Weekly: Trading flurry

More internet connection woes for me so no trading early in the week. I do a flurry of put selling early Thursday morning. Many of those stocks falter, so I sell calls to hedge in the afternoon. By the end of the day I am in the red on both sides on some. No bueno. New longs in BA, PYPL, WFC.

Here are the trades (c = calls, p = puts, all are third week expiration unless noted, sell means sell-to-open, cover means buy-to-close, number is price per contract):

 

Thu Sell NOC 210 p 40 earnings

Sell BA Nov 132 p 34 earnings

Sell PYPL Nov 39 p 20 earnings

Sell TSLA Nov 177.5 p 56 earnings

Sell FB OctW4 128 p 16

Sell WDC Nov 54 p 27 earnings

Sell TSLA Nov 235 c 55 Tesla acting poorly, so I hedge the puts I sold in the morning

Sell FB OctW4 133 c 14 hedge

Sell BA Nov 152.5 c 21 hedge

Sell UNH Nov 150 c 16 hedge

Sell ULTA Nov 265 c 25 hedge

Fri Sell CMG Nov 415 c 62

Sell RCL Nov 65 p 20

Sell EXPE Nov 118 p 35

Sell NFLX Nov 150 c

Sell AMZN vertical: 

Sell AMZN Nov 835 c 182

Buy AMZN Nov 855 c 96

New shorts in CMG and AMZN, hedge NFLX, new longs on RCL EXPE.

Monthly: Some hits, some misses 63-9 for October, B-

I count 63 winners, 9 losers for the October option cycle. Grade is B-, with a small gain for the month. Gains are good. I took a few losses this cycle. TWLO Twilio almost became a big banana, but I cut the loss before it ballooned any further. DB Deutsche Bank was a winner, though a small one. I had quite a few small winners. BRKB Berkshire was a problem child. I lost on my speculative backration on FB Facebook.

So far my election 2016 plays have not turned out well. I was looking for an up move in bonds and gold, but instead they fell and I took some losses. Overall, I think I am about break even for the election trades. Not bad, considering just how wrong I have been on direction.

Towards the end of the trading month, I had some Internet connection problems. I also have less time for trading in the fall. So I'll have a lot of capital available. The election still could be a wild card.

Some people have been talking about the 29th anniversary of the 1987 stock market crash. Some mention a 29 year cycle. I feel like I have escaped the doom and gloom camp, but I often still go to cautious mode. I no longer am an all-in, all-out, all-short kind of trader. Considering how bad I can be on directional trades, that's probably a wise course.

/edit: I forgot to add the performance numbers. From best to worst a few etfs 2016 YTD performance (no dividends):

SLV +35.4% silver

GLD +19.1% gold

EEM +16.8% emerging market equities

TLT +10.6% U.S. Treasury bonds

IWM + 7.5% Russell 2000, U.S. small cap

SPY + 5.0% S&P 500 U.S. large cap

My trading account +8.1%. So I move slightly in front of IWM in the yearly horse race. I have another positive month. Considering how badly the year started for me (-5% first month), +8% is progress, it is good news. I'm sure some of the aggressive YOLO crowd will boo and hiss at being happy with +8%. However, I'm not here to please them, or any one else. Sure it would be great to be up 20% or 30%. If I knew better, I'd do better.

 

I mostly have traded equity options, but the grass has been greener in metals and bonds. Though gold and bonds edged lower this month.

Weekly: Internet down

I have Internet connection issues for much of the week, so I only made a few trades. Thankfully, the market mostly cooperated, though there were some close calls. The monthly update is coming soon.

Tue 10/18/16 Sell UNH Nov 130 p 54 earnings

Sell NFLX Nov 100 p 47 earnings

Fri Sell AXP Nov 60 p 13

Sell MSFT Nov 55 p 13

Weekly: One lump or two? TLT TWLO BRKB ULTA

In the old days of sugar bowls, the question for coffee or tea drinkers was sometimes "one lump or two." This week I took a some lumps in TLT, TWLO, and did damage control on BRKB. Overall, it was a quiet week of trading. I take a new long position in ULTA. 

During the fall months, I have less time for markets, so I am doing fewer trades. For TWLO there was a double whammy of more stock for sale, and disappointing earnings.

Here are the trades (c = calls, p = puts, all are third week expiration unless noted, sell means sell-to-open, cover means buy-to-close, number is price per contract):

Mon 10/10/16 Cover TLT Oct 133 p 129 about a 500% loss

Sell FB Oct 125 p 25

Sell TWLO Oct 60 c 22

Tue Sell BRKB Oct 146 c 45

Thu Cover TWLO Oct 50 p 340 about a 750% loss

Sell BRKB Nov 145 c 157 rebalance

Fri Sell BRKB Nov 135 p 55 rebalance

Sell ULTA Nov 230 p 70

Weekly: Gold bust

Gold has a really bad day on Tuesday, and I take a big loss on a small position. The rest of the week looks rather lean. My schedule became busier, so less time for trading. Long time readers know that this is my pattern in the fall, less time for trading and blogging, usually fewer trades.

Here are the trades (c = calls, p = puts, all are third week expiration unless noted, sell means sell-to-open, cover means buy-to-close, number is price per contract):

Mon 10/3/16 Sell TSLA OctW2 195 p 85

Tue Sell SPG Oct 210 c 56 rebalance

Cover GLD Oct 122 p 187 about a 750% loss as gold drops hard

Wed Sell SPG Oct 210 c 25

Thu Sell TSLA OctW2 217.5 c 45

Sell TLT NovW1 141 c 19

Fri Sell TSLA OctW2 210 c 36

Weekly: Deutsche Bank

New long in Deutsche Bank. I bought near the low. Other trades were mostly about rebalancing to the delta that I want. Here are the trades (c = calls, p = puts, all are third week expiration unless noted, sell means sell-to-open, cover means buy-to-close, number is price per contract):

Tue Sell FB OctW1 123 p 25

Sell TSLA OctW1 185 p 48

Sell BRKB OctW1 147 c 26

Sell NVDA strangle: 

Sell NVDA Oct 59 p 32

Sell NVDA Oct 75 c 13

Sell SPY OctW1 207 p 25

Sell IWM OctW1 118 p 21

Wed Sell BRKB Oct 147 c 40

Sell XLE Oct 64 p 21

Sell TWLO Oct 50 p 35

Thu Sell BRKB OctW1 146 c 39 rebalance

SPY backratio 50 credit: 

Buy SPY Dec 195 p 175

Sell 2x SPY Dec 188 p 112.5 each

Sell DB Nov 6 p 30 New long

Sell TSLA OctW1 225 c 27 rebalance

Sell TLT Oct 133 p 23 rebalance

Fri Sell DB Sep 10 p 20

Sell WYNN Oct 116 c 23