2011

Spread Account and Profit Tent Portfolio™ Monthly Results for 2011

This page is where the rubber meets the road. Below you will find my monthly results for both the Spread account and the Profit Tent Portfolio™ account. Both of these accounts show the gain on risk, and not the total gain of each account. Generally, each account only has 20% of the total balance at risk for any given month. Based on that, the gain will look quite impressive.

At the bottom of the page, you will find a bar chart that I call The Option Guru versus the S&P 500. In that illustration you will see the total gain on each account compared to the gain of the S&P 500 for each month and Year-to-Date..

It’s not my intention to beat the S&P each month, but I do intend to beat it for the year. My primary goal, however, is to provide enough low risk income to supplement my retirement and live happily ever after. Isn’t that all any of us want?

◄Jeff ►

▬▬▬▬  Spread Account  ▬▬▬▬

Spread December 2011 Final

Spreads Closed for August 2011

Spreads Closed for July, 2011

Spreads for June - Final

Spread Trades - May Final

As of market close 5/4/2011

Spread Account for March, 2011 (click to enlarge)

Spread Account for February 2011 (click to enlarge)

Spread Account - January 2011 (click to enlarge)

 

▬▬▬▬  Profit Tent Portfolio™  ▬▬▬▬

 

  • Closed PTP™ for September 2011
  • Profit Tent Portfolio™ Final for July 2011

PTP™ final results for June, 2011

PTP­™ MAY Closed

Profit Tent Portfolio™ for April, 2011 (click to enlarge)

Profit Tent Portfolio™ for February, 2011 (click to enlarge)

Profit Tent Portfolio - January 2011 (click to enlarge)

 

 

 

 

  • Gary Tarantino

    Hi Jeff ,I am very new to options and I think that your site and the vidoe’s you post areabsolutely great and have helped me tremendously ,I have been trading Fx for a couple of years now and I must say that options seem like a sleeping dog compared to actively trading fx ,my question Jeff is ,when I open a position in fx ,I never risk more than 2% of my capital per trade ,with a anticipated gain of anywhere froo 2-4% what is your advise in options because I see that profit outweighs maximum loss nnGary

    • http://theoptionguru.com/blog Jeff W

      Gary,nnThanks for the compliments. It makes me feel good when I am able to help someone, even if just a tiny bit.nnI’ve traded a lot of products – FX being one of them – but I couldn’t seem to make money on it. Since you have been doing it a couple of years, I assume you are doing OK.nnMy risk on a per-trade basis is never more than $1,500, which is about 2-2.5% of my account total. Since I have multiple trades open at any one time, my rule is never more than 20% total risk at an one time.nnWhen I open Credit Spreads my theoretical risk is much higher than other spread types. That’s why I have been leaning towards Butterflys, since they are usually a debit (when placed OTM on a momentum trade that translates to cheap) and the return is sometimes 4-5 times the cost. This also allows me to have more trades open and thus spreading my risk out. Conversely it means monitoring more positions. You can never get something for nothing, unless you are the US Treasury ;) nnu25c4Jeff u25ba

  • Marek

    Hi Jeff, nnfirst of all thank you for your highly informational blog. I am currently just wondering about the spreadsheets above, specificially two lines don’t make sense to me – in February spreads you have an AAPL spread which you finish in -132.5% gain, how is this possible (I mean a loss more than 100% of risk) ? Also at the same sheet you have a NFLX debit spread which you open at -$324, close at $182 and yet you have a positive $142 result.nI admit I am a newbie at options so perhaps I am asking an obvious thing but I would appresiate your answer. Thanks.

    • http://theoptionguru.com/blog Jeff W

      Merik,nnI think I should hire you to screen my spreadsheets. After looking at them for a few hours, everything starts to run together.nnYou found 2 legitimate mistakes. I was messing with the Net Gain Column today and that was the cause of the NFLX boo-boo. AAPL was my eyes going cross-eyed and has been corrected.nnThank you for finding them for me. I have corrected them.nnWelcome to the world of options. I hope you learn faster and cheaper than I have. Finally, after almost 10 years, it’s making some nice profit for me. Be patient, and practice a lot. Stick to your plan, and if you don’t have one – make one.nnu25c4Jeff u25ban

  • Flashgordon1222

    What would happened if the market move +5 or more points on you spy delta neutral, would you close all positions and do calendard spread or just add additional calandar spread?

    • http://theoptionguru.com/blog Jeff W

      Mr. Gordon,nnNormally I would add a Calendar, depending on the IVs of the months for the strikes I am looking at. I usually don’t close one type of spread and open another – I have been whipsawed plenty on those kinds of moves in my trading career. A lot depends on how well I can increase the base of my Profit Tent and how much it will cost. If I end up losing sleep, I just close the whole thing and move on.nnu25c4Jeff u25ban

  • Kyle

    Inspirational. Thanks!nWondering what you do with the other 80% of the money in the accounts? Do you just park it in cash or is it working for you in a different way? I am in Canada and finding a no fee money market with easy in and our priveleges for money that isn’t being used for a trade with a decent (~1%) interest was doable, but in looking for the same for my US dollar account…no such luck. Any suggestions?

    • http://theoptionguru.com/blog Jeff W

      Kyle,nnI just let it sit in my trading account. TOS doesn’t offer any sort of MM that pays interest. I’m not that interested anyway. Heck, if I gain a min average of 2% per month on the entire account, why would I worry about getting another 1% per year? Seems like chump change.nnOn the other hand, this is only about 10% of my total reserves. The remainder is in an annuity that guarantees 3.4% per year.nnJeff