This is a late post as I was out of town and didn't have Internet access when the trade was closed out. On Wednesday 1/12/11 I closed my short JAN 123 ZB Calls for '080 each. Entry points were 1'140 and 0'510, cost average of 1'010, profit is $1758. I closed these out for a combination of reasons. The first is I locked in 89% of the profit with 10 days left until expiration so the remaining risk (unlimited) wasn't worth the potential remaining reward ($250). The second is that if I've been right about this being in a consolidation range as I previously posted here http://inthemoneytrades.blogspot.com/2011/01/bond-volatility-still-paying-off.html#links, then it makes more sense to short the underlying rather than wait for these calls to completely expire. The gains I locked in today took 13 and 24 days respectively to accrue on the two short Calls. Had I shorted the underlying contract instead, those gains could have been had in hours as my timing on both turned out to be right.
Many of you have been reading this blog may have noticed that my blogging frequency has increased over the past few weeks as I got short the market. As you can imagine I am down money since getting short the market, this is the time when most people pull away from posting. But my goal is to stay active and involved and show you that trading is not always rainbows and butterflies. It is times like these that the things I have been sharing over the past couple of weeks are so important. You need to trade small relative to your account. I have a decent short position in the market and my portfolios are set up to make some awesome returns if we finally turn lower. But something I would like to point out is that my account is 70% Cash. I learned a long time ago how important it is to live by the rules you preach. Because of my discipline I am able to continue to hold my positions, I have time and capital on my side. I can't stress enough how important it is not to get to big....

Comments
Post a Comment