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Always do what you are afraid to do. Ralph Waldo Emerson |
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Trades May 3-7
www.MarkJessing.com
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| Home Trading Checklist Trend Trading Rules Understanding Options BetterTrades.com |
| Page updated May 9 Follow me on Facebook Note that this is just my logbook, not my advise to you. (Nobody needs my help to loose money.) |
Chart program that I use sold by: Better
Trades originally written by Genesis. My broker is OptionsXpress for now, but I may go to Options House later. |
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| Total May 3-7 (multiply
by the number of shares you trade) ISRG -$4.87 NEM -$0.90 AAPL +$10.83 Total +$5.06 |
Previous Week's Trades Up $6.62
(multiply by the number of shares you trade) These are all May expiration: AAPL $260 calls AAPL $250 calls A $35 calls bought $11.77 bought $10.10 bought $2.00 sold $10.80 sold $19.22 sold $2.12 bought $11.90 Total +$9.12 Total +$0.12 sold $10.25 Total -$2.62 |
| ... | The equity chart looks good. OptionsXpress sends me an Email every night with my current positions and balance, so I put it into Excel to track my performance. |  |
| .. | As of the opening bell, Mon I was
totally cash. I
had fun this week, but sure wish I had gotted back into ISRG puts a
third time - but I TRY to never chase a stock. Great week trading AAPL,
but I rolled to Jun a bit too early. I won't roll in a single
order next time, but plan to wait an hour or so to buy in major market
moving period. NEM calls down a tiny bit, but they should take off soon. Bummer that I got whipsawed for 90 cents the first hour. Hoping to see SNDK go as well. ISRG! Arrr!
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| .... | I'm flying
home for the weekend, so probably no updates until Mon afternoon, but
I'll be on Facebook. Friday before the bell 14 days until expiration - Now entering "Theft Mode" (Thank you Darlene for teaching that) Now trading Jun expiration. "When the VIX is high, time to buy" and after yesterday, the VIX is REAL high, so I'm shopping for calls. I didn't like how CAT didn't quite recover yesterday, so I'm canceling that order. I like BIDU and K, but I like SNDK and NEM better because they bounced off of the 20ema.  I want to see the first 30 min of trading, but I'm placing an order for the Jun $41 SNDK calls to trigger at $42.14 and will put the stop under Thursday's open.  This is what I love to see after a down day; You wouldn't even know that Thursday was a big selloff from this chart. MAs bullish, bounce off of the 20ema and it almost tagged the 50ema, so there's no reason to fun it down. I've got an order in to buy the $52.50 Jun calls at $54.78 but I may jump in early if it opens down this morning, so no 30 min delay on this order. NEM also an excellent delta and a tiny 5 cent spread. Update 1 hour after the bell--> Got whipsawed on NEM calls just after the open, but got back in after the reversal. Cost me 90 cents. I may quit buying during the first hour.  Will anyone get bent out of shape (except me) if I say ISRG! one more time? I'm switching to Jun, but the put order is still at $357.67 with the stop still at $361.67 |
| .... | Thur after the bell Frikin' ISRG fell today, without me, but I missed it twice so I just stuck with AAPL. CAT didn't go up, of course but I did ok with AAPL. I could have done a better job rolling down, but still came out with over $4 profit overnight, making back some of the losses on ISRG chop....and then some.
 And here is ISRG! After hitting my stop twice yesterday! Arrrrr! (I guess I should'a, could'a, would'a got back in if, if, if )  |
| ..... | Thur an hour before the
bell ISRG just chewed me up yesterday with the whipsaws at the high of the day. Like Ed Seycota says, "The only way to avoid whipsaws is to quit trading." I got in and out twice at a cost of just over $2 each time, so I guess my stops were just too tight. With that long tail on the bottom, it looks like it wants to fill the gap, so I'll put an order in half way up to get back in, but with the $360 puts so that I stay in the money. AAPL entry was much better, as I DID set the entry half way up the gap (but I kind'a expected a bounce). I think that the pattern on A is not clear, so its off my list. I looked at CSCO calls, but I don't like the long tails. CAT has a much more "behaved" look, and it had a nice clear long tail doji at the 50ema yesterday, so I'm putting an order in for calls on CAT today. So here are my trades yesterday (still trading May):
 Well I'm going to give this sorry dog one more chance to hunt, (then I may shoot it). I have an order in to buy the $360 puts, but not valid the first 30 min of trading (so I can cancel it is things are 'weird'). I'll put the stop in at $361.87 as shown above.  AAPL was ok on the close, but it may want to take a run at testing resistance around $258 (the green line above). If it happens to take out my stop and then fall below $256, I'll forgive that and get back in. (Man, I don't want to do the ISRG thing of in and out again).  Here is the new one today. Put in an order to buy the May $65 calls (not valid the first 30 min) at $67.63 and will put the stop at $65.56. I'll re-evaluate the trade if it hits that. |
| .... | Wed just after the open:
 ISRG just met my entry, but I did the $350 puts instead, since it gapped down so far. I paid $11.99. The stop just above today's high/open at $352.08. --> 10:40am update...ISRG hit the stop and sold at $9.41 and then rolled over. I got back in for $11.10 and put the stop at $353.27 --> Lunchtime update...ISRG stopped me out again. Can't watch it, gotta run to back work. (I'm so glad that I stopped out of AAPL and A calls. Just look at them fall.)  AAPL just formed an "Island Top" this morning. I set an order to buy the May AAPL $260 puts to trigger at $254.90 and will put a stop above $257.00 if the order fills. Lunchtime update...AAPL puts got filled at $9.43. Placed stopp at $259.93. Wed before the open: |
| .... | I'm
all cash now, after AAPL missed my entry by 25 cents and A hit
the
stop at lunchtime yesterday, a time that I usually like to get in (not
out!). My trade entry yesterday on AAPL was fine,
but my
calls on A triggered on the open because I didn't set the "order not
valid until 10am est" as I usually do. Now I'm not really interested in
it unless it takes out yesterday's high. More on that below.
Here are yesterday's trades: AAPL $250 calls A $35 calls bought $14.24 bought $1.73 sold $13.75 sold $1.11 Total -$0.49 Total -$0.62 Sadly, my ISRG trade didn't fall and trigger. What's up with that? Both the Qs (Nasdaq) and the S&P were falling like a rock, but oh no, not the one I had the order to sell...there must be somethng going on there, but I'll leave the order where I had it and wait until Friday to cancel it. For now, I'm looking for 2 more put trades to place. My "short list" at the moment is CSCO, ANF, MA, KSS, EOG and BBT.  Order to buy May $35 calls on A at $36.43 (NOT valid the first 30 min - grrrrr). If it doesn't bounce today, all bets are off on the calls. The order to buy more at $37.48 is still there (fat chance today).  AAPL tagged my stop, and then ran down within 25 cents of my re-entry, flipped me off, and went back up - without me. We are in a classic "rising three" pattern here, so I may get back in this morning, after I see what it does the first hour or so. The bottom big white candle on the left, where I drew the green dashed line, is where the support is. Volume yesterday is almost as large as on that white candle, so I'll have to look at the 5 min charts to see if there is buying or selling going on and "follow the trend". There is no point in putting ISRG back up, because it looks very little different than it does below: |
| Mon & Tue Just
After the Opening Bell: POT looks great for a short butterfly or condor play, but I'm sticking with trend trades for the moment. No orders met the entry price, but the 10ema moved up on A and AAPL. I think I'll leave my entry price where it is and give it another day to come down to my entry. I'd rather want a stock that I don't own, than own a stock that I don't want. - - And I have orders to buy them if they break out to the up side. |
 AAPL hit my entry just after the opening bell, so I placed a stop at $259.93...which it hit 10 minutes later! Looks like it wants to go down, so I put in an order at the bottom of the hammer, $256.50 to get back in, but I'd guess its more likely to go up and hit my $271.06 entry. Who knows? I just trade whatever it does. |
| .... |  Well, AAPL rolled over and hit my stop anyway. I've got an order in to buy the May $270 calls, but only if it pushes over yesterday's high. I may also buy the $260 calls if it bounces off of the 10ema this morning. |
| .... |  (April 15 was where ISRG missed earnings) I liked this paper trade [see last week] so much that I decided to but the $360 puts as a real trade to get in if it falls under $353.82. (I think that around $359.90 to $368 level will be good for the stop.) I like this entry because it is under the white candle of Apr 13. Also notice that there was a double top way back in 2007/2008. Really now, go look at a chart and see what happened at $360, because that is a key price area and why it is dragging here near that $360 level. I expect it to eventually hit $333, where I'll cash out. |
| .... |  The stock, A, fell to the 10ema and stopped...again. I plan to buy the same May $35 calls today, but at a better price after having stopped out up at $36.77 on Friday. But if it pushes up through $37.50, I'll just buy them.  A, fell to the 10ema, hit my order and fell through $35.91 before I could even enter the stop. I put the stop under the morning reversal, at $35.25 |