17 May 2013 Trades

I generated 2.54 percent of my portfolio value from trading May options. The sharp increase from recent months is related to the volume of shares I was put last month doing well with only a few exceptions.

Shares of AKS, MT, XME, and APA were called away over the past month. Shares of CVE, DVN, NOG, and TYC will be called away at the close today. I am still holding shares of  SID, STEC, NEM, and WLT. I am being put shares of GDX, GG, and SID from May puts that expired in-the-money.

Here is what I traded today:

29 April 2013 Trades

I wiped out May spread gains with an entry mistake when establishing a bullish position in FE. I paid 41.95 for a position at 41, thus locking in a loss of .95 per share. Nonetheless, May is working out to be a good month. Anticipated gains as of now are 1.71 percent of portfolio value from trading May options and shares.

I discovered that when I thought I was selling MT calls at 12 last Monday, I was actually buying them. MT rallied meaningfully over the past week, so I sold the calls and the shares which had been put to me at 12 when April options expired.

Here are the details.

22 April 2013 Trades

After purchasing a large-for-me volume of shares based upon short puts expiring in the money, my portfolio is now leveraged 4.56 to 1. This may rise a bit higher as I exercise in the money bullish spreads to try to capture dividends over the coming weeks, but I am relatively satisfied while leverage is under 10 to 1. As of the close today, I am set to make 1.17 percent of my portfolio value from trading 26 April-May options.

I sold 26 April calls/puts where possible and will keep working with weekly options where available.

19 April 2013 Trades

I generated 0.96 percent of my portfolio value from trading April options.

Short put positions for AKS, DVN, MT, NEM, NOG, SID, STEC, WLT, and XME closed in-the-money. In addition, the April 70 calls I was short against APA shares closed out-of-the-money. I plan to sell either weekly or May calls against these shares on Monday. The NIHD shares I received from being short March calls at 5 are being called away because the shares closed today at 7.76 and I was short April calls at 5.

STEC shares were put to me at 4 on 18 April, so I sold calls today. And I jumped the gun a bit and sold WLT shares at 22.50.

28 March 2013 Trades

I am showing a gain of 4.16 percent for 2013 at the close on the last day of trading for March. This is a big rebound from the 1 percent loss I was showing at the end of 2012. I am currently leveraged at 3.47 to 1 with three weeks to go until April options expire.