Options update for 12/10...I felt like a one-armed wallpaper hanger.
What a day. Barrick had a schizophrenic day...opened at 22.75, back-filed to 22, then powered ahead to 22.90. I will call this the first day of 'give-up', because after the strong opening, traders could not sell it fast enough as gold weakened. They got caught short as gold regained some ground. One more day like this, with pros getting shaken out on every down-tick in bullion, and I will issue my own personal buy signal. It was moving around so much today, and so much trading was going on both ways, that I had no idea how I did or how I stood. Turns out I made OK money and and somewhat long, with almost a decent bend on the up-side. Call vol bleeded out just a touch. (52,48)
BCE: I know it's only human nature, but I sure wish people wouldn't wait until the *last* minute to roll their positions to keep the dividend. We must have had a dozen spread orders in the book, which were CFO'd several times each until finally going to 'the market' at 3:59PM. I was still writing out tickets at 4:05. Again, I had little idea how I stood. Turns out I'm pretty long, but I'm comfortable with that; BCE has been a tiger in the face of the Dow decline. I hear noises about the upcoming CRTC ruling--don't know what it will be, but I won't fight the tape. (25,26)
BLD: Ballard dropped $2.50 today, justifying in my mind at least the wisdom of being long premium and short stock. Didn't make much money to it, but my positions aren't yet that big. I think this will turn out to be a star performer. (44,44) (average)
N: Still nothing to report. Vol snicked up. (45,42)
All day I was thinking of something I wanted to say in response to somebody's question, but it is now lost in the mists. Couldn't have been very earth-shattering. I'll probably wake up about 3:30 going 'of course', and then forget it by 6:00AM. Oh well, I'm not getting any younger.
Happy trading.
Porter |
