Counting with Doug: Financing a trip to Lake Tahoe solely with blackjack winnings?

Archive for April 2011

Irresistibly low VIX prices

The irresistibly low VIX has got me in buying mood again, this time picking up 5 May 16 calls with the VIX at $15.18. The idea here is to have some almost immediate upside, and not to cap it by making it a spread, in case the market really reverses in some now-unseen frenzy. The […]

April VIX contracts peacefully put to sleep; but does a buying opportunity loom?

All must be peace and light in the financial world; despite oil trading over $109.00 per barrell, the SPX surged back to 1330 this morning and the April VIX contracts were settled at 14.86, which means the $650 put in my account for options I sold on April 8th will stay there. But I’m already […]

SVU — The best of the best?

The stat junkies at Bespoke Investment Group have reviewed the best and worst of earnings season so far, and look who is the “best of the best” — our old friend Supervalu! Back when I was touting this one off the 52-week low list, who would have thunk it?

Informative commentaries on VIX trading

There has been some good articles put up lately concerning trading VIX options and related instruments, which has been my focus for much of 2011. Take, for instance, the insights of trader Steven Place, who thinks the failure of the VIX to pop last week on a brief down day (Tuesday) is a bullish sign […]

A nice pop in a bread and butter business — SVU

Here’s a look at an old friend that I have followed for a long time on this site — grocery giant Supervalu, which was one of Thursday’s big market winners, off a 1Q earnings beat, in an otherwise forgettable session. I sold this one back at New Year’s but am glad to see it bounce […]

Doubling up on VIX — and looking forward

When the VIX is down to 15, I like to buy — in many cases, almost impossible to resist. So I put a little more than $2000 down on an increase in volatility sometime before June. It would take a lot for the present market torpor to last that long. Specifically, I bought 7 VIX […]

Another trip around the board and back to GO

So today the market found yet another way to end up exactly where it started. VIX fell back down to the mid 16 range, which is fine with me. Options expiration (for equities and indices, not VIX) tomorrow — lets see if it brings some fireworks, or more of the same!

Overexposed!

I realized today that I had really gone crazy with my sale of 20 naked April VIX options and covered the trade for a small profit of $340. A spike up in the VIX got me appropriately nervous, and I realized it was better to cover it than not sleep tonight!

Would you rather make 10,000 trades per second, or three trades per week?

If you have 11 minutes to spare, Barry Ritholtz has a good post on his site that includes a video by trader Yan Ohayan on the impact of algorithmic trading. Did you know that 73% of the current trades in the market were done by machine? Or that some of the trading programs out there […]

Trying to profit in calm waters

I’m trying to take advantage of the relatively lackluster market by selling naked 20 VIX April 22.50 call contracts for $0.42. A risky move if the market pops tomorrow. By the way, the April 20 calls were still selling around $0.60 this morning.

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