A Little HouseCleaning: Closing Some Winners & Unfortunately Some Losers, And Closely Monitoring A Problem

by Dan April 4, 2011 10:38 am • Commentary

Winners:

1. March 15, 2011: TRADE:  USO (39.50) BUY THE APR 40/42 CALL SPREAD FOR .60

-BUY 1 APR 40 CALL FOR 1.50 AND

-SELL 1 APR 42 CALL AT .90

NOW: can be sold for 1.60, thats a 1.00 profit for taking a shot on Oil after it retraced a big move higher…..now the ETF is up almost 9% in 2 weeks.  Take the money and run.

2. March 18, 2011: TRADE: ORCL (30.90) Buy the APR 31 / 33 Call Spread for .70
-Buy 1 Apr 31 call for 1.00 and
-Sell 1 Apr 33 call at .30

NOW: can be sold for 1.85, that is a 1.15 profit.  Stock moved on earnings and then retraced….has since made a new 52 week high and has rallied almost 13% in 2 weeks.

3. March 9th, 2011: TRADE RIMM (~64.50)  BUY the APR 62.5 / 57.50 Put Spread for ~1.60

– Buy 1 APR 62.50 Put for 2.80 and

-Sell 1 APR 57.50 Put for 1.20

NOW: can be sold for 4.40, while the stock is likely to close below 57.50 as the stock acts horrible. Not sure it makes a ton of sense waiting to make the last .60 of the spread.

LOSERS:

1. March 1, 2011: TRADE: GLD (~139) BUY THE APR 140 / 148 CALL SPREAD for ~$2.00

-Buy 1 APR 140 CALL for 2.80 and

-Sell 1 APR 148 CALL at .80

NOW: can be sold for 1.35, a .65 loss. stock is basically right where it was when suggested and still can’t get through 140…..looking to roll out to June…..want to let the break-out play out…..will take a little time.

2. March 7, 2011: TRADE: XLF (~16.40) Buy Apr 16/15 PS for .23

-Buy the Apr 16 Put for .36 and

-Sell the Apr 15 Put at .13

NOW: can be sold for .06, well some of the names in the sector (BAC, GS & C)have acted very poorly over the last few weeks, but the index holds….this likely to go to zero, get what u can for it…..

MONITORING:

March 29th, 2011: TRADE: AMZN (~170) Buy the MAY 165 / 150 Put Spread for ~3.20

-Buy May 165 Put for 6.60 and

-Sell May 155 Put at 3.40

NOW: can be sold for 1.60, has lost almost half its value with the 13.00 rally in the stock. I got this one wrong from the get go……very close to pulling the plug on it…still bearish but will look for a better opportunity, want to have short exposure through options into earnings…..