Lets take a look back at the "ISRG" Trade From Nov 3rd

When I put this trade on, I did my due diligence and checked the fundamentals and the technicals, and my feeling was this stock is too cheap at $120. What I wasn't thinking about was how redemption's are going to effect the market and over swing to the opposite direction, in this case the market will swing to the downside further than it should.

As part of my due diligence I looked at the technicals and here is a Quote from that day " I really don't know what can go wrong that will knock this stock back down that low, but they seem to have a technical support at $127-$130-ish per share."

What I didn't anticipate was the extreme sell-off to come, but based on my technical and fundamental research this is a long term hold stock for me if I get put.

If you look at today's chart on this stock it came down to 126.98 and then bounced off of the technical support I felt it had right there and went back to 130. Will that technical support hold? I don't know, but what I do know is that nothing has changed since I put this position on and that It is unfolding the exact way that I said it may.

So, only time will tell if the selling forces are fierce enough to push it below the 127 mark on the close and then I'll just watch my money go away for a while until the market has time to digest the overselling, but lets see if the technicals hold on.

Well were at the close at ISRG Technicals couldn't hold against the selling pressure, just amother example, IMHO, of throwing the baby out with the bath water. I assume that people are still going to want minimally invasive surgery and they own that market, so I'm stuck in the Bears grip just waiting for it to let go. Still hasn't busted through the strike, but with the way the market continues to behave, I'm not so sure that I won't owning this stock at $80 or less before seeing it really rally again. Like I said earlier, I'm not put the stock yet though and until the fat lady sings on Friday, I'm just short the puts.

I really don't mind owning this stock at the 120 level, I just hate the overselling that I believe is taking place in the meantime. But I love to pick up the bargains. What can I say, It's a Love - Hate relationship I have with the markets these days and any value investor is feeling the same way. If I didn't have a 5+ year outlook, I'd be much more dissatisfied with the way the market is behaving, but by having a longer term out look it sure smells of a good time to look for bargains and when I get put on some, I really should be happy, but I get frustrated that the stocks even sell down as far as they do.

Bought and Sold Google Options for a profit of $900 (less Commissions) Today. Not too big of a daytrading day for me. I was trading the 300 strike puts and the 310 strike calls. I Traded a total of 40 contracts in and out.

Trade for 11/14/2008

Sold to Open 3 Nov22nd Puts on ISCA 25 Strike @ 1.00 even bringing into my account $300 before commissions. This stock has seem to have found a bottom here because I believe that it wasn't held by too many hedge funds so they don't have redemption selling pressure associated with many of the big names. Also they have come down from there 52 week high of $44.75. And even if some hedge funds do own it, I believe that they will sell higher priced stocks which make it easier to pay their clients the money, than to sell the now $25 Stock. The company is into speedway motor racing and "As of November 30, 2007, International Speedway owned and operated 13 motorsports facilities in the states of Florida, Alabama, Michigan, Virginia, California, Kansas, Arizona, Illinois, South Carolina, and New York". Here's my take on this stock and the reason that I wouldn't mind owning it. First from what I understand about 50% of their revenue is from media broadcasting for which they have locked in contracts over the next seven years or so. Secondly, they get extra revenue form ticket sales, concessions and merchandising. There is a lot of capital investment that goes into building these speedways so entrance into the market by other players, especially in this hard to borrow market seems minimal, limiting their exposure to competition coming in. Also, the fact that ticket sales may drop due to the recession is already priced into this stock, remember, I believe that 50% of its revenue is already locked in with media contracts. If tickets sales were to goto zero, which I don't believe will happen, there stock has already dropped by almost that much. Finally, I like the fact that their overhead on an on going basis is not that high, as they do not have to stock up on product to sell in order to make money, all they have to do is continue to have races and bring in money and because of that they have just started paying a dividend to give back some of the excess cash that they are bringing in. I also believe that they have been buying some of their stock back at these prices which would reduce the float and make each share worth more.

In an economy like this, when you have a stock that is starting to pay a dividend and is buying its stock back with its excess cash, I just have a hunch that this is a strong company that will not only hold on, but make money for years to come, recession or no recession.

So I sold the puts, only 3 of them only because of the GM scenario, where the market can get crushed if GM shuts down and unemployment skyrockets. So, I am only dipping my toes into these stocks and hopefully buying on the cheap on the way down. Will GM go bankrupt in the coming week? I'm not sure, but I hope not.

Their debt is minimal compared to their earnings, therefore I do not see them losing money and finally, there year over year quarterly earnings growth for last quarter was a staggering 307.60% according to Yahoo Finance Key Statistics on this company, yet they are only trading at 9.8% forward PE. I just can not help but be long term bullish on this company, but because you cannot fight the tape, I sold puts 0nly 3 one week out puts for $1.00 for only a total equaling 300 shares. If the GM debacle wasn't hanging over us, I would have put this position on for significantly more contracts.

Sold 10 Puts to Open UBS Nov 10's at .25 bring into my account $250 before commissions just because I think this stock is being oversold because it is a financial and it is a long term play for me. I liked it at 12.5, so I like it even more at 10. If I end up with 10,000 shares of UBS at an average price of 5-10 after this recession, I will be happy with that, but only time will tell if I can buy it that cheap, my only concern is that I hope that they don't own GE bonds.

Sold to Open 3 LLL Nov 60 Puts at .90 bring into my account before commisions $270 I like this company even when Obama come in as the President because
LLL according to what is Posted on Yahoo and is a better explanation than I can give is "L-3 Communications Holdings, Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides command, control, communications, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (C3ISR) systems; and aircraft modernization and maintenance, and government services primarily in the United States. Its C3ISR" In otherwords, they are the control center for the air force and even if Obama can get troops off the ground, it will just necessitate the need for this company. With a 52 week high of $115 this is another stock that I would only like to get my toes wet and buy more when it cheaper. So we'll first see if I get put this coming Friday.

Sold To Open 10 CB Dec 20th - 30 strike Puts at .50 bringing into my account $500 before commissions. I did this because I do not believe that I am going to be put the current month 40 puts that I have on, so I took in the premium for next moth at an even lower strike, so if I don;t end up owning this fine company at 40 this month, which I believe is true, maybe with all of the GM problems, I can get a chance to buy it at 30 next month. Time will tell.

I have a vote on the blog about posting my day trades - but since it's only been on the site one day and Only one person voted, I'm going to give a summery on my day trades rather then a detail trade by trade blow of what happened, but let me start by saying that I had no Losing Day trades today. And I only traded my Favorite Google front month Puts, not stock trades today.

Bought 85 Google 310 Puts at an Average Price of $7.367 and sold them at 7.80 for a profit, before commissions of $3680.00 So day trading was ok Today. Again, I like the google just out of the money contracts because of the volume, the volatility and the price all make it attractive for me to day trade. Again, I would have held the positions longer until the end of the day and that would have made me an extra $6500 approx, but that would have broken my own rules and that's a slippery slope. If I start breaking my own rules, then the trading becomes a free for all and I will end up losing in the long run, so I made a little less than I could have, but I won't ever lose a ton on a trade sticking to my rules. But you just can't help looking back and saying what if...?

UBS has come into the money at $12.5.

I really feel good about this trade. When I go back and review my notes I see the Swiss Government has helped this Bank out and help clean them up, yet hedge fund unwinds and other selling pressure forces are pushing this stock down, even lower, maybe even lower expected earnings? But look at today's price. I believe it is a steal, I 'm in it for the long haul and if I had have bought the stock instead of selling the puts, I would have paid $17.5 for this stock. If I get put the stock I'll own in at a cost basis of $12ish, much better play than just buying the stock, don't you agree?

I Love Options

Since I want to buy up stocks slowly in this market, I've put on my share of positions for this month, unless I find a position that I can not resist, so look for me to start actively trading positons again on Nov 24th so that I can evaluate what positions I took in this month afer expiration and start selling put for next month. I may make some day trades here and there, but I don't think that you are interested in my day trading as most of my followers like to learn how I trade options the enter and exit positions and learn from that.

However if you really want to see my day trades, sign up for a free newsletter and in the comment box, let me know that you want to see my day trading as well and if I get enough of you that want to watch what I day trade then I will continue to post that. As a matte of fact, I'll put a new poll on the site and listen to my readers in their requests and in the polling.

Thanks,

The Options Trader

WIFE OF A WARRIOR: Personal Loans

WIFE OF A WARRIOR: Personal Loans

Sorry readers, but I didn't do any trading yesterday. I wanted to give a shout out to a fellow blogger and the company that they reviewed. I like both of them but you cannot trade them as they are privately held, But take a look anyway and follow the links. You'll end up at AFS, a good but private company.

Lets Discuss the Market and My Stategies

First of all, I am terrified of this market and that's a good thing. You have to have respect for the market when you invest or YOU WILL lose your money, but at the same time, is it not the best time to buy when everyone is terrified? They say "Buy on Fear" and "Sell on Greed" therefore I should be buying up a storm because I am so afraid.

That's why I am employing the strategy that I am using, which is to sell out of the money puts and wait until expiration day to see what I bought and what premiums I going to keep because I sold the puts, but the stock never made it down that low, therefore leaving me with profit of all of that premium.

As it stands, only a one stock has come down so far to be into the money since I started this blog about two weeks ago. That means that if everything were to remain the same, I will have only bought one stock this month and kept the premium on everything else. But what about that, is that getting into this market too slow? Not in my opinion. IMHO, I believe that stocks are going to be coming down for quite some time and there are deal, but these deals are not going away anywhere in the near future, for one reason and one reason only, that being the first sentence of this dialog, FEAR!

Anyone who is invested in this market is scared shit-less (Excuse the French) that their entire portfolio is going to zero because the financial structure as we know it is going to change and that they are going to lose their life savings. People are afraid of change, (even though they voted for it), I don't think they were voting a particular change, they just wanted Bush out of there so that he couldn't do any more damage) whether it was his fault or not. So as many people struggle with that fear, what do you think that some of them will do, SELL! And while they are selling frantically, I only want to pick up a little stock here and there for the next year or so. Then I'll be in a position to look back and say Whew, made it through that storm without too much damage, and move on to make profits. That is my thinking, I could be wrong, but it just seems obvious to me as a forward thinker.

With that said lets go to Today's trades as it was a wild market. As many of you have noticed by my trading patterns, I try and make money every day and also put on positions to buy stocks cheaper in the future, so today was a wild ride. We'll start with putting on positions in which I hope to buy stock or keep the premium and then we'll list the wild day trades that I did, and I mean they were wile.

Sold 5 PUTs to Open Goldman Sachs Nov 30 strike puts at .30 bring a credit to my account of $150 (before commissions), the stock is currently trading at 75+ after hour while I am writing this, meaning that if I buy this stock it is because it drops more than 50% in the next 11 days, or I just Keep the Premium. I'm just fine with that as I believe that I Will just keep the premium, but if I get put the stock at 30, Id be just as happy.

Sold 10 Puts to Open VZ Nov 25 Strike at .17 bring a credit into my account of $170.00. before commissions. Verizon currently pays a nice dividend, approximately 6% and is a blue chip company, therefore, I do not believe that the stock will fall that low, but with so much selling pressure of everyone with so much fear and the de-leveraging of hedge funds, you never know.

Those were the positions that I put on for long term, but now lets venture into my day trading because Today was a wild one! Those of you that have been following me, know that lately I've been playing Google Options and Ford stock for day trade purposes.

I Started the day by Buy 20,000 F at 1.86, big mistake as that stock just kept on dropping. Therefore I decided to Average Down, So that the Price would not have to move too much for me to break even so, I bought another 50,000 share at $1.75 and a while later bought another 30,000 shares at 1.74. I have been watching this stock and just about every day near the close, the stock runs back up a little so I had to wait, but this is what it looked like:

Bought 100,000 shares Ford at approx $1.77, then sold them near the close at an average of approx... Sold ,100,000 shares Ford at $1.81 making a profit of approx $4000 Before Commissions, so far so good, right? But wait there's more as I got hooked in a google trade.

I was buying and selling puts in Google for a profit all morning long and then it happened, the swing in the market where the Dow went from down 250ish to only down 10 0r 15 point while I was long 20 Google puts. So here is what that trade looked like:

Bought 20 Google 310 Strike Puts at an average price of $11.60 and sold those same puts a an average price of $10.65 Losing $1900 before commissions. OUCH!

During the Morning Session while I was day trading Google option this is what it looked like:

Bought and sold 10 each Google 280 put even at $7.50 Losing Commissions.

Sold 10 Google 310 Puts at $14.70, Bought Back at $14.50 = $200 Profit, less commissions

Bought 20 Google 310 Puts at $13.300 and Sold at $13.60 another $600 Profit - less commissions

Bought 10 Google 310 Puts at $12.90 and Sold at $13.10 for $200 Profit less commissions

Bought 10 Google 310 Put at $11.20 and Sold at $11.50 for a $300 profit less commissions

Sold to open 3 (partial fill) Google 310 puts at $13.85 Ave Price and Bought 3 back at $12.50 for a profit of $405 less commissions

Bought Google 310 Puts at 11.80 and Sold at $11.90 for $100 less commissions

Bought Google 310 Puts at 11.60 and sold the at 11.90 for a $300 profit - less commissions

So my Google day trading profit & losses subtracting my good trades were a total gain of $205. But after commissions, I probably lost a little money, not much - but what a waste of time and that is the way day trading can end up or worse!

Fortunately for me today I was able to get a couple of good position trades done and that Ford trade put some real money in my Pocket.

The Google trading, for all intensive proposes, was a push.

Trades from 11/10/08

Sold 5 Puts to Open, Stock Symbol FLR Strike Price 30. Bringing in $125(before Commissions into my account).While Fluor is an engineering and infrastructure company, I believe that because it, with the rest of the market, has come way off of it highs can benefit from an Obama Presidency of building infrastructure to make work during what I consider the New Obama Dream Deal for Americans laborers. Plus the stock is currently trading at 42+, so either it withdraws another 12+ points in the next 12 days or I keep the money that I brought in as a premium. Either way, I'm happy. I used to own this stock and sold it into the bull market a couple of years back, it was a late player to the table of the last bull market, but since there seems to be a plan to build infrastructure to create jobs, I'm finding that this stock may benefit even during the recession, we'll have to wait an see.

Sold 5 Puts to Open, Stock Symbol "MT" Strike Price 17.5 Bringing in $125 (before Commissions into my account). While this is a steel company, I did this trade for the same reason as the above trade. This stock is currently trading at 24.50, so it has to retreat a long way in the next 12 day for me to be put and own the stock at $17.50, Which I would do, but only time will tell.

Flipped 40,000 shares of F Paid $1.94 sold within a few minutes for $1.95 bringing into my account a gross of $400.00 (less commission). This is a simple day -trade flip for an extra $400 while I'm looking for more stocks that I would like to own and to sell puts against.

Last week I sold 7 puts on CSH with the strike of 30 today I sold another 7 put options on the 25 strike at .55 bringing into my account $385 (Before Commissions), A material Item has changed since I put my original position which I believe may have a material impact on its earnings short term. As I understand it, through legislation, they lost their ability to do payday type loans in some states but they are still going to pawn, which is profitable but not as profitable as the payday loan business (as you can imagine). I still like this stock but I sold the 30 Puts and the stock is trading in the 29.40ish range where there is some technical support down to at approx 28.45, but I still want to own this stock because they are trying to buy the biggest privately owned Pawn Shop chain in Mexico. If that deal happens their earnings should rise and so should their stock accordingly. But my shorter term view has been shaken and therefore I have an order in to sell 7 of the current month 25 strike puts at .25.

"
Fort Worth, Texas (September 29, 2008) - - Cash America International, Inc. (NYSE: CSH) announced today that it has entered into a letter of intent to acquire an 80% ownership interest in a 100 store chain of pawnshops in Mexico.

My thought process is that if the stock goes all the way that low, then it is way oversold and I'd average down my buying price on the stock at 27.5, however, I'm not that convinced that this stock wont rally before expiration day back towards 32.5 -35, leaving me with just option premium in my account and no stock. Whether I get put at 30, and 25 strikes or just at 30 strike, I plan to sell cover calls at the money for the short term and then if the stock doesn't get called away to sell out of the money calls for the next couple of months or until the Mexico deal comes through. As time goes by, and if the Mexico deal gets done, then I won't even sell calls as I'll wait for the earnings to pick up and hold this stock for another year or two during the recession. But we'll have to see if I even get put the 30's or if this was the sell off and the stock heads back up from here. I believe that once the Mexico acquisition is finalized we will finally see the upswing that it's competitor "EZPW" has already seen trading at 14.5 P/E vs. CSH which is currently trading at only 9 times its P/E.

Bought Calls to Open 10 Google 320 Strike @ 12.80 and turned around and offered them out and sold them for $13.00 credit my account $200.00 No position, just a trade that was there. It seems that with all of the trading on google today that it had found a temporary trading range of 310-312, so I took advantage by buying on the bid and selling on the offer one of the highest volume current month option calls that were trading. Turning it right around and selling it for a $200 profit. I'll watch the stock some more and maybe do it again if the opportunity arises. Could have held it with the big sell of in google as it may rebound, but with the market weakness, I didn't feel comfortable holding it any longer than was absolutely necessary to turn a profit. Never let greed overcome good judgement is what I told myself at the time of the trade. I have to dedicate this trade to "Yama Sushi on the Lake" The Best Sushi Bar in Orange County California, as I like Sushi and took my wife there last night. The bill came to $192 with tip and drinks, and I had quite a few drinks. Therefore, this trade is dedicated to them, as it paid for the dinner and I was thinking while eating and drinking that I would do a trade today to pay for it.

Thank You Yama Sushi on the Lake
The reason That I'm thanking them is, if it weren't for dinner last night, I wouldn't have been looking for a quick in and out trade, but because of the quality Sushi that they have, I had to eat there an that forced me to look for the Google trade, so when I saw the stock stall at a new range between $313-$315 I had to make another flip trade and here's how it went:

Sold to open 10 Google 320 Strike calls at 13.70 on the offer and within a minute placed an order to buy it back on the bid at 13.40 putting a $300 Profit in my account. (Before Commissions) So now I didn't just pay for a The Best Japanese Food in Orange County, but I'm up $300 to boot. I wouldn't have even looked for this trade if I didn't feel that I wanted to do a quick flip to pay for dinner, but once I found the trade, I had to stay with it just a little while to see if there would be another opportunity, where the stock moved, but then stalled in another trading range and when that happened, I did it once, more. I probably will not do the trade again today unless while I'm watching it, the stock first makes a move and then stalls again. I'll let you know, but for now, anyone of you that watch my blog real time, and have a computer, the symbol for this particular option and strike is GGDKD. have fun watching and wish me luck!

Had a few Naked Option Orders in But nothing done

When the market is going up, it's hard to find the puts that are a good sale, especially current month as the premiums are starting to drop off at an accelerated pace. I say this because I know that most of you look at my options trades. Had I of gotten filled on the option put orders that I had in, I would have been happy, but like the title of this blog states - Stock and Options Trading, so if I couldn't get any option position trades off, there are no stocks that I want to own at current prices because I believe right down to my core that there will be more sell offs and cheaper prices.

So I did what anyone in my position would do, I found a way to make $600 regardless, just buy day - trading a high volume stock and limiting my risk by being in and out within a couple of minutes on each trade - My trading rules # 167 -Never hold a stock that you don't want to own. I have about 620 rules of trading that I always follow, and I never deviate from them. Some of those rules only apply to certain types of trading, for day trading I have about 18 rules to follow and I used those rules today. That's another reason I keep a diary, to add to my rules when I make an error.

Could I have made more on those trades? Well the answer, in hindsight, ended up being yes, but if it is not a stock that I want to hold medium or long term , then it's not a stock that I want to hold for more than two minutes, maybe three minutes at the most and that's what I did. I always stick to my own set of trading rules that have worked for me for years and I do not stray from those rules, as I never want to be in a position of hoping and wishing. I learned those lessons long ago.

I played it the correct way that I trade and even though I could have made more by holding the stock to the close, that would have went against my rules and in the long run it would hurt me. It's a slippery slope when you allow yourself to NOT FOLLOW your own set of trading rules! As I will never let greed overcome good judgement!

Whether you followed my trades or stayed on the sidelines, I hope you didn't take the opposite side as you will be down on the day and usually I believe that taking the opposite side of my trades is a good recipe to lose money, but you make your own judgement regarding that. Its your money you are trading with, not mine.

Below, Check out my Post on Options Trading "Tips & Tricks"