Wheeeeeeee, this is fun!
There's nothing like an active virtual portfolio to get you through a rough market. The last update to our very aggressive virtual porfolio was on the July 28th, when I said to Members "On the whole, we’re pretty short so we’ll be either adding longs or cashing in shorts tomorrow to get a little more even into the weekend but still bearish if there’s no debt deal." There was, of course, no debt deal that week and the next morning I said in our Member Alert:
Volume is not very high – this is a retail panic so far. If you have short positions, strongly consider put tight stops on them (this includes the $25KP and Income Virtual Portfolio) as they put plenty of cash in your pocket and we can always find another layer of shorts if the RUT can’t hold 775.
Needless to say, the RUT failed (10% ago!) and we stayed generally bearish. At the time we "only" had $57,760 of virtual cash (after starting with just $25,000!) with $960 worth of unrealized losses in our remaining, mostly bearish positions. How do you think that worked out? That's right, possibly our biggest gains of the year! In the last two weeks, we closed the following positions as the markets collapsed around us:
- 10 USO 8/5 $36 calls at $1.35, out at $2.35 – up $1,000
- 3 CMG Aug $310 calls sold for $18, out at $16 – up $600
- 2 CMG Dec $340 calls at $18, out at $20.40 – up $480
- 5 WYNN Aug $155 calls sold for $6.60, out at $4 – up $800
- 4 WYNN Oct $165 calls at $6.60, out at $7 – up $160
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10 BXP Aug $105 puts at $2, out at $2.75 – up $750
- 4 GMCR Sept $97.50 puts at net $5.50, out at $4.30 – down $480
- 20 QQQ Aug $58 puts at .63 out at $1.55 – up $1,840
- 20 QQQ 7/29 $37 calls at .72, out at $1.45 – up $1,460
- 20 USO 8/5 $38 puts at .44, out at $1.35 – up $1,820
- 10 USO Aug $37 calls at .97, out at $1.17 – up $200
- 4 PCLN 8/5 $570 calls sold for $11, expired worthless - up $4,400
- 20 USO 8/5 $36 calls at .55, out at .39 - down $320
- 20 DIA Aug $119 calls at .80, out at .75 - down $100
- 10 USO 8/5 $33 calls at .88, out at $1.05, up $170
- 10 USO 8/5 $34 puts at .45, out at .75 - up $300
- 10 USO 8/12 $32 puts at .35, out at .50 - up $150
We have (drum roll please!)
