2012

Spread Account and Profit Tent Portfolio™ Monthly Results for 2012

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 monthly 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.

Then, to be fair and honest, you’ll also find a table at the bottom of each account showing the gains on the entire account, as a percentage and as each performs against the S&P 500.

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  ▬▬▬▬

▬▬▬▬  Profit Tent Portfolio™  ▬▬▬▬

  • Barbara

    Jeff, Thanks for  your answer. I tend to be all over the board with my trading and am  trying to develop a system which works for me. I like your idea  of having guidelines rather than hard rules.

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

      Barbara,

      Good. Just make sure you document them, so you know where to go back to if things go wrong.

      Happy Trading
      ◄Jeff►

  • Barbara

    Thanks Jeff for all your work and ideas you share. Similar to the 10 am SPY trade, do you use the PPS as a signal for putting on all your spreads?

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

      Barbara,

      Thanks for your support and comment. I use other indicators for my decision making in my everyday trades. Moving averages for trend indications, and PPS, candle formations, Stochastics, MACD for entry points. It’s all very complicated and fluid. I don’t have a set of hard rules, but rather guidelines.

      Happy Trading
      ◄Jeff►

  • Michael

    You mentioned in one of your videos that TOS does not charge a commission on an option trade if the price is at or less than $0.05.  Can you confirm and further explain this?  ie if I close a bearish call spread at $0.05 there is no commission?

    Thanks.

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

       Michael,

      Nothing better than a picture. The secret is to only buy back the short and not sell the long strike. There is no need to sell the long since it’s probably not worth anything anyway. As my proof, you can see my account statement from 2/29 when I bought back my short on FSLR. Yes, there is a small exchange fee, but no commissions. In this trade, at 1.25/option commission, I would have paid 6.25 – a nice savings.

      You can also call or check the web site. The father’s of TOS wanted traders to have the ability to reduce their risk for little cost in these situations. My hats off to them. By the way, Interactive Brokers has a similar deal, but not as nice (reduced commission) – but at least it’s something.

      ◄Jeff►

  • Michael

    Weekly Bearish Call Strategy – I have a bearish call spread on SPY for Feb 134/132 with a net credit 1.40.  Another on IWM for the Feb 82/80 with a net credit of 1.30.  Finally on the SLV for Feb 32.5/31.5 with a net credit of 0.68.  Used 5 contracts on each.  All of these expire after 4pm tomorrow.  Any thoughts or opinion on these  prior to expiration?

     Thanks.

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

      Michael,

      Unfortunately, all 3 are currently In The Money (ITM), meaning you will be assigned on your short positions. Depending on your broker, they may also exercise the long strikes that are ITM (depends on how the day ends tomorrow and what the closing prices are). So it ‘may’ be that there is nothing for you to worry about EXCEPT: 1) assignments (depending on your broker) could cost you extra commissions and 2) your long strikes may not end up ITM and you would be left holding the ETFs.

      The best thing to do is to just take your loss and close them out tomorrow before the market closes or right after it opens, depending on which way the market seems to be headed (up, close them right away; down, wait until the PM to close.

      ◄Jeff►

      • Michael

         I use Think or Swim.

        Thank You!

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

          Michael,

          All the more reason to close your positions today. If one of the strikes are ITM, you will be charged a $15 exercise commission and you will end up with the underlying. If they are both ITM, you will be charge $30 and will also take the max loss and not own the underlying.

          ◄Jeff►

  • Johnds01

    I can’t access callwriter.com, emails are bouncing back.  Has callwriter cease operating?? Does anyone know what is going on?
    thanks

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

      John,

      It’s a mystery to many of us.

      ◄Jeff►

  • Leelee33802

    Does anyone know?  Has callwriter.com gone out of business? thanks

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

      Lee,

      I had a call in to My Brasher a few weeks ago. Repeated attempts to get a call back have failed, even though the number(s) are still working. Since it was pretty much a one-man operation, I hope that he is not ill. When I find out, I will post and let everyone know.

      ◄Jeff►