Archive for June, 2007

June 2007 Options Expiry

This month was not such a good month… the market pulled back right before option expiry and forced donations. Usually if the market falls during the early part of the period, we would not have worried.

Anyways, here’s the summary
ANZ – profit $832.60
ZFX – profit $890.60 (put spread)
ZFX – profit $455.38 (naked put)
OSH – profit $2,425.5 (CFD position)
LHG – donated $2,053.60
CSR – donated $315.33
WDC – donated $3,468.80
NWS – donated $6,712.17 (From May)

This month donated $7,945.82

Effectively donated all of May & April’s profit back to the market. Three months and zero return, lucky I have a big equity buffer for time like these. Never use money you cannot afford to donate. We are in the business of making a profit, that said we need to master the art of money management.

OSH – Stopped Out

On 19th April 2007, I opened 5,500 OSH CFD @ 3.688
Few days ago I was stopped out (25th June 2007), I sold 5,500 OSH CFD @ 4.129
In total: 5,500 x $0.441 = $2,425.5
Period: 67 days (around $300 of interest)

If you are wondering why I didn’t post it 2 days ago is because I didn’t realise… I haven’t been checking my CFD positions so this one slipped my mind. I set up a trailing stop at the beginning to let my profits run and cut my losses. When I logged on today I saw a trade confirmation.

Good thing for this trade, cause it will buffer most majority of my spread donation.

Close Out – Big Drop in ASX

Closed out most of my trades today, usually i would roll them out but there hasn’t been any good news on the market for a while, also there was a near 2% drop in the All Ord today. Look at the double top and what I believe is a breakout of the support line (looking at the 3months XAO chart) Better be safe than sorry, so i’m taking my money out of the market and waiting for an signal before re-entering. If tomorrow is a down there, I am pretty sure the XAO will drop to 6000 points, ie another 3-4% drop.

XAO

Here are my trades for 27th June 2007
The Trade (WDC) – Traded on 29th May 2007
Sell Jun $21.0 Puts @ $0.445
Buy Jun $20.5 Puts @ $0.25

Closed out 27th Jun 2007
Buy Jun $21.0 Puts @ $1.05
Sell Jun $20.5 Puts @ $0.55

All up donated $3,468.80 to the market (including brokerage)

The Trade (CSR) – Traded on 26 May 2007
Sell Jun $3.47 Puts @ $0.10
Buy Jun $3.24 Puts @ $0.04

Closed out 27th Jun 2007
Buy Jun $3.47 Puts @ $0.0585
Sell Jun $3.24 Puts @ $0.00

All up donated $315.33 to the market (including brokerage) – this was more a donation to the broker

The Trade (LHG) – Traded on 28th May 2007
Sell Jun $3.07 Puts @ $0.105
Buy Jun $2.83 Puts @ $0.035

Closed out 27th Jun 2007
Sell Jun $3.07 Puts @ $0.16
Buy Jun $2.83 Puts @ $0.015

All up donated $2,053.60 to the market (including brokerage)

All up donated $5,837.73 to the market today, I still have 2 positions for tomorrow that should go through safely and buffer some of this donation.

NWS – Close Out

The Trade (22nd June 2007)
Buy May $29.5 Puts @ $1.525
Sell May $29.0 Puts @ $1.03
Share/Contract = 500

It cost me $0.495 * 28 Contracts = $6,930

  1. Initially I received $1,350.0
  2. It cost me $3,900 to close the trade
  3. I rolled out and received $3,710.0
  4. Now i’m closing out for $6,930

This ended up being a donation of $5,770 (before brokerage)

After Brokerage this trade donated $6,712.17

I choose not to roll this position today, even though NWS is trading at its support levels and should bounce back. I am currently cautious of the All Ords as it is forming a potential double top pattern. Seems to be some resistance around 6,400 points.

Anyways, interesting to see how this strategy works… This strategy is better in a bullish/neutral market (preferably bullish) this way your written puts will always expire and you will make 20-30% return easily per month. If one of your position doesn’t perform good, you could potentially wipe out the profits for the month. i.e. no cashflow for the month. Will update on my wealth dynamic profile and how I may need to modify my strategy to get myself more into my flow

JBM

This is one of the best position i’ve opened for a bull put spread ever (Opened it almost 10% out of the money, ie. the stock can fall 10% over the next 30days and i’ll still be safe!!) Broker called me yesterday to put this one in… was trying to get me in at 16/15.5 for 10-11c (which was pretty good). That said, I didn’t get filled for it, today he gave me another call and said I migh be able to get in at 15.5/15 for 10c (thats 50c lower for approximately the same return!)

Check this out! I was the only guy today who managed to get the 15.5/15 bull put spread, the 10 contracts on the 15 exercise price volume was me!

JBM

Reason
Anyways, to the important bit. JBM has been channelling for the past 3-4 months and today just happen to be at the support. So firstly there’s strong support at $17, secondly there’s more support at $16, thirdly I managed to write the $15.5 puts which means i’m almost 10% out of the money! thats insane! I’ve never opened a position so far out of the money and received decent premiums.

The Trade (JBM) – Traded on 21st June 2007
Sell Jul $15.50 Puts @ $0.31
Buy Jul $15.00 Puts @ $0.21

Expiry = 26/07/2007
Share/Contract = 1000
Max Profit = 0.10 (0.31-0.21)
Max Risk = 0.40 [(15.5-15.0) – (0.32-0.21)

Return on Risk = 25%
Breakeven = $15.40

I opened 10 contracts:
Reward for trade (excluding fees) $1,000.0
Reward for trade (including fees) $790.6
Value At Risk: $4,000 (not including brokerage etc)

ZFX

Looking for positions to open for my CFD account these pass few days. Bouncing between ZFX, BHP, PLF and a few others… decided to go back with ZFX, the PE ratio on this thing is still low and they have 1/4 of their asset value in CASH, which they will be buying lots mines and what not

Reason
BHP has runned quite a bit, looking at the weekly chart its trading 2 weeks outside the bollinger bands (ie, it should technically be pulling back soonish… unless it has a lot more steam. That said, i doubt it because BHP has move quite vertical.

similar to BHP, ZFX is on a breakout grade, today most of the resources had a pull back. ZFX has ample support at $18, $17 & $16 (ie. its going to be quite hard to fall without bouncing back) The plan is to set a trailing stop loss starting from around $18 – a set and forget strategy, similar to what i’m doing for OSH.

The Trade (20th June 2007)
Buy 1,500 ZFX @ $19.095 ($28,642.5)
Margin Required: $2,8642.5 (10%)

RIN Arbitrage Trade

This is an interesting one… (GIFT FROM GOD)

Dear All,

Every client should be buying 2000 RIN today.

Our MD, Lance Rosenberg is going to fully finance your entry (you don’t need to have one cent in your account).

We buy the RIN shares below $19.00 in your account and then immediately accept the $19.50 offer from Cemex. The takeover is now unconditional.

This trade has been guaranteed by our MD, so it is free money! You should make around $400-$450 (after all costs) in one month.

It doesn’t get any better than this!

The Trade (18th June 2007)
Buy 2000 RIN @ $18.81 (-$37,620)
Accept Cemex Offer to buy 2000 RIN @ $19.50 (+$39,000)

Abritrage $0.69 Per share! Profit ($1,380)

PS: I have to hold this stock for about 1 month or so while CEMEX buys them off me, the interest is ~$300-$400 for a month (100% finance)
PSS: I DID NOT use any of my money! Tricom are pretty nice, they lent me all the money. (obviously Tricom made $300-400 in interest out of everybody. That said, everybody would have made ~$1,000 for doing nothing)

I was actually thinking of doing this trade before but didn’t want to tie down so much money for a month on a zero risk low return trade. Obviously, since Tricom is lending me the money things change! Only a fool would say NO to free money! Most people would most probably think this is too good to be true and won’t do it… thats why they miss out!

You are only allowed to do 2000 stock at the guarantee price of $19.50 as specified on the cemex website

That said, will let you guys know how long I have to wait and the interest + brokerage I need to pay to do this trade, hopefully come out for $800-$1000 for doing nothing!

NVDA

Looking at the stock screen NVDA came up again with one of the highest covered calls premium, GE and a few others were pretty high too, that said I decided to go with NVDA since this stock is on steroids! Firstly, NVDA is trading in “blue sky” territory, ie. its never been over $40 before in its life, from the chart it looks like a breakout. There a few point of support line at just below $38 from the previous top from Mid December 2006. I was in this trade last month and it’s been good to me so I’ll stick for it another 32 days and see how it goes.

Reason:
Same as last month, NVDA is a profitable company following the fundamental rules, profits rising, revenue rising, good quick ratio, good return on equity etc. Its trading relatively close to the support lines ($38) and will only require a 2 months of renting shares to get well below the ’safe’ zone (ie. below the last support levels).

The Trade (18th June 2007)
Shares/Contract = 100
Expiry: 20th July 2007
Buy 500 NVDA @ $39.91 ($19,955)
Sell 5 NVDA 40 Calls @ $1.76 ($880)

Net Cost/Breakeven Point: $38.15
Premium: 4.4% ($1.76/$40)

Found out today Etrade does not let you write covered calls on margined stocks. How not good is that!

virtualbu_125×125

NVDA

Got assigned on my NVDA

The Trade (1st June 2007)
Shares/Contract = 100
Buy 500 NVDA @ $34.93 (-$17,465)
Sell 5 NVDA 35 Calls @ $0.85 (+$425)
NVDA closed @ 34.88 on this day

I was exercised/assigned (15th June 2007)
Sell 500 NVDA @ $35 (+$17,500)
NVDA closed @ 39.55 on this day

Net Transactions: -$17,465+$425+$17,500 = $460
Brokerage = $14.95 * 3 + $0.27 + $0.01 = $45.13

Net Profit = $414.87

Money in trade: $8,520
ROI: $460/$8,520 = 5.4% (before brokerage & fees)

Some of you may be wondering I could have sold the stock for 39.55 and made $2,335 ($4.67*500). The answer to this question comes in a form of a question. “When you open a trade, how do you know what is going to happen in 15 days?”. What I effectively did was sell away my future profits which i may or may not have on the 15th June but definitely did not have on the 1st June 2007 to somebody for 85c

Anyways, now i’ve got cash… i’m going to look for a stock to do the same thing again. 5.4% return is pretty damn good in 15 days. If you guys want something safer than this try the TeleNet Saver accounts its currently Australia’s highest interest earning internet savings account @ 6.8 pa for the first 12 months. I highly recommend this if you have spare money and have no idea what to do with it!

For me i prefer 5-6% per month (60% – 72%pa) Just a little bit better than normal savings account!

Question and Answer

Prateek Shuklaon 12 Jun 2007 at 9:43 pm
Hi,

Can you suggest any books that give may be helpful for someone like myself who would like to get into trading but has never done this before, something that gives a complete guide to products, markets, instruments as well as strategies.

thanks

PS

Hi Prateek,

This is how I started my wealth creation path: What I Didn’t Learn At School But Wish I Had

If you are more interested in technical books, during my university studies in derivatives investment strategies I used, An Introduction to Derivatives and Risk Management – Don M. Chance… This is a very DEEP book and have most of the advaced strategies but not all, I think after reading this book you will be confused and very afraid of trading options because its very theory based and not very practical (ie. it does not teach you how to make money from applying the strategies, it teaches you that its risky to make money)

optionsXpress has pretty good information on basic options with examples, surprisingly, they also have advanced strategies although you have to open an account… the good thing is that its FREE to open an optionsXpress account! Note: They close your account after a few months if you don’t put money in it though…

virtualbu_125×125

To do what i’ve done, I didn’t read uni books… i google most of it, attended seminars and studied from home study materials. If you are really serious, I higly recommend Mastery of Stock Market Intelligence It will teach you all about options, how to draw trend lines, how to rent shares, sell insurance from anywhere in the world where you have a computer and internet.

I hope this was helpful, I personally had to unteach myself a lot of information that was taught to me during my derivative units at uni. The books didn’t teach anything about margin requirements that is used in real life and it taught me you can’t make lots of money because it would mean you are taking high risk.

eg. If a share is $10 and you only had $10 you would be able to buy 1 stock, and risking $10 and you are praying it goes up. Instead I go to the market and buy insurance on the stock for 25c, I could buy insurance for 40 stocks risking $10, then borrow $400 to buy 40 stocks fully insured and rent them out at 40c making $16 minus interest of $4 (12%pa) i have very minimal risk and double my bank in 1 month using extreme leverage and risk management. The most important point in this example is that I only need $10 to do both strategy! (There’s different wants to get leverage, ie using the same money to get more… ie. same risk more money)

They don’t teach you that in a book! You go to seminars to learn these things or learn from people who are doing it… once you find your network of options trader/writers you will get invited to many seminars/events that teaches you how to make more money with what you got… I think this is the reason why the rich get richer… i guess bird of a feather flock together. I find it difficult telling people about what I do especially when i’m quoting 20-30% a month or 100% a year return, they just call me crazy, that i’m an idiot for trying, i’m going to lose all my money one day and my favourite… what i’m doing is worse than gambling. Nowadays, I don’t waste my time telling them the details, they can ask me if they are interested.

PS: the above example requires portfolio margining aka the greatest thing that ever happened in the world!

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