Vacation 7/29/11

I was on vacation the week of July 29, so I am not updating the blog this week. There were no trades or adjustments made. I will update the risk graphs and trades next Friday August 5.

Update 7/22/11

LULU Bullish Butterfly

LULU continued its move higher this week, adding a little profit to the unbalanced butterfly. I do not plan on adjusting this one unless it starts dropping quickly. Currently LULU has a profit of 50%.

KMX Put Seagull

KMX was flat this week but the profit dropped. It appears likely this trade will be a loser but I will wait one week prior to August expiration to close it. There is now a loss of 6% on this trade.

JOYG Call Seagull

JOYG continued moving higher this week but would have to reach 105 before I would take some profits. The move up dropped IV lower moving the current profit down by about half of what it was last week. Current profit is now 3%.

AAPL Put Seagull

I opened a new put seagull in AAPL the day after AAPL reported earnings. There is already a profit on this trade of 6% which mainly occurred because I opened the trade a few minutes after the opening bell, and IV ticked back up pretty quickly. My experience has been that in very active stocks like AAPL, many times the best entry time is very close to the open the day after earnings.

Update 7/15/11

No new trades were made this week as the only viable candidate I found was Google, which is very expensive to trade. I expect to open new PCCRCs next week as earnings gets into full swing.

LULU Bullish Butterfly

LULU was basically flat this week but the butterfly made some theta decay gains. No adjustments were made, but there was a 2 for 1 split affecting the contracts owned, which is now twice as many 50, 55, and 60 strikes. The current profit is now +47%.

KMX Put Seagull

 KMX moved lower every day this past week and is now very close to the strike price of the seagull which is at 32. Profit has dropped as well and currently shows a loss of 2%.

JOYG Call Seagull

JOYG was flat on the week as well up 6 cents from last Friday's close. IV moved up in JOYG giving a nice 7% profit on the week.

Update 7/8/11

CTXS PCCRC

Friday was one week before expiration of the shorts on the CTXS PCCRC and I had to make a decision whether to roll to August or close the trade. With earnings coming up in a little more than 2 weeks I decided to take the small profit and close the trade. The other factor in the decision is earnings season is starting now and I expect some good PCCRC opportunities the next couple of weeks and would like to have as much capital for new positions. On Friday I closed the 5 remaining legs by selling 1 Sep 77.5 Put for 3.70 credit and selling 2 Sep 85 calls, 1 Sep 85 put, buying 1 Jul 85 call and 1 85 put for a credit of 10.90. Final tally on the trade was a profit of 12%.

TIF Call Seagull

TIF also was a the point of decision Friday and since it was losing money I also decided to close the position. Although TIF had moved 10 points higher during the trade, the drop in IV had more of an effect with the end result a 5% loss.

LULU Bullish Butterfly

LULU has continued to climb higher giving me some room in the body of the fly if it drops back some. It has an August expiration so I likely will not be changing or closing the position for a few more weeks. Unrealized profit is currently at 43%.

KMX Put Seagull

KMX has moved higher but the drop in IV has kept the position in losing territory. The shorts have an August expiration so there is some time for this one to work out. Currently the position has a loss of 1%.



JOYG Call Seagull

On Friday I opened a new Call Seagull in JOYG based on it being a high-flyer. The trade was Oct/Aug at the 95 strike for a 21.50 debit and 17 contracts. After a half day the position is showing a slight profit.

Update 7/1/11

The VIX dropped quite a bit this week having a negative impact on the PCCRCs but a positive impact on the bullish butterfly.

CTXS PCCRC

CTXS continued to move up for the second straight week making the adjustment of 2 weeks ago (rolling the put down) look like the right trade. IV has fallen as CTXS has moved higher making the p/l drop some from last week and is now at +7%.

TIF Call Seagull

TIF moved to higher this week including a new high today at 79.58. I took some profits on the long calls by rolling 6 from the 70 to 75 strike for a 3.45 credit.With IV moving down there is a loss overall of 2%.



LULU Bullish Butterfly

The LULU trade has performed well so far thanks to LULU moving higher all week hitting 115.93 today. Currently there is a profit of 34%.



KMX Put Seagull

KMX moved higher this week with dropping IV also. No adjustments were made on KMX and it currently has a loss of 3%.