overbought on the 1 minute time-frame.



I made another trade, this was for a loss.
Sell 1 EXM Nov 65 Call @ 8.20 (Bought @ 10)
I bought this on a break of 70. But couldn't hold that level. I had to get out when the market took a turn.

Labels: EXM, OIH

I don't think I've ever felt so bad about a trade as I have about the DRYS positions that I got out of a couple of days ago. It's not that I lost money on it, but because I cut my profits on this big time. Nearly 2.5K worth. Wow, when I put a K in front of it, it looks even bigger. I got shaken out of both my positions a couple of days ago. Sure, you must respect your stop-loss, but I should have gotten out of only 1 position, and kept hold of one. I tried to protect about 250 bucks in profit, but that cost me a lot more. Granted, this stock could have gone down, instead of up, but it doesn't make me feel any better.

On a possibly unrelated note, but mainly because I was so pissed off, I realized that I'm trying to monitor too many stocks. Yesterday, when I was adding some stock alerts in my Ameritrade account, I got a message saying that I couldn't add more as I reached my limit of 80 alerts. 80 alerts ?? What the duce, am I nuts???
I need to concentrate on a few strong stocks, get to know them, know their support, resistance areas and trade accordingly. I've been mainly concentrating on break-outs, but buying on pullbacks could be rewarding as well.
As an example, Madstocks.com (Thanks Ragin') had a post in which he showed some nice charts, and as a quiz, asked people which chart they thought was the best. I posted 'CMI' as my answer. But what did I do with it after that? Not a whole lot, I think I got an alert when it crossed 140 today, but had I studied and monitored the chart properly, I could have made some money on it.



So, a few changes for me going ahead...
1. Choose fundamentally strong, trending stocks. I think I could start from the IBD CANSLIM list. Study the various supports and resistance areas.
2. The watchlist should contain only a handful of stocks. Most traders have a few favorite stocks. I need to find my own favorites.

Trading isn't easy. But if you keep it simple, it should make it a little easier.

If you've made it till here, thanks for listening. Trade sensibly.

Some charts that look interesting to me ..

MON
This could break out, but they report on Wednesday, so that could nullify the technicals.


INTC
A lot of folks are watching INTC for a break over 26.50. I think it could get a nice pop above that.


OII
This could break out over 78. This one also appears on the IBD 100 list.


BX
Missed the breakout on an inverted H&S pattern. This looks to be heading into resistance around the 30 area. It could be strong above it though.


Some more alerts I'll be setting ..
CHTT above 74
OII above 78
ZOLT above 45.50
INTC above 26.50
NVDA above 38
FXI above 192.05
SNP above 129
AEM above 52.50
FWLT above 143
RIMM above 115
VMW above 92.50
NILE above 96
ROP above 66.75

Labels: Watchlist

I added to this position on Thursday when it took a dive. I really don't think that was a smart play, since the market could have turned either way on the jobs report the next day. Luckily for me, on this trade, DRYS did go up the next day, so I was able to close it for a small profit.
When I purchased the first option, I mentioned that I would add to it if it went above 100.20, well, I didn't add to my position, but if you look at the chart, it did take off after crossing that point, by about 2 bucks or so. Unfortunately, it came crashing down towards the end of the day, and I closed my position.
DRYS is a very volatile stock, and I sometimes think it's better to hold stocks in it rather than options.

Currently, I'm not holding any option positions, which could be a good thing, since I do a better job looking for good trades, rather than worrying about how my current option positions will do if they go against me.

I'll try to post some charts tonight. The market does look a little overbought, so it could pull back this week. IBD has highlighted a lot of 'buyable' stocks, so that could make things interesting.

Labels: DRYS profit

Setting Alerts for the following-

CNH above 62
NOV above 75
MA above 155
ISRG above 235
FWLT above 137
CMI above 136.25

Labels: Alerts

This thing better not pull back on me! I might add one more above 100.20ish. Breaking above today's high could take it higher.

Labels: DRYS

Hmm .. short squeeeeeeze.. good thing I respected my stop loss @ 29 on this one.

Labels: AKAM, Profit