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Strategies & Market Trends : Calls and Puts for Income

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From: Robohogs	1/15/2013 7:25:08 AM
	3 Recommendations of 5891

I screwed the pooch here. This will be my worst January in several years and maybe worst month. Currently looking at ending this expiry down 4-5% because of a very bad decision not to pay a few thousand to buy in some short calls. Events have resulted in a 6 figure loss there offset somewhat by smaller 6 figure gains elsewhere and my account continues to tread water at levels hit 2-3 times since October. Arrgghhh. My own hubris and I got worried in mid Dec on this but I did not take the reduced gains. Ego. I should have been liquid to tune of 55% of account buying power at week's end but now looking more like 30-40%. I could get close to 50% if I finish erasing the loser, expiry goes well and I clean up one badly performing short put. I only have 1% of account value expiring in Feb vs. 4% still to go in Jan, all of which but 1/2% is moderately to deep OTM. March has 3-4%, April $1K total, May nothing and June 18%. July and August are small and Jan 2004 is 7%. Puts vs calls are about equal at moment with probably 60/40 to puts. Cushions are generally 15-30%. The stocks are very high beta though. I have reduced short calls as I have gone from margin call to call since last week - more bang for buck margin-wise. I will re-lay some short exposure in 2 hours, while adding new things. I did trigger new calls as I fixed old problems by aggressively adding new positions while fixing the old problem. ET system does suck. Yesterday morning while I was seeing buying power of 2%, they issued a margin call equal to 8% of acct. I ended day showing 7% buying power when my calcs said I should have had 10% - very big day offsetting awful Friday along with strong moves in special margin stocks and taking some gains and the losses. I am really disappointed here though. Could have been awesome start. Still up mid double digits in percentages from Jan 1 last year, but doh. Mom's account was up about 50% since mid June partially because I got carried away. It has been skating with 10% buying power and NO margin calls for quite a while. It goes to 60% power Friday. I did stupidly cover short BKS $15 calls a few months back - could been awesome. Her account missed 2/3 of my botched calls, was smaller on those calls and did not get whipsawed as much as a result - stayed with several positions that expired worthless which cost my account probably 6 figures. If this year is gonna be as bad as some think, strategy from my account may work better though, at leadt risk-wise (i.e., taking losses sooner). Long exposure names: ANR (smaller by luck) BKS (near #1 but none on Monday) CETV (all gone next week) FIO (newer) FSLR GDP IDCC (near #1 too) ITMN (big this week with most gone next week) JRCC (top 5 but big cushions) MCP (awful timing) STX Z (top 5 but huge cushions) Shorts: ANR (very small) BKS CETV CEDC FSLR (lost 5% of acct value last year) GDP IDCC (lost 4-5% of value last year) ITMN JRCC (best position last year) MCP (small hedge) STX (none but cost me 5% last year) Z (another harmful hedge) I just noticed the big GRPN rebound. Congrats to those there. The shorts shaved 15% points off performance. One takeover really hurt. Bad timing on covers really killed as stock always retreated. Jon

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