Jay's option trading journal

[jayh]

Jay

Which Alert service are you subscribing to ?? they seem to offer 4 different systems?

thanks

Yeah, they've increased to 4 or 5 now. I'm subscribed to universal and earnings. I just bought the etf option.....they made a killing in their performance for that new service. Looks like they hit some 200% gains in DIA puts and SRS calls. So I just subscribed to that service too at $89 a month. I'll let you know how that one goes.

As for yesterday, I closed my 10 JPM puts at $1.07 for a loss of ($270). Still holding everything else I posted yesterday or the day before can't remember lol. Memory loss I guess.

 

[marty]

-Thanks Jay. Looks like the sort of service that you could put , say 10-20% of your total trading capital with. Whilst you might make 200% , you could probably loose >50% of your capital too. How do yo manage trade size , say if you have $10K in your account , how much do you put on each trade??

thanks

Marty

 

[jayh]

Well, I started with $20,000 in September and have used about 10% or less. I just looked back at my account and I used about $1500 on some trades and about $2200 on others. I only used over $4000 like twice, so nothing over 20% per trade. I think its more towards 5-15% depending on how I like their trade. They do give a capital recommendation per trade in each email. On their earning, I think they recommend using like 5-6% maximum. On the universal trades, they post a 10% max per trade on the update page. I'm not sure about the other services, but I will check. If I had $10,000 I'd be using $1000 or less per trade. I might even do $500 on some trade I feel could be a bit risky.

As for today, I picked up 10 GE Feb. 13 calls at $1.39. I still have 6 IBM and 6 DNA calls opened along with the 8 RIG puts and 10 CSX calls. Jay.

 

[marty]

Thanks Jay- yes small trade size would be the way to go. I am thinking of trying the eft and climax series which are less volatile (i emailed them). They have had a very good start with the EFT series sofar.
Re your $20,000 intial capital , what is the current balance approximately??

thanks

Marty

 

[jayh]

The 10 CSX puts I bought at $1.75, I sold yesterday at a nice $3.50 for a gain of $1,720.

Open positions:
10 GE Feb. calls bought at $1.39, closed at $1.22 -$170
6 IBM Feb. calls bought at $2.60, closed at $1.20 -$840
6 DNA Feb. calls bought at $2.75, closed at $0.95 -$1,080
8 RIG Feb. puts bought at $2.90, closed at $3.50 $480

This is the $20,000 account I started back in September. It has grown to this current level of $65,033 (it includes the losses on those open trades too). I've tripled my account through their universal and earning trades. I'm hoping to increase my account over $100,000 as I'm subscribed to their etf options too now, and I saw their good start on that series. Jay.

 

[jayh]

I closed IBM calls and closed GE calls. I got a gain of $240.10 for IBM calls and a loss of -$450.00 for GE calls. Now at $66,433.10.

 

[jayh]

I sold DNA calls for a loss of ($1,019.90). I sold RIG puts at $1.80 for a loss ($909.90). They had SYNA calls and GOOG calls for earnings last Thursday and I was able to make a nice gain of $460.10 on GOOG calls and $820 gain on SYNA calls. So I made back some of the losses. My gains are now at $6,570.80.

 

[jayh]

I also have these positions open:
7 DIA calls bought at $2.94
10 AMZN calls bought at $2.49
20 BAC calls bought at $0.68
5 POT calls bought at $1.85
10 JPM calls bought at $0.89
6 PCLN calls bought at $2.60

With these trades, I have about $9,283 invested. Jay.

 

[marty]

Hi Jay

What brokerage do you pay on your options contracts??

thanks

 

[marty]

sorry , one other question - are all of the trades entered at market open , or do you enter intra day??

 

[jayh]

Hi Jay

What brokerage do you pay on your options contracts??

thanks

I use Online Options, Stock and Futures Investing at optionsXpress, and I pay about $14.95 per trade on commission for 9 contracts or less. At 10 or more, they charge $1.50 per contract. And I do most of my trades during the day. I guess the advantage is that I get to wait for a better price. You might want to try out their Climax series. I believe they give us like a 2-3 day time period to get into a trade. I think it's the same with the etf options too, but the etf options are front or back month options, where as the climax trades have been 3-6 months out. I held an ACM April call back in November and closed out this month from their climax series, so expect some long term holds.

 

[jayh]

I also bought 10 NFLX Feb. 32.5 calls at $1.50 and 10 VMW Feb. 22.5 at $1.70 calls yesterday. I also sold 10 BAC calls yesterday at $0.84 and made about $20 of that trade.

 

[jayh]

Since last post, lots of selling has been going on for me. I closed 10 NFLX calls at $3.20 for gain of $1,670, closed VMW calls at $1.05 for loss ($680). Also closed 7 DIA calls for gain $467, 10 JPM calls for gain of $1,110, 10 BAC calls for a gain of $570. Gains were $9,709.80. Still have PCLN, AMZN, and POT calls opened, and I also bought 10 QQQQ calls at $1.81.

 

[wuming79]

Hi Jay, I started trading options 3 months ago and I have all my entries and exits recorded in excel. But I think it's difficult to record different strategies on excel without changing the formulas constantly. Do you encounter this problem too? I trade straight calls straight puts, Credit and debit Spreads and Iron Condors.