4/22 – Sucker’s Game

Swing trading my way to losses. What a sucker’s game directional trading is. A frickin’ sucker’s game.
RIMM – JuneSold 130/145c for a 25% loss. A bear trap that snagged me. Within seconds the price started to recover. Then fell again.
AEM – dropped below my stop, I got out, then it moved back up above my purch price.
CHD – Stopped out @ 55.72. Then it continued to fall.
The good news is that due to “Smart Trading’, selling options with non-directional strategies my acct is up nearly 2%, although evaporating as the day moves on.
TXN has run the gauntlet of earnings, and it is off today. The current breakevens remain between 28.2 and 32.15. A very nice risk reward remains, but disappointing that I didn’t cover half of the spreads at the open.
RIO – 40 calendar remains in good shape
AIG puts are looking good too. I am starting to peel them off at the 61.8% fib level. Sold May 45p @ 2.07, 2.09
A trade from the past. HON – I rolled a few, NOT enough from April to May. Now the price action on HON is mocking me. Dropping below 59, The spreads which I rolled for .95 credit (should have been all of them) are now worth .60. That would have been a nice profit rather than a fat loss. Lesson – don’t be greedy on the rolls.
XLE – as I mentioned a few days ago was a dumb entry for me. I was taking a beating on that earlier today. I had a May/Jun 77p for about 1.10. The market has moved high the past few days. The spread was as cheap as .85 this morning, and it was in a theta decay negative position. Never what I want from a calendar spread. On a below trendline break I managed to get out between 1.05 and 1.08. My loss was as much as 23%, I pared it back to just a few cents. What a goofy trade. I feel good for taking this junk off. I still have a few spreads on. I guess I caught a volatility spike in the put side. That got me out at a good price. (Huge put buying in the May XLE)
When all was said and done, I was up 1.3% on the day. I was really down on myself early, but the acct came back. I am well positioned for an up tick tomorrow.
I close out the day with:
Deltas 16.6 positive deltas (SPX weighted)
Theta 270
Vega 678
I am very pleased to be in this spot. Basically I am in good shape between 67 and 72 on the IWM which translates to 1345 and 1410 on the SPX. Ideal.