July 1, 2008
OIH Double Calendar
Yesterday, I placed a double calendar trade on Oil Service Holders.
July / Aug 210 Puts
July / Aug 230 Puts
Total Debit of 7.99.
GILD Put Calendar
It has been tough to locate some good calendar trades. I placed a trade on Gilead Sciences a few days ago with the following parameters:
July / Aug 52.5 Puts
Debit of .65
The volatility skew is good and good upside for our calendar to increase in value. We will exit prior to upcoming earnings.
SLB +41%
On the 26th of June, I placed a long call trade on Schlumberger. There was a bull flag signal showing and it was a good entry point. I received a debit of 6.10 and sized accordingly. A day later, I exited for a credit of 8.60. That gives me a profit of 2.50 / 6.10 = 41%!
JPM +12.3%
On the 24th of June, I closed my JPM butterfly for a credit of 2.01. That gives me a profit of .22 / 1.79 = 12.3% in a week! These types of trades are quite attractive in this market due to high volatility.
CNX BLPS
I got into a July 100/95 CNX bull put spread for a credit of 1.27 yesterday.
New Month, New Focus
July options month has started and I am excited about having a new focus and fresh start. The last two months have been filled with trades that didn’t exactly fill my comfort and more importantly that I do not have the experience to manage. Risk management is everything! I think finding the right profitable trades is easy. What happens if they don’t go the way you expect? Then what? From now on, I will be focused more on naked puts, calendars, butterflies, bull put spreads and bear call spreads. I also have a new spreadsheet, which will do a better job of accounting for my real time results. I have slacked off a bit the past two months on results and that hasn’t made me too comfortable.
CNX +12%
I exited my vulture bull put spread on Console Energy for a debit of .63. That gives me a profit of .47 / 3.90 = 12% in a day!
June 20, 2008
USO +78%
USO retraced quite nicely this morning and we closed our BLPS side for a debit of .08. Our entire USO trade has been closed for a total credit of .39 / .50 = 78% in a day!