Update for 6/21/10

BIDU (June)

BIDU dropped back down to the 70-75 range last Thursday and went it appeared it was going back over 75, I took the positions off that had any value. The final tally on the trade was about a 20% gain.

NTAP PCCRC

No changes in the last week to NTAP although the p/l has taken a hit. Currently it is near breakeven.

BIDU Diagonal

I am still bullish on BIDU so Friday I opened a diagonal. The trade was long the Sep 62 and short the Jul 80 for 13.97 debit. With BIDU going up 2 points today, the position shows a 9% profit.

IWM 

I also plan to enter a diagonal in IWM. Today I opened the long portion by buying the Sep5 59 call for 9.09. I plan to sell a short Jul call later, hopefully after IWM goes up some.

Update for 6/16/10

XEC

I closed the XEC position Wednesday as the 65 and 70 calls were hitting 100 deltas and I was pretty much maxed out on the profit I could make. Also the 85 call could still be in play if I waited and XEC shot up in the last two days of this expiration. I closed the position with two vertical trades for a 4.80 credit which netted a 52% profit overall (based on a max risk of $500).

BIDU

BIDU has been in a danger zone most of the week but I have not changed the position yet. I am looking at closing the options that have value today especially if BIDU goes back up above 75.

NTAP PCCRC

NTAP is still doing ok and I plan no adjustments in the near future. Profit at this point stands at 3%.

Update 6/11/10

XEC

I made two trades to transform the XEC position into a condor. On Wednesday I bought the 70/75 vertical for 3.60 and on Thursday I sold the 80/85 vertical for 1.08 giving me a 65/70/85/90 condor for 2.20. I considered scalping the 70/75 vertical Thursday which could have netted me an additional 0.30 credit, but since XEC was still in the area of the risk graph between the two flies, I would start losing some of my profit because of the negative theta. The new position has a positive theta and probably will not be adjusted again.

BIDU

I also adjusted BIDU into a condor but it is not nearly as wide as the XEC condor. It also has an extra OTM call and put which could be useful if I need to roll up or down. On Wednesday I scalped a -80/+3 75/-2 70 put BWB for 0.30 by buying for 2.80 and selling the same spread for 3.10. Then Thursday I added a 70/-75/-80 call spread for 2.25 debit and bought a 70/75 put vertical for 2.45 debit. The overall position is essentially a 65/70/75/80 condor 2 times with an extra 85 call and 60 put for a 6.80 net debit. BIDU closed nearly centered in the condor at 72.75 and the position has finally reached breakeven. 

NTAP

I rolled the NTAP short options on Thursday when NTAP was near 38 giving me a 2.10 credit in going from June to July at the 38 strike. NTAP approached 40 today and the position shows a 3% profit.

Update 6/8/10

CTXS PCCRC

CTXS dropped lower today with an increase in IV and my sell order at 0.05 on the short call filled. Since the underlying was moving away from the short strike at 50, and to roll the short put would only give me about 0.20 credit, I decided to close the entire position when CTXS approached 40. I bought the Jun 50 put back for 9.50 and sold the 2 Sep 50 straddles for 10.58 cr. The final tally on this trade was a profit of 8%. It is interesting that so far I only have 44% winners but a 39% profit. This is because the winners have averaged 22% gain while the losers average only a 6% loss, which is the beauty of the PCCRC, low risk, unlimited reward type of trade. Unfortunately in this high IV environment there are few if any new candidates. 

BIDU

When BIDU appeared to be moving higher at the open, I bought the +75/-2 70/+60 put bwb for 0.75dr. This morphed the position into more of a condor between 70 and 75. BIDU moved lower after the trade but closed at 70.49.

No adjustments were made to NTAP and XEC.

Update 6/7/10

XEC

XEC moved up most of the day Monday and I put a trailstop order on the vertical I bought on Friday once I was up 25 cents. I ended up getting a 0.30 scalp on the vertical putting me back to the 2 flies at 70 and 85 now for a 0.32 credit. Plan to look at similar trades Tuesday if we get down near 75 or up to 80. According to the risk graph, I don't have to do anything about the 75-80 range until early next week when I will start seeing some losses in that area.

BIDU

This one seems to be going the wrong direction. Bidu traded in a pretty narrow range Monday, slightly down from Friday's close. I thought I would be doing nothing, but then near the end of the day it traded down further breaking 70. I ended up selling another ladder this time the call -70/+75/+80 for $1.50 cr. My thinking was this trade gets me closer to delta neutral and allows me to sell the ATM 70 call and buy OTM calls. The net result is +65/-2 70/+2 80/+85 calls and +65/+2 70/-3 75/+80 puts for 1.65 net debit. The short 75 puts are starting to worry me here. If we go down further I can scalp the call ladder (or vertical) I sold Monday, but after that trade I will be in a very delta positive position. If we go back up Tuesday, I can look at buying back the put ladder (or vertical), but it will take a big move for that to be profitable. My short theta is a bit high- if we sit still the position will be hurt also.

NTAP & CTXS PCCRCs

I have an order to close the short call in CTXS at 0.05, but other than that I doubt I will adjust these 2 before Friday. If CTXS does not go up a lot this week I may completely close the position rather than rolling for 0.20.

Update 6/4/10

XEC

I made a few adjustments to the XEC position this week and it is performing the best of my open positions right now. On Tuesday, XEC moved higher and I put a trailstop order on one of the extra 80 calls. I ended up getting filled at 1.45cr. On Wednesday I sold a -80/+85/+90 call ladder  for 1.30cr. On Thursday I consoldated everything into 2 butterflies for a small net credit by selling a +80/-3 85 call ratio for even, and then buying the embedded 70/75 call vertical for 3.60dr, giving me a 65/70/75 and 80/85/90 fly for 0.02 net credit. Today I didn't plan on making a trade but ended up with a small nudge against the XEC drop by buying an 80/85 vertical for 0.90dr giving me a net debit of 0.88 for the 2 flies and extra vertical. If XEC bounces higher next week I will either close the vertical or buy the other side giving me a second 85 fly. Current profit is around 30% of the average margin.

NTAP PCCRC

NTAP ended up down this week closing at 37.88. It is close enough to the short strike to give me a small profit. No adjustments will be made until late next week.

BIDU

BIDU is a little out of control, with 4 trades I have a condor, butterfly, extra call and extra ladder. On Tuesday I bought a 70/75/80 call fly for 1.10dr. Wednesday I sold a 75/80/85 ladder for 1.50cr. On Thursday I sold a 70/80 put vertical for 4.25cr. That gave me the fky, condor and extra call. Today I took a small bet against the fall in BIDU selling the 75/70/65 put ladder for 1.35 cr. The resultant position is +65c/+65p/-70c/+2 70p/-75c/-3 75p/+80c/+85p/+85c for 3.25 net debit and the risk graph is shown below.

CTXS PCCRC

No changes to the CTXS position even though it lost some money this week.