Welcome to the page that discusses Put Options

I want to start this blog by telling you that I have no 1-800 number, I am not trying to sell you any newsletter with the next great stock idea. I am not inviting you to come to my house and view a cleaning agent. I will not try to sell you plastic bowls or any other ‘can’t miss’ ideas. I do not have any life changing secrets and I cannot promise you a flat stomach.



I am going to share with you my daily option moves and the reasons behind them. My way of trading options are of course not the only way to utilize Put Options. This is a way that I have found to be simple and easy and not as complicated as some make this business. My hope is that you can develop a steady stream of income and continue to enjoy your life.











Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Ideas regarding rolling up

Hi traders, a lot of talk of rolling up, out and how to take profits. First a note of caution, never forget before you roll up an option to capture a little extra profit.. You opened the first position hoping to make that money. Then things go your way and you can't wait to roll to another strike price to make more. Two things can happen...it works and you make a little more profit or.. the stock turn against you and your roll up, for a few pennies’s more cost you thousands. Be very care on these roll-ups. Try to keep in mind how happy you were to make the first profit. Try to resist the temptation of endangering 'made' profits for the little gain of rolling. I do it sometimes but generally I try to be happy with my opening position. As I have said before, most of my losses come from rolling either to high or to soon. Learn to enjoy your hard earned profits, not endangering them.

Saturday, June 25, 2011

A new week coming

Hi all, sorry for the previous long post list. I was out of town and only had a chance to peek at my positions and no time to even check the blog. I will read all of the post to see if I need to answer any questions.
Hopefully all made some money in this market. It certainly was an up and down roller coaster. All of my positions ended ok with all expiring today.
I want to remind all to be careful and leave lots of cushion for this crazy market. Stocks like PCLN (which I had over 100 positions) need plenty of extra cushion. I see one day it was up 28 pts...wow. AAPL has been a pretty good source of money (free) for the last few weeks. But don't get careless. I have not had time to look forward to the coming week. Maybe some of you posted new ideas? If so I will check them out to see if they fit my style. The last week I avoided any of the SPX OR SPY trades. Maybe they will fit nest week. Again this week I will look to start opening positions on Monday - Tuesday or better yet Wednesday, The more cushion and less time the better in this market.
Be careful with your picks as earning season is coming fast.
Jerry

Friday, June 17, 2011

wow, what a week

Hi all, I hope this finds all of you counting you win money and not adding up losses. I had one trade that seemed to be heading south and I closed it at a loss (PCLN 445/450) I would have been safe but I was leaving the computer so I bit the bullet. First loss in a while but all the others were great.
If looking for a trade next week check out AAPL 290/285 put spread. 30 pts of cush with a week to go. AAPL would have to drop an average of 6 pt a day. Not likely.
Plenty of other trades to ponder this weekend.
Good trading all

Monday, June 13, 2011

A new week ahead

Hi traders. Well most of us are scrambling around trying to find some good trades for the week ahead.
Thanks to Newport (maybe) I have opened some VECO puts for July at both the 40 and 41 strikes. A new stock for me but it looks pretty good.
I also have some spreads with NFLX and PCLN
Tomorrow maybe we can tell if the mkt is going to come back some. At this time the DOW is up a little and the NASDAQ is down some. The market is certainly in need of a positive bounce one of these days. That being said, the market will do what it does!
Trade careful and don’t try to force a trade by compromising your filters.

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

time for a new thread

Hi all, a ton of comments on the previous post. Today I was happy to see my stocks were treated ok. As I mentioned, I am liking call spreads more and more. It has not been a good market for naked puts or put spreads, Hopefully we are all safe as I know we all BELIEVE IN LOTS OF CUSHION... Right? It is one of the few ways for us, the little guys to protect ourselves. We can't out play or out guess the big boys. Also the traders that continue to bet on the big returns will make them now and then, but more often they bust out and slink away. To stay in the game it is time for caution and safety. Small crumb returns will keep you around and make you money. This is one of the more bearish markets in years. Don't fight it. Let it do what it wants to and take the opposite side. If it wants to go down, fine, we play calls. When it turns and goes up, we play puts. It is that easy.
Good trading all.

Saturday, June 4, 2011

Whew, what a week

Hi all, well the week is past and some good news and some bad. SPX was certainly a ride. It seemed that many, like me, had the spread 1300/1295. I was tempted to close mine for a small loss when the index jumped up to around 1308 late in the trading period. I held on and was rewarded by the index finishing just a fraction over 1300. Much to close for comfort!
I had many positions that were never in danger. But trading these index options you MUST leave lots of cushion.
I hope all noticed that the mkt has been down for weeks in a row. This certainly shows a trend of bearish activity. I am going to start trading more call and less put positions. Also when trading weeklies, I will wait until Tuesday or Wednesday to open new position. This market is not an easy market to plan your plays. Settle for less profit and keep the profits you have. Avoid the temptation to start thinking, 'the market is oversold', 'we have hit the resistance level' etc.
As most of you who have read my book know, I do not believe there is any consistent thing that predicts bottoms or tops or resistance levels etc. You certainly can see a trend with these things, but you can not bet the farm on these predictions.
I also recommend being careful with AAPL this week. A big conference by S. Jobs and AAPL should really bounce the stock BUT.. What if the announcement says that S. Jobs is retiring completely from AAPL and is very ill. The point is, trying to guess on these types of things can turnout either way. And guessing, if wrong can cost you.
I also would be very careful of doing plays with covered calls. You do not want to try and catch a falling knife.
And last but maybe the most important is the coming battle regarding extending the credit card that the U.S. uses to pay its bills. The government wants no restrictions on how much it can spend. As a citizen, I have to live on a budget; evidently the U.S. does not want to. I would not open positions until this is settled. The market could react severely if things do not go in a direction that stocks want it to.
Trade safe, this is a big week coming.