So far for December Expiration, my legging-in on Iron Condors is paying off. And entering early will also give me the opportunity to capitalize on the time decay over this long weekend. Volume should be very low on Wednesday and the half-day of trading on Friday.
I did enter 2 new positions yesterday: AFL and XLB in my account (detail on In Play tab). Both are Bear Call spreads as leg 1 of a planned Iron Condor and both are already collecting Theta.
In my Conservative Account I entered a Cash Secured Put on NYX today. I have many fundamental reasons for wanting to own this stock, and by selling a 25 Put my cost basis for entry in January (if Put the stock) will be 23.88 – which is very near the most recent low in July (23.81).
November expiration was overall a success with a total realize gain of $2,194. The following were closed or expired profitably: IYR, IWM, RIMM, AMZN, JPM, NOV, SPY, FSLR, PCLN (Straddle) and AFL (Iron Condor).
The following were closed for a loss: GS (although waiting would have worked out), WYNN and GOOG. I attempted to make adjustments to GOOG with some success. I sold a Bull Put spread (turning it into an Iron Condor) and with that credit I bought some Calls. The result was turning a $2,600 loss into a $1,196 loss.
Considering that almost all my positions were Bearish and the S&P 500 is up 6.4% so far this month – I feel I did quite well. About ½ the positions were entered during the slight pullback in late October.
This is Thanksgiving week in the US.
This year I am thankful for a healthy family and many close friends. I pray for all those who are not so fortunate and may be ill, unemployed, or just plain lonely. Between now and Christmas I will be spending some time at my local food bank doing what I can for those less fortunate.
So this is my last post until next week. I am going to take the rest of this week to spend with family and friends and eat lots of food. I will be making what I call Jeff’s Chipotle Chili on Friday – and event that everyone in my family always looks forward to. It’s a recipe that I found on the Internet a while back and spent 3 years modifying into my very own.
- Jeff
