Yesterday my trade was looking terrible and at one point I was down over 50% on the trade. Well today I was vindicated. The Q's and the market in general has had a nice break down and I'm taking my profits here before the weekend. The Q's have gotten down into over sold territory and I'm taking what I can.
So for recap in this trade I had 40 contracts of the Feb $29 puts on the QQQQ (QAVNC) with a cost basis of $1.00. I sold them for $1.10 which gave me a small 10% gain on this trade.
I had some fairly good timing on yesterday's trade. Well the market turned up right after I took my profits on my puts from yesterday. The Q's went back up to the top of my trend channel so I'm going to try the puts again. I'm still thinking we will see the lower $28 level sometime this week and I want to take advantage of that move. I was not going to be in the market today since I was going to be away from my trading desk. However, the recent snow storm cancelled my plans, so here I am doing another trade.
For this trade I bought 40 contracts of the Feb 29 Puts on QQQQ (QAVNC) with a cost basis of $1.00.
I decided to take my profits on my trade today at the 25% level. Not bad for a single day. The downward move today seems to have stalled as we enter the end of the day so I decided to take my profits here. I still think there is plenty of downside left in this short term move and I think we are going to retest the $27.96 level over the next couple of days. I will be away from my computer for the next couple of days, so I will just need to let the move play on without me.
For recap this trade was for 20 contracts of the Feb 29 Puts on the QQQQ with a cost basis of $1.05. I closed the trade at $1.31 for an almost 25% gain on the day.
The Q's have reached to the top of my trend channel and it looks like the move the past couple of days has reached an exhaustion point. So I'm now thinking the Q's will start to head lower from here over the next couple of days.
For this trade I bought 20 contracts of the Feb 29 Puts on the QQQQ (QAVNC) with a cost basis of $1.05. If the market continues to go higher today, I may add another 20 contracts at a lower price.
The market made a nice turn this morning and I decided to take my profits on this trade. I sold my calls for 17% gain for a one day trade.
For recap I was in 20 contracts of the Feb 30 Calls on the QQQQ (QAVBD) with a cost basis of $1.05 and I sold for $1.20 at the open.
The trading on the Q's have hit the lower end of my trading channel and I'm ready to go long for this trade. They are showing some near term support at this level and I think we head higher for the next couple of days.
So I purchased 20 contracts of the QQQQ Feb 30 Calls (QAVBD) with a cost basis of $1.05.
I just sold my Q puts for a greater than 25% profit. Looking back on this trade it appears I got in to early and was only able to get the returns on the sharp declines in the QQQQ's today. If I would have waited to buy until yesterday and would be looking at better than 50% profits.
However a profit is a profit and I would rather than 20+% gains on a regular basis.
For recap I was in 10 contracts of the QQQQ Feb 29 Puts (QAVNC) with a cost basis of $0.97 and I sold at $1.22. This represents a better than 25% gain on this trade.
At the start of the year I set out to try a little experiment. I wanted to document my trades of a $10,000 account using my swing trading methodology on options of the QQQQ's. My goal was to achieve greater than 50% returns on the account in the year. That was a very aggressive goal and I purposely set the bar high on this trading account.
One thing I learned is a year is a very long time. In the middle of the year I had to pull out some of my money and it took some time to get it funded again. I tried to track and document every trade in this account but a couple of them were to fast and furious to get listed here. Another life event was that I was laid off my day job in the middle of November. Since then I have been concentrating on obtaining new employment and not trading as much as I want.
Today I'm taking a look at my trading log and I find that I started the year in this account with $10,000. The account now sits at $12,204. That represents a greater than 22% gain for the year. That is a great return compared to a loss of 38% in the S&P500. I feel like I have done a great job with this account considering the market conditions and also the constraints on my time.
I will continue to trade and document this account on this blog as much as I can. I feel it is a great tool to help improve my trading methodology.
