the poor trader

Sesame Street is blowing up

duhbomb — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 03:31:17 +0000

Wow with these cute Google banners Sesame street is really gaining some adult popularity. Several people have been trying to relate the advanced psychological testing that goes into Sesame street with pop-blogging.

My Positions as of 11/11/09

duhbomb — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 07:08:07 +0000

LONG INVESTMENTS

COST/
SHARE

ORIG. COST

WS ADJ

CLOSING
PRICE

CLOSING
MKT. VALUE

SHORT TERM
GAIN/LOSS

LONG TERM
GAIN/LOSS

%
CHANGE

AMKOR TECH INC (AMKR)

300

7.2333

2,170.00

5.93

1,779.00

-391.00

-18.02

CIRCUIT CITY STORES INC (CCTYQ)

1.1350

56.75

0.0081

0.41

-56.34

-99.28

EVERGREEN SOLAR INC (ESLR)

122

2.7443

334.80

1.44

175.68

-98.00

-61.12

-47.53

CLAYMORE MAC GLOBAL SOLAR E (TAN)

10.0661

332.18

8.81

290.73

30.80

-72.25

-12.48

Total

2,893.73

2,245.82

-458.20

-189.72

-22.39

SHORT INVESTMENTS

PROCEEDS/
SHARE

PROCEEDS

WS ADJ

CLOSING
PRICE

CLOSING
MKT. VALUE

SHORT TERM
GAIN/LOSS

LONG TERM
GAIN/LOSS

%
CHANGE

CALL-AMKOR TECHNOLOGY I NOV (QELKU)

100

0.3174

31.74

0.05

5.00

26.74

534.80

Total

31.74

5.00

26.74

534.80

Resources for Covered Call Writing

duhbomb — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 06:28:19 +0000

Though my credit score is fairly good (no severe debt, no late fees or defaults) my limited liquid capital, aka my 4 figure bank account and 6 figure income (including the decimal place) does not allow me full capabilities in trading options. I suppose rightly so! Afterall uncovered call writing, with limitless loss potential and limited earnings chance, may not be the best way to gain an edge in the market. However, I was allowed covered call writing. Basically it’s a way for me to write any call I want as long as I own the underlying securites. Now that wouldn’t be too hard to do considering I have 50 shares of CCQTY (the now bankrupt Circuit City), 122 of ESLR, 60 of TAN (the global solar index ETF) and some others. Months back when I tried playing around with the options trading (carelessly) I found out 100 shares make up a contract. So basically the poor trader is pushed out of the options industry first by capital issues then by capital issues again because I cannot afford 100 shares of behemothly priced stocks like GOOG to play with its options.
The solution lies with lesser priced stocks. That’s how I made my spontaneous buy of 300 AMKR @ 7.20 several weeks ago. At the moment of my buy I could have wrote 3 call contracts for the November 7.50 strike and have made probably $180 instantly. If the stock was to rise to the strike and I were called, I’d keep my $180 and make .30c x 300 profit as well. So it was basically a win win. AMKR was going up up and away. Of course “past performance is no prediction of future results.”

To help with covered call writing: The cheap-o way, Free programs:

I found a relatively easy to use online-based covered call writing program. It is fairly basic, requiring only information about the stock symbol, buy in price, and contract. It acually pools for real quotes when making predictions so you don’t have to keep re-entering data to determine what your potential gains/losses are. The predictions are also crafty in that you can incorporate your trading commission, which of course usually amounts to a significant percentage for the poor trader.

Another cool program I found can be downloaded (Windoze Based). It comes as a fully functional trial version called Options Profit Calculator. It does not obtain real quotes so all data must be entered in by hand.

My reason for posting these two softwares, however useful/less, is that a Google or Yahoo search of almost anything stock related yields a spam overflow. Junk ads pop up everywhere with “get rich quick” schemes and “penny stocks which make millions.” Many of the options calculators I found were tied into some analyst pay site or brokerage membership.

The Job Hunt

duhbomb — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 07:43:54 +0000

10,000 and a rebounding AMKR

duhbomb — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 22:42:25 +0000

Some good news was heard in congress. Breaks for the unemployed and home buyers. The jobless can get an extra 20 weeks of unemployment. This news pushed the market to its best same day gain since this past July.

On the AMKR front both yesterday and today saw heavy buying of the stock. Up by 37 cents today @5.85.

Keep moving Keep moving!

CIT is S*IT

duhbomb — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 06:05:55 +0000

So I noticed as my AMKR plummeted at the end of last week that CIT was down about 30+%. So I figured there was a severe overselling on the companies poor reports so I got 250 shares @.78 a piece. Then I immediately sold 2 call contracts for the December $1 strike for 5 bucks a contract. I haven’t been called out but I assume I won’t have to pay a commission when that happens. So I am basically locking myself into a small profit with the stock corrects the overselling on Monday.

One small small small problem. . .

Titanic

So this morning I got out by buying back my contracts for 1 penny plus 8.50 in commission then I sold the 250 shares at a 60% loss from yesterday. :’( So much for crafty trading.

S&P DROPS ANALYTICAL COVERAGE OF SHARES OF CIT GROUP

Monday 11/02/2009 9:02 AM ET – Standard & Poor’s Research Notes

We are dropping analytical coverage of CIT Group shares. This provider of financial products and advisory services to small and middle market businesses has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

On a happier note AMKR made some ground and closed moderately strong. Closed at 5.62, +2% and reached a day high of 5.77. It also didn’t push significantly lower during the day. I originally got this stock based off of strong options. A few weeks ago the call contracts for November and December strike price 7.50 were worth close to a dollar. The stock was trading in the 5-6 dollar range so I figured I could just jump in, sell the contracts, make that money and a small profit when I’m called out.

In the end I waited until it reached 7.00 to buy in, then I waited until the call contracts jumped further in price. Then they release their flat earnings which missed the consensus by a few cents. Stock tumbled as did the tears flowing in my beer mug that night. But today’s picture was logical, happy and hopefully a sign of what’s to come.

AMKR

Up up and away... almost.

I would also like to get into covered put writing but not sure how that could be done on a limited budget. Currently my stocks are down about 25% overall. However, last year I did make some profit running wild with DDM, DXD, DUG and DIG. DXD was the best profit: got in at 38, got out at 99.

Amkor technology why oh why?

duhbomb — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 22:30:54 +0000

AMKR on Google Finance
This stock really took a hit today with the high VIX. On Wednesday the earnings report came back flat which sent this stock tumbling. I guess it was over inflated with positive expectations. Smarttrend also put it on watch back a few months ago.

What I did: Got in two weeks ago 300 shares @7.21 Cost: about $2200.

Now I’m just going to hold my breath until it comes through. I wrote 1 November contract for the 7.50 strike which earned $50 so that buffered my losses a bit.

10.30.09