DEC 08 trade log

DIA,
had an iron on with a butterfly blend at the downside.
11/25 closed out the short call sides netting $63 = %20 ROR / with 8 commission ($12)= +$51
Still holding the stretched out butterfly:
+1 78 put / -1 80 put / -1 81 put / +1 83 put
for .20 debit.

XLF / XLE
ratio iron condor concept to be long one and short the other. I was still heardly bearish on XLF as it broke under 10 and thought the sell off in engergy was over done! This lead to a short put vert in the XLE mark 42.5 and a short call vert in the XLF.
trade done with 2 point spreads for a total credit of .95
11/25 update
XLF posted a 3 day rally with strong upmove, even today with the markets trading negative XLF is showing some resilience. I thought I would get out b/f losses would over take the XLE potential to still make me money overall. XLF side closed for a -$.23 loss today the XLE side is still open trading at a .33 gain.
Will continue to hold the XLE vert till it trades at .10
12/8/08 mark 46.34 XLE
xle continues up move and fills my limit .10 btc order allowing for a .48 credit gain. Overall ratio trade closed for a .25 gain or 12.5% gain. commission account for 1/2 profits at .12

qqqq
traded a ratio ic biased bearish was able to yank it b/f dec started at 50% of max credit making 64$ on 260 risk

NOV 08 trade log

IWM trade consisting of verticals in NOV and DEC relied on a bottom putting most of my risk to the downside. Meaning I skewed the trade to have less risk if IWM jumped up and more risk if it failed to the downside. Just yesterday I was mildly profitable on this trade and actually have been for the past week or so, but of course greed kept me in against my rules of not holding a postion into expiration week. For this reason the extreme fluctuations of the gama cause deltas to swing wildly. I was to close to a downside threat and today nailed me only 2 days from expiration. I had to close out with a $74 loss ($45 commissions) being that if IWM dropped anymore my losses could quickly go to 200-300!
Takaway is to plan more decisevly and not trade into expiration week. IF i closed this trade Fri. last week I would have made a small $gain.

NYX slingshot NOV08 start

+100 shares @ 25.27
+1 long JAN09 25 put @ 3.95
-2 vertical DEC08 30/35 calls @.82 (2) credit

11/19 NYX mark 21.07
NYX along with the market is taking a bath, making dramatic lows:
I rolled the -2 vertical DEC 30/35 calls down collecting .58 (2) = +$116
initiated new -2 vertical DEC 25/30 calls for .82

11/20 mark 18.67
stc -1 Jan09 25 put @8.05 for a gain of 4.10
bto +1 JAN09 20 put @4.55

11/21 mark 17.08
btc +2 verticl DEC 25/30 for .31 for a gain of .51 (2) = 1.02
sto -2 verticl DEC 17.50/20 for .94

Nov expiration status
stock has accumulated massive losses of -$820
gains on DEC and JAN short delta hedge postions = +$628
postion as of NOV is down $192
currently holding 100 shares at 25.27
-2 short DEC call verticals 17.5/20 for .94
+1 long JAN 20 put for 4.55 debit
given the proactive rolling and hedging I have avoided $800+ in losses and mitigated it to only $200, below is a P/L graph for DEC expiration.

12/10
sold the Jan 20 put to capture the remaining premium as NYX is making a move upward. pulled out 1.13 of credit = -3.42 loss
gain total is 2.86 for hedge postions with -2 vertical dec 17.5/20 calls currently at max loss of 3.12 for 2 contracts.
12/15 mark 26.54
With NYX up above my original cost I am profitable in the trade. I will initiate the sling shot again for Jan expration in the next day or so.

As of 12/30 NYX mark $24.90
my hedging has been profitable by 5.17 (including the debit from the (+1) 22.5 JAN put @ an 0.88 debit current mark .74)
my original cost basis for the 100 shares is 25.27