01/20/11 Market Update & Fill Report

01/20/11 Market Update & Fill Report
Market Update:
No Market Update today due to time constraints. See the BookingAlpha Update below.
Areas of support remain unchanged at S&P 1280, 1260, 1250, 1225ish, and ultimately at 1175. Resistance remains at S&P 1300 and 1310.
The world wants to know what YOU THINK about the market. Post your comments below and let’s get a good discussion going!
BookingAlpha Update:
Tomorrow’s expiration will closeout all of the open options spreads excluding the new SPY Iron Condor initiated today. We hit a high of 85% of our trading capital invested (leaving only 15% cash) earlier this week which is the maximum investment level we allow; we always maintain a 20%+/- cash reserve for adjustments or must have opportunities. We got one of the must have opportunities earlier this week with AAPL and used some of that cash reserve to pounce.
The AAPL trade will shape up to be a phenomenal success yielding almost 40% in less than a week. The stock is firming and approaching some resistance with the pullback. New spread opportunities are under review right now.
A couple positions were closed yesterday and today and we now sit at 65% invested including today’s new SPY spread. After tomorrow’s expiration, assuming no new trades are initiated, we will be at 15% invested, 85% cash.
All of the option spreads should expire for max profit tomorrow booking some great gains so far for the year. The only position requiring babysitting is the blankety-blank (“blankety-blank” is another one of my technical financial terms) ORCL call spread. Wouldn’t you know it, a 2% move on the day before expiration after 2 weeks of doing nothing?!?! We were beginning to enter the sell orders this afternoon but upon further review elected to hold off.
Such a large move for no reason feels like squaring of positions prior to OpEx. The stock shot way outside of its Bollinger Band today which usually means a little giveback tomorrow. At this point every few cents we can put back in our pocket will help so we will look to close the spread into any weakness. All in all, the debit spread hedge and other “gymnastics” worked out great and provided a great gain to offset the loss of the position. Netting the entire trade will result in a marginal loss. But I must say, my patience is thin with this damn trade and I am ready to be done with it.
Stay tuned and happy trading!
AutoTrade Fill Report:
Trade:
ORCL Debit Spread - Close
AutoTrade Broker Fill Status:
eOption: Filled
TradeMonster: Filled
OptionsXpress: Filled
InvesTrade: Filled
GlobalAutoTrade/Int. Brokers: Filled
TradeWallStreet: Filled
TradingBlock: Filled
TradeKing: Filled
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