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Saturday, December 28, 2013

Weekend Portfolio Analysis (December 28, 2013)

Today I'm writing the last Weekend Portfolio Analysis of the year from the good old US. I thought, hey don't be such a workaholic and take a break, but I just couldn't avoid coming here and start typing stuff.

This week the first February 2014 position was initiated via RUT 1040/1045 Bull Put spread for 0.30  credit. I never sell put spreads when the market are going up, I prefer to do it on weakness but in this case I'm just playing with the seasonality numbers and the fact that January, specially the first few days of the month are historically very strong days.

Monday, December 23, 2013

Second $SPX Bear Call Spread of the January 2014 expiration cycle

I opened an SPX 1880/1885 Bear Call spread today for 0.50 credit

Sunday, December 22, 2013

Analysis of Options trading results in 2013

2013 was not what I expected in terms of Options trading results. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't good either. The final number for the model portfolio is +12.22% versus +28% for the S&P 500 as I write this article (SPX is at 1818). Basically you could have purchased some shares of SPY at the beginning of the year and without watching the markets at all anymore, without making any additional trades nor spending anything else in commissions, you could have beaten my +12.22%. This is what proponents of index investing suggest. And I admit it makes sense. If 90 to 95% of traders lose money in the long run, and 75% of "professional" money managers can't beat the market year after year, then just follow an index and mimic its performance. You'll be better off than the majority out there.

Saturday, December 21, 2013

Weekend Portfolio Analysis (December 21, 2013)

Well folks, yesterday was December 2013 expiration. There aren't any monthly December 2013 Options left in this universe anymore. 2013 is coming to an end. I still can't believe the year went by so fast. Man I'm getting old. 2013 is almost over and I'm still letting that idea sink in my brain.

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Closed SPX 1880/1885 Bear Call Spread (January 2014 expiration)

Today I closed the Call side of the January 2014 SPX 1645/1650/1880/1885 Iron Condor

Saturday, December 14, 2013

Weekend Portfolio Analysis (December 14, 2013)

SPX fell -1.71% this week from 1806.21 down to 1775.32. A RUT 990/995 Bull Put spread position was entered when all the short term indicators were signaling oversold conditions, and things are currently looking pretty good in the portfolio.

Thursday, December 12, 2013

January 2014, RUT Bull Put Spread

After 20 days without entering new trades, today I went into the fire again.

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Options trading course - Adjustments, Risk Management and the Greeks

In the past three years several newsletters, brokers and "fake gurus" have offered to write an article on this blog in order to get visibility for themselves. So far, I have only agreed to a couple of them. Both are real traders, both with proven results and no BS advertisement, nor crazy profit claims. That's because I hate fake non-transparent traders and the financial media in general that only looks for readership in order to increase their advertisement dollars. So, after more than 3 years blogging and dozens of requests for affiliation or guest posts, only two have made the cut. OptionsTradingIQ is one of them, and the reason is because he is a real trader, with real results and an always appreciated no BS approach. Someone that I personally respect a lot for his exquisite risk management techniques. He has written a couple guest posts on this blog in the past which you can read here and here. If you like his thoroughness you may be interested in the following offer.

Saturday, December 7, 2013

Weekend Portfolio Analysis (December 7, 2013)

SPX went from 1806.55 to 1805.09 ending up almost unchanged. At some point on Thursday I was inclined to sell an out of the money Bull Put spread but the market didn't fall to the oversold conditions I usually look for and I needed a little more. Had I sold a Bull Put spread with a 90% probability of success, but using RUT options, the short Put option would have been in the same neighborhood as the 1650 SPX short Put I already have in January. I don't like that concentration of risk in the same area of the spectrum. So, I waited for conditions to get more oversold and that never happened. Well, so be it. On the last two down swings (November 20 and December 5) the market hasn't reached truly oversold conditions, which reminds us over and over again, how strong and stubborn this trend has been all year long.

Thursday, December 5, 2013

Checklist for trading Vertical Spreads (guest post by Dan from ThetaTrend.com)

I recently had a nice conversation with an experienced trader of Iron Condors and Vertical Spreads. Dan is also the author of ThetaTrend.com, a blog focused on Trend Following with Options. He aims to develop and share (for free) simple rules based systems for trading ETF's and Options. I went to his site and stumbled upon a clever style of trading and an always appreciated no BS approach to trading with total transparency. After just a couple emails I knew it would be great to have an article from him on this blog. It would definitely add value to this site while at the same time promote his work over there. I believe trading blogs like ThetaTrend.com are a specie in extinction, true gems that deserve recognition and visibility. Dan, from the confinements of this blog, The Lazy Trader salutes you! Keep up the amazing work pal!