Update 6/24/11

CTXS PCCRC

No trades were made to the CTXS PCCRC this week. CTXS was up a couple of points on the week, so the adjustment made last week was beneficial. Profit is down slightly to +9%.

TIF Call Seagull

TIF moved up a couple of points this week also. No adjustments were made and there is a profit on the position of 4%.

LULU Bullish Butterfly

LULU showed up as a high flyer candidate this week on my scan, however IV was over 40, the maximum for a PCCRC trade. I decided to open a bullish butterfly yesterday instead consisting of +6 Aug 100 Calls/-9 Aug 110 calls/+3 Aug 120 Calls for a $7.00 debit. The p/l is currently flat on the position.

KMX Put Seagull

KMX showed up this week as a potential PCCRC candidate. The day after earnings there was a negative skew between short and long options for a PCCRC in KMX of > 4%. So I checked the options again yesterday and the skew was a little better so I decided to open a Put Seagull. The trade was +51 Oct 32 Put/+17 Oct 32 Calls/-34 Aug 32 Puts for a 7.25 debit. The position is also flat after 1 day in the trade.

Update 6/17/11

CTXS PCCRC

CTXS was down 4 of the 5 trading days last week despite the overall market being slightly higher. Late in the week I took some delta profits on the puts and set the trade up to continue to be profitable if there is a reversal to the upside. The trade was to roll one of the Sep 11 85 Puts to the 77.5 strike for a $5.00 credit. This trade also reduces the risk in the trade by more than 25%. The current profit on CTXS is 10% based on the original debit of $2035.

CSC Bearish Diagonal

On Tuesday I decided to close the CSC position rather than cover the long. The final tally was a 20% loss.

TIF Call Seagull

On Thursday I opened a new Call Seagull in TIF based on the high flyer criteria. A call seagull is synthetically equivalent to a PCCRC, in this case the call seagull trade was cheaper than the PCCRC. I discovered after the fact the the IV/SV ratio was a little too high on TIF (slightly over 1), but I will stay with the trade as it met all of the other criteria as a high flyer. The initial trade was +18 Nov 70 Calls, +6 Nov 70 Puts, -12 Jul 70 Calls for a $19.75 debit. TIF was up on Friday and the trade is currently showing a profit of 3%.

Update 6/10/11

After the recent market downturn all of my diagonals other than the CSC bearish diagonal have been closed. I believe the best trades with this uncertain market will be PCCRCs, so I am currently looking to open new PCCRCs. It could be a little while before I find any PCCRCs though, as earnings season doesn't start until next month.

CTXS Bullish Diagonal

The CTXS bullish diagonal was closed on Monday rather than covering the position as the chart no longer looked bullish. Final tally on the trade was a 20% loss.

 CTXS PCCRC

I rolled the shorts on the CTXS PCCRC from June to July today for a $3.10 credit. The two things I looked at were 1) was the trade profitable (yes), and 2) were the IVs higher in Jul (selling) than Jun (buying) (yes). The CTXS PCCRC currently has a profit of 6%.



CSC Bearish Diagonal

I uncovered the CSC bearish diagonal on Monday. I actually broke a rule on the trade in that the MACD was not down 2 days in a row with the 2 down days in the stock. But the stock was down 5 consecutive days yet somehow MACD was still green each day, so I decided to uncover. I paid $0.85 to buy back the Jun 37.5 puts. CSC is down 0.31 since that trade and overall there is a loss of 17%.

GES Bullish Diagonal

I closed the GES bullish diagonal on Wednesday after the p/l hit my stop-loss point. Final tally on this one was a loss of 49%.

GES PCCRC

The GES PCCRC failed the first test of rolling as the position was at a loss today when I made the rolling decision. So I closed the position today which ended with a loss of 10%.

Update 6/3/11

CTXS Bullish Diagonal

CTXS was down a couple of points this week and the diagonal position remained uncovered.The CTXS diagonal is currently showing a loss of 9%.

CTXS PCCRC

There were no changes to the CTXS PCCRC trade this week. Next Friday I will either roll the shorts or close the position. Overall profit on the CTXS PCCRC is 14%.

CSC Bearish Diagonal

CSC was up Monday then down small amounts each day the rest of the week. There were no adjustments made and the position is still covered. Overall there is a loss of 22%.

GES Bullish Diagonal 

GES was up the first 2 days this week then dropped the last 3 days. On Thursday I covered the long by selling 3 JUL 46 calls for 0.75. There is a loss on the position of 35%.

GES PCCRC

No trades were made in the GES PCCRC this week. Currently the position has a loss of 5%.