Weekly Update 10/29/10

This was a good week of trading with my account values up 6% on the week. I opened new PCCRCs in SOHU and COH and made several adjustment to the diagonal trades.

RVBD PCCRC

On Monday I captured some delta profits on RVBD by rolling 2 of the long calls from the 55 to 60 strike. RVBD ended up higher on the week closing at 57.59. Overall profit on the position stands at 19% despite a 4% loss today.

COH PCCRC

COH appeared on the screener Tuesday and I opened a new PCCRC at the 50 strike. COH closed dead on 50 today and despite IV dropping a lot the position currently is showing a 4% profit.

SOHU PCCRC

I also opened a PCCRC in SOHU on Tuesday. It reported earnings on Monday but did not show up on the screener because average volume is a little less than 1M. The parameters still looked good on Tuesday so I opened a new position at the 75 strike. The stock is down about 1/2 point from when I made the trade but there is still a 2% profit.

NOV Bullish Diagonal

NOV reported earnings on Tuesday and the stock jumped 4 points. I rolled the longs up and out to the Feb 47 strike and I also rolled the shorts up and out to Dec 55. On Wednesday I uncovered the long call by buying back the short after 2 up days in NOV. NOV closed the week at 53.76 and current overall profit is 84%.

FCX Bullish Diagonal

On Tuesday I uncovered the long on FCX after 2 up days. It has went down 3+ points since then and now profit stands at 2%.

XLE Bullish Diagonal

XLE dropped on Wednesday and Thursday so I sold two calls to cover the 2 longs. Since there was not an option with the delta I was looking for, I sold 2 different strikes, the 60 and 61. XLE moved up slightly today to 59.24 and profit on the position stands at 19%.

PNC Bearish Diagonal

PNC has been more bullish than bearish lately, but it did go down on Wednesday and Thursday so I bought back the short. PNC was back up again today and closed at 53.90. There is a loss overall on the position of 8%.

LVS Bullish Diagonal

LVS reported earnings Wednesday night and gapped higher Thursday. I rolled the longs up and out to Mar 40 while adding a contract and uncovered the longs by buying back the shorts after the 2 up days. LVS ended the week at 45.88 and shows a profit of 43%.

Weekly Update 10/22/10

I made 9 trades this week including opening new positions in LVS and RVBD.

RVBD PCCRC 

Today RVBD appeared on my PCCRC screener after beating earnings estimates and rising 18%. I opened a Nov/Jan 55 PCCRC for 12.55 debit when RVBD was at 52.58. RVBD closed today at 54.27 and the position is up 9%.

NOV Bullish Diagonal

On Tuesday I covered the long position in NOV by selling a November 50 Call for 0.80 (it is confusing to trade November options in NOV because the abbreviations are the same). So currently the position is +3Jan 40 C/-3Nov 50 C for 3.71 debit. Overall profit is at 34%.

FCX Bullish Diagonal

I rolled the short call down in the FCX diagonal Tuesday after FCX moved down quickly capturing some profit on the sold call. The current overall profit is 7%.

XLE Bullish Diagonal

The XLE diagonal position (it is currently a long call since I uncovered the long) has done well. I rolled the long call up and doubled the number of longs on Monday (see twitter Trade Updates above). Currently the overall profit is 28%.

PNC Bearish Diagonal

The PNC position moved against me all week and I made two trades in response. On Tuesday I covered the long by selling the Nov 50 put. Then on Thursday I rolled the put up to the 52.5 strike. Currently the position has a loss of 14%.

LVS Bullish Diagonal

I opened a new bullish diagonal in LVS on Monday. LVS moved down quickly so I captured some profit on the short call by rolling from the 42 to the 40 strike on Tuesday. LVS recovered some later in the week but still has an overall loss which is at -3%.

Weekly Update 10/15/10

Here are the updates for my open trades for the last 2 weeks:

CTXS Call Seagull

The CTXS position was closed on 10/8 with the shorts getting close to expiration and earnings shortly afterward. Final P/L on the position was +50.8%, the second best PCCRC I have ever had.

INFA Call Seagull

INFA was also closed on 10/8 with a net profit of +32.2%.

INTU Put Seagull

INTU was closed on 10/6 with a net profit of +6.8%.

NOV Bullish Diagonal

I bought back the 2 short calls on NOV on 10/7 with NOV appearing to be moving higher. It did move up trading to 48.62 yesterday where I rolled up to the 44 strike and added a third call. Current position is 3 Jan 2011 44 Calls and profit stands at +47%.

XLE Bullish Diagonal

XLE appeared to be moving higher so on 10/7 I bought back the short call to let the long call run naked. My analysis shows if XLE reaches 60 I should be able to double the number of longs without adding any risk by rolling to the 56 strike. XLE is at 59.21 today and the XLE position is up 30%.

MOS Bearish Diagonal

I am not sure what made me think the MOS chart looked bearish. After a couple of days in the position the chart looked bullish and the stock acted bullish so I closed the position on 10/8 after a gap up. Total P/L was -21.1%.

FCX Bullish Diagonal

I opened a new position on FCX on 10/8 by buying the Jan 85 call. I decided to cover the call today because earnings are due out next week. Current profit on the total FCX position is +22%.

GOOG showed up on the PCCRC screener today but I did not open a position because of the high cost. I expect to open some PCCRCs in the next couple of weeks.

Blog Reopened

I had closed this blog a few months back due to lack of time to keep it updated. However, with some new features in ThinkOrSwim's MyTrade, I believe I can update the blog much more easily now, so I have decided to reopen VEGA Trading. The way it works is when I make a trade in ThinkOrSwim (TOS), I can make the trade available to my Twitter account via MyTrade in TOS. I can also have all tweets from Twitter get posted automatically to this blog. So I can post my trades from TOS to here automatically through Twitter. The format will be alot different, but the information should all be there. Let me know via comments if you find the new format useful.

Right now I am focusing on two types of trades: PCCRCs and Diagonals. I have some Iron Condors open still but I am not planning on continuing to trade them. My current PCCRCs will be getting closed this week but I anticipate new ones opening over the next several weeks as earnings are announced. Below are my current positions, but again future updates will be in a much different format.

CTXS Call Seagull

The call seagull is another form of the PCCRC, with different options but nearly identical characteristics. I have rolled the long calls in this one a few times as CTXS has moved up resulting in the U shaped risk graph shown below. Right now this is my second best performing PCCRC ever, with a profit of 45% (click on the picture below to make it larger).

INFA Call Seagull

INFA is similar to CTXS, a call seagull that has moved up with me rolling the long calls to capture some profit. The current profit is +38%.

INTU Put Seagull

INTU is a put seagull that has stayed closer to the initial price I opened it at. I did roll the long call up one strike so far. I choose between PCCRCs, Call and Put Seagulls based on which trade is cheaper at the time I am opening it. Currently the INTU position is up 9%. 

NOV Bullish Diagonal

This position was opened last Thursday and currently is showing a loss of 8%.

XLE Bullish Diagonal

This one was also opened last Thursday and is down 3%.

MOS Bearish Diagonal

MOS opened last Thursday as well and with the down move of the market today is up 1%.