Options Expire tomorrow and this round of Options (both calls and puts) have hammered me into oblivion. I had somewhat of a decent account level (relative). However, a couple of my picks earlier this month worked against me and I did NOTHING to stop it. Why? I thought that “it would turn around” and “it HAS to retrace”. Nope. Now a couple THOUSAND dollars poorer, I am sitting here rubbing my last dollars together.
The plan? Learn from my mistakes.
The first problem is that I didn’t put ENOUGH credence into my own research. I kinda took some experts opinion, looked at the chart and said… “Yeah, that looks good enough” and BOOM. I was in…
Which brings me not Not Diversified enough. Seems that I was trying to Short some financial and the Solar Stocks at a time when neither WANTED to be shorted. Oi! The big problem with the financials is that the two positions (LEH and MER) both moved together… so neither one of them did well. Actually, LEH did make some money but MER was a complete loss.
Then there was FSLR. Yeah… It’ll stop at 200. WRONG! It’s hanging out at 300 now. Complete Loss. Although I did make some money during the climb, I held onto the put because… I was stupid too.. Actually, it was a lack of Trading Plan for this position. No plan going in, No plan going out. Loss.
Now, I am keeping my portfolio alive with some Spreads right now. 2 expire on Friday for modest gains EBAY and SPY. Both are safe at this point. SPY has about a $1 worth of room and EBAY has about $1.50. Looks like the GOOG had good earning since it’s up 65 points shortly after hours.
