I really like the way the market has been moving lately. And it seem to be moving in my favor quite often. I had another week of bringing in some nice money. It wasn’t as much as the last few week but they were crazy good weeks. However, I still brought in more than $7000. Stuffing this amount of money in the mattress in a week is great. You must understand, some of this money was made in one week trades but some are trades that started a week or two ago that ended this week. I try to time my trades so I have some coming to a conclusion every week to keep the money flow moving in my direction every week. I like a weekly salary!
This week I had trades coming to an end with three companies. Yelp (YELP), Gopro (GPRO) and Potash (POT). If some of the “professionals” looked at many of my trades they might not like what they see. They might say I’m leaving too much money on the table with”Opportunity Lost.” If you’re a regular reader of Main Street beats Wall Street you know how I feel about Opportunity Lost. Please read the page by hitting the link. If I make money I’m happy. It also means I didn’t lose money. The truth is I might be trading longer than most “professionals.” Any “professional” can take a look at my Trade History an I’m sure they’d like what they see. With my longevity I learned a few things by giving a lot of money back to Wall Street. I developed a strategy and I try to stay disciplined with it. I’m saying this because I brought in a lot of money this week but I also had some Opportunity Lost situations. Let’s take a look at this weeks trades.
Yelp
The first trade I’ll explain involves Yelp. It was a Covered Call that I exited before expiration. I’ll go over the trade a little but if you go to “Exited a Yelp Covered Call” you can read the full explanation and the reason why I exited early. The bottom line is I had an opportunity to lock is some cash so I did. The stock went up to where I was making a nice profit so I sold the stock and I was able to exit the Call with a small lose so I did. Dumping both positions I came out with a gain of $2240 and I didn’t have to hold the position until expiration which was November 18th. I love taking profit! Here’s the sell of the option and the buy to end the short position.
9/9/16 – Sell to Open 10 YELP 11/18/16 $40 C @ $3.04 (+$3040)
9/27/16 – Buy to Close 10 YELP 11/18/16 $40 C @ $3.50 (-$3500)
Loss -$460
I did lose a little on the Call exit (voluntarily I might add) but I made a nice profit on the stock Sale. Here’s the buy and sale of the stock.
9/12/16 – Buy 1000 shares YELP @ $37.80 (-$37,800)
9/27/16 – Sell 1000 shares YELP @ $40.50 (+$40,500)
Profit +$2700
Covered Call Gain +$2240
Yelp
My next deal also involved Yelp. This was a simple stock buy and sale. I did leave a Naked Call behind which I’m still holding. It expires in November. I bought 1000 shares of the stock for $39.35 and sold 1000 shares for $41.20 for a profit of $1850. Here’s the buy and sell orders.
9/7/16 – Buy 1000 shares Yelp @ $39.35
9/27/16 – Sell 1000 shares YELP @ $41.20
Profit +$1850
GPRO
This GPRO deal was a Covered Call but unlike the Yelp Covered Call above, this one went to expiration and I made money on both the stock and the Call. First I sold the Call on 9/22 and I covered the Call on 9/27. Here’s the Call order.
9/22/16 – Sell to Open 50 GPRO 9/30/16 $16 C @ $.45 (+$2250)
9/30/16 – Expired 50 GPRO 9/30/16 $16 C
Profit +$2250
GPRO
For the stock end of the GPRO Covered Call I bought the stock at $15.90 and these shares were assigned at $16 for a $.10 profit on the 5000 shares. The stock closed on Friday at $16.68 so I had an Opportunity Lost on this deal which I don’t care about. I came out with a profit on the Call of $2250 and a profit on the stock sale of $500. I Happy! Here’s the stock buy and assignment.
9/27/16 – Buy 5000 shares GPRO @ $15.90
9/30/16 – Assigned 5000 shares GPRO @ $16
Profit +$500
Potash
This is the first trade I made with POT since the inception of Main Street beats Wall Street. And believe it or not, this is me favorite trade of the week. I been watching POT and I noticed it was down at it’s support level. If I was a straight out stock investor O would have only bought the stock. Since I’m an options trader I did a Buy-Write. I felt the stock was going up this week but I stayed with my strategy and did an At-the-Money Buy-Write Covered Call. With the stock at $16 I bought 5000 shares of the stock and Sold a 50 contract Call. Since I felt the stock was going up I felt I’d get assigned at $16, which I did. The main reason for this trade was to get the premium from the Call which was $.21 for $1020 on the 50 contracts. This was a three day deal. And a great three day deal at that. I’ll only list the Call because it was an At-the-Money Call and I bought the stock at $16 and it was assigned at $16. No money made or lost. However, the stock closed at $16.32 so there was an Opportunity Lost. Here’s the Call order.
9/27/16 – Sell 50 POT 9/30/16 $16 C @ $.21 (+$1020)
9/30/16 – Expired 50 POT 9/30/16 C @ $.21
Profit +$1020
Weekly Gain $7860
Another great week. Are you becoming a believer? But don’t think it’s easy, it can fall apart at any time.
Have a great weekend!
Email any questions.
Steve
The Options Coach