Saturday, February 22, 2014

39 - 9 - 2 for February, grade C


Thirty-nine winners, nine losers, two breakeven trades for the February option cycle. It was a wild trading month that included a 300 point down day for the Dow and a snapback rally to get the overall market to about unchanged for the year. My trading account is close to unchanged as well. I am at slight paper gain that is less than the commissions. At least the broker (ThinkorSwim) is happy.

It was a trading month with many opportunities, some blunders, and some good trades. The losing tickers include: Boeing BA, Toyota TM, the retail etf XRT, Michael Kors KORS, oil production etf XOP. Winners include Amgen AMGN, Valeant Pharma VRX, Goldman Sachs GS, Russell 2000 etf IWM, and the gold etf GLD.

Mostly it was about treading water. With the big smash I went into survival mode and closed out several positions. The account draw down was about 2% at the lows. Most I view view as rational decision making. Only a couple I see as blunders, such as closing out Toyota and selling some calls on Kors.

Going forward, gold and treasury (GLD and TLT) option premiums are so low that is hard to justify selling premium. I got a little too fine with some of my delta adjustments. As long time readers might observe, I increased my trading activity. For now, that increase in activity hasn't brought about better results. It isn't 2013 (big up year) any more, but I doubt it is 2008 (a big down year) either.

Position summary:

net long BRKB IWM KORS SPY TLT
net neutral AMGN
long DIS GILD HON NSC VRX

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