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

Trade deconstruction

Two-month report on the “lazy man’s” options strategy

After two months of trading my market neutral “lazy-man’s” option strategy, my account has shown a profit of $1, 050.00, with starting capital of about $22,000 (not including margin), for a two month return of about 4.7%. Nothing spectacular, but that’s in an enviornment of a constant upward grind, reducing fear and volitility, meaning I […]

Poorly executed VIX trade stills pays off

I put some more money in the bank this morning at June VIX expiration, but I can’t say it was a very good trade. To recap, waaaaay back in mid-April I put on a call spread on VIX options that cost me about $2,300. This was a 15-20 spread, meaning the best payoff was if […]

Danger in shorting the emerging world

I should know better by this time than to try and short emerging markets. First exhibit: my ongoing debacle of a trade in BZQ (double short Brazil), bought last September for over $20, and currently sitting at about $16 on a good day. Many, many headaches has this trade given me. And now on to […]

Just about caught the exact bottom! (SDS)

On my just concluded SDS trade, it looks like I just about caught the bottom of today’s downside move, marked by the arrow above. This is not to brag, it was pure luck, as a pre-set limit order was filled when program sell orders came in about noon. That just happened to be almost the […]

A look at the Grand Canyon trade — LOPE

There’s not a whole lot to say about my move in and out of Grand Canyon Education, which was held over the weekend and produced more or less an instant profit on no discernable news without the usual mental anguish. Everyone wishes they could find trades like this all the time. The pity is, it […]

Make 6% a WEEK trading ETFs from your home!

Sound too good to be true? It should sound like those ubiquitous ads — although I have never figured out how to trade in 10 minutes per day during the evening hours. But this week it was true for me, as I closed out my starter position on this site this afternoon at $13.40 for […]