$25,000 Portfolio – Month 9 – Goaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaal!!!
$100,000!
Not bad considering we began with $10,000 in our virtual portfolio only last June. We missed our goal last year of making $50,000 in 6 months – perhaps a bit too ambitions – but we got to $35,000, put $10,000 away in the virtual bank and began our $25,000 Portfolio (this one) on January 31st. Here we are, just 9 months later and already at our $100,000 goal.
I’ve decided, since we’re done so early, to reset the clock and let’s make a White Christmas Portfolio, where we’ll start with a $15,000 XMas Budget and limit our losses to $5,000 (so we don’t end up with a Tiny Tim Christmas) and see if we can earn enough money (virtual, of course) to put a few extra gifts under the tree. It will be a good chance to practice our loss limits!
Keep in mind that these are very aggressive portfolios that are meant to be the risk portion of much larger portfolios – this is in no way, shape or form a sensible way to play with money you care about (see "Smart Portfolio Management – the $10,000 Portfolio").
Meanwhile, we still have a little bit of cleanup to do with this portfolio. Our last update was on the 29th, when our realized gains had climbed to $98,480 and we only needed $1,520 more to hit our goal. Fortunately, we were very bullish with our remaining positions at the end of September, still playing our range. We have been pretty busy the past two weeks, closing the following positions:
- 40 GLL Oct $17 calls at net $1.76, out at $2.75 – up $3,960
- 20 DIA 9/30 $112 puts at $1.05, out at $1.60 – up $1,100
- 10 QQQ 9/30 $53 calls at $1.45, out at $1.55 – up $100
- 20 DIA $110 puts at .80, out at $1.10 – up $600
- 10 FAS 9/30 calls at $1.28, out at $1.60 – up $320
- 30 IWM 9/30 $64/65 bull call spreads at net .68, expired at $1 – up $960
- 10 RUT 9/30 $645 puts sold for $2.55, expired worthless – up $2,550
- 20 USO 9/30 $30 calls at .67, out at .54 – down $130
- 10 TLT 9/30 $121/118 bear put spreads at .95, out at $2.20 – up $1,250
- 5 TLT 9/30 $122 calls sold for $1.75, expired worthless – up $875
- 5 VXX 9/30 51 puts at net $2.05 (half of a spread), out at $1 – down $525
- 5 VXX 9/30 $52 calls sold for $1.60, expired worthless – up $800
- 40 IWM 9/30 68/69 bull call spreads at .50, expired worthless – down $2,000
- 5 TLT 10/7 $124/121 bear put spreads at $1.70, expired at $3 – up $650
- 5 TLT 10/7 $122 calls sold for $1.65, expired worthless – up $825
- 20 USO 10/7 $30 calls at net .53, out at $2.25 – up $3,440
- 10 QID Oct $51/56 bull call spreads at $1.50, out at $1 – down $500
- 10 GOOG 10/14 $590 puts at $1.10, out at $1.60 – up $500
- 10 DIA Oct $115 calls at .95, out at .85 – down $100
- 20 DIA Oct $115 calls at .50, out at $1.40 – up $1,800
- 20 DIA Oct $115 puts at $1, out at $1.30 – up $600
- 10 DIA Oct $114 puts at $1, out at .85 – down $150
- 20 USO Oct $33 calls at net .50 ($1,000), out at $1.50 – up $2,000
That is a LOVELY $18,925 added to our realized gains for a grand total of $117,405! Not bad at all. Now all we have to do is NOT lose $17,405 as we close out our remaining positions and we are all done tomorrow.
As of yesterday’s close, we are left with the following open positions:
- 10 BCS Oct $10 calls at .85 ($850), now $1.20 – up $350
- 10 BAC Oct $7 calls at .43 ($430), now .02 – down $410
- 10 BAC Oct $6 puts sold for .30 (-$300), now .44 – down $140
- 10 FAS Oct $10 puts sold for .82 (-$820), now .05 – up $770
- 20 HPQ Oct $22/23 bull call spreads at .53 ($1,060), now .97 – up $440
- 10 EWG Oct $16/18 bull call spreads at $1.30 ($1,300), now $1.90 – up $600
- 10 EWG Oct $17 puts sold for .90 (-$900), now .05 – up $850
- 30 DXD Oct $18/20 bull call spreads at .70 ($2,100), now .35 – down $1,050
- 10 JPM Oct $31 puts sold for $1.05 (-$1,050), now .15 – up $900
- 3 CMG Dec $350 calls at $15 ($4,500), now $6.50 – down $2,550
- 5 CMG Oct $340 calls sold for $9 (-4,500), now $1 – up $4,000
- 10 EDZ Oct $28/34 bull call spreads at $1.10 ($1,100), now .30 – down $800
- 10 FCX Oct $31 puts sold for .91 (-$910), now .07 – up $840
- 10 USO Oct $28 puts sold for .75 (-$750), now .05 – up $700
- 10 USO Oct $29/31 bull call spreads at $1.08 ($1,080), now $1.90 – up $820
- 5 TNA Oct $34/37 bull call spreads at $1.30 ($650), now $2.80 – up $750
- 5 TNA Oct $26 puts sold for $1.15 (-$575), now .05 – up $550
- 10 SPY Oct $117 calls at .75 ($750), now $4.60 – up $3,850
- 20 TZA Oct $38/39 bull call spreads at .45 ($900), now .55 – up $200
- 10 TZA Oct $35 puts sold for .80 (-$800), now .30 – up $500
- 20 TNA Oct $40/43 bull call spreads at $1.30 ($2,600), now $1.10 – down $400
- 10 GS Oct $90 puts sold for $1.60 (-$1,600), now .05 – up $1,550
- 5 AMZN Oct $240 calls sold for $4.90 ($2,450), now .80 – up $2,050
- 3 AMZN Nov $250 calls at $9 ($2,700), now $6 – down $900
- 10 USO Nov $32 puts at net .71 ($710), now $1.15 – up $440
- 10 AAPL Oct $395/400 bull call spreads at $3 ($3,000), now $2.90 – down $100
Wow, up $13,810 – not bad for our leftover trades (we usually cash out our winners and end up with all losers we have to work out). Our goal for the next 2 days is simply to cash out. I’ll try to make specific picks once we see how the open goes but, really, it’s fine as it is, as that will bring us to over $130,000 – up 1,200% since last June!
Congrats to all the players! We start Monday with a fresh $15,000 that will be played with the goal of getting to $25,000 by Christmas without losing our milk and cookies money so a bit more conservative than the $25KP has been and then we’ll start a new, aggressive portfolio after the Holidays.
- Phil
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