Posts Tagged
‘URE’
by Phil - August 15th, 2009 4:04 am
Well we’re back to cash…
After getting off to a great start, up 12% in the first 3 weeks, we were lucky this week to get back to 12% after having a run of bad luck (or bad skill actually, as we went bearish too early and got punished for it). The goal of the $5,000 virtual portfolio is to play around the volatility of earnings and make no mistake, it’s a high-risk way to trade $5,000 and is meant to be a small portion of a large virtual portfolio – not something you would want to do with your only $5,000. Of course the usual disclaimer is, this is a virtual portfolio, don’t try this at home, trading is dangerous, always consult a professional financial adviser, etc, etc. The idea is to practice different option strategies and we’re learning from our successes and failures – I hope!
Our first play 5 plays that we closed were on AA, DIA, SGR, MCD, and DELL, which had a total gain of $629 in our first 6 days. For details on those trades, go to the Day 6 post. We have been posting all of the moves for the $5KP in member chat, of course, but also on Seeking Alpha’s Stock Talk, where we have discovered the added bonus that, like Twitter, you do not have to refresh the page to see new comments! If you want to follow these trades, just click on "Follow" under my picture and you will automatically see any comments made there. A full review of Stock Talk commentary regarding the $5KP is available here and please make sure you click "Follow" on my picture so that you will be able to track further updates.

We closed positions on WFC and AXP, up $258 in our last review on July 25th and we have since closed our YUM position with a $256 loss on the 28th, which was a shame as we gave up on 8 Aug $35 calls at .45 ($360) and they flew up to $2 ($1,600) just a week later. Unfortunately, in a small virtual portfolio, you don’t have the luxury of riding out your losses and, at the time, we felt lucky to escape this underperfomer with a relatively small loss.
A VNO put spread we couldn’t fill the week of the 21st, was an easy fill the next week and 3 Sept $50 puts were in at $3.70 ($1,110) and 3 Aug $50 puts were sold for $2.90 ($870). The premise of…

Tags: AA, CY, DELL, DIA, MAR, SGR, SRS, URE, VNO, WFC, WHR, YUM
Posted in Appears on main page, Immediately available to public, Virtual Portfolio Review | Join Member's Chat - No Comments Here »
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by Option Review - June 16th, 2009 5:08 pm
Today’s tickers: URBN, URE, IPG, WDC, JPM, STEC & ATHR
URBN– The clothing-haven for hipsters jumped to the top of our ‘hot by options volume’ market scanner this afternoon after one Urban-bear was observed taking profits in the January 2010 contract. It appears that this individual originally established a 40,000 lot put spread on July 22, 2008, at a net cost of 4.50. The trader partially unraveled the spread on November 13, 2008, leaving open interest of approximately 28,000 lots at each of the strike prices involved in the spread. Today he has once again targeted his urban-hunting ground to go in for the kill by closing out the position completely. The January 15 strike price saw 26,500 put options purchased for a premium of 1.19 apiece spread against the sale of 26,500 deep in-the-money puts at the January 30 strike for 10.04 per contract. The gross premium realized on this leg of the trade amounts to 8.85. Subtracting the 4.50 paid to initially purchase the bearish put spread yields profits of 4.35 or approximately $11,527,500. – Urban Outfitters, Inc.
URE– The bruised and battered real estate ETF has deflated more than 4.5% today to $3.50. In just a few short days, it will have been one full year since the fund was trading a staggering 841% higher at $32.94. One investor, who has no doubt witnessed the plunge in the price of the underlying over the course of the year, has taken a bearish stance on the stock today. This individual looks to have sold short 25,500 puts at the July 3.0 strike price for a premium of 15 cents per contract or $382,500. If the price of the URE falls beneath $3.00 by expiration, the trader appears happy to have the underlying shares put to him at an effective price of $2.85 each. Otherwise, he retains the full premium received on the transaction if the puts land out-of-the-money by the third Friday of next month. – ProShares Ultra Real Estate
IPG – Shares of the advertising and marketing services firm have declined more than 2% today to stand at $5.53. Despite the current erosion in the price of the underlying, one option trader was observed getting bullish on the stock through expiration in October. Hoping for a significant recovery in shares, the investor purchased 31,500 calls at the October 7.5 strike price for an average premium of…

Tags: ATHR, IPG, JPM, STEC, URBN, URE, WDC
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by Phil - April 18th, 2009 4:39 pm
We didn’t do a wrap-up last week as I instead wrote a long, Members Only post (only Part 1 too) on "Setting Up A $100,000 Hedged Virtual Portfolio" concentrating on a virtual $20,000 allocation in the financials for our first sector.
We’re going to do more of these on the weekends as people find them useful and also because, although they are very popular, I do get tired of just reviewing what we did for the past 5 trading days every week. So maybe a little of both today but I aim to keep this short (as I usually do, but it never works out) so we can do another post on earnings plays tomorrow.
How is our new sample virtual portfolio looking after a week? Well let’s see:
- 500 UYG at $3.48, selling 5 May $3 calls for .72 and 5 May $3 puts for .28, net $2.48/2.74
- UYG now $3.79, May put and call combo now $1.12 = net $2.67 ($95 profit on $1,240 = 7.7%)
- Selling 2 FAS $7.50 puts for .45 naked
- FAS closed at $9.40 so 100% profit of $90
- 500 C at $3.04, selling May $3 puts and calls for $1.11, net $1.93/2.47
- C now $3.65, May $3 put and call combo is $1.19 = net $2.46 ($265 profit on $965 = 27.5%)
- Selling 2 IYF May $36 puts for $2 naked
- IYF closed at $40.26, May $36 puts $1.20 ($160 profit on $400 =40%)
- Selling 2 JPM May $29 puts for $1.95 naked
- JPM closed at $33.26, May $29 puts $1.17 ($156 profit on $390 = 40%)
- Selling 7 FAZ May $10 puts for $2.40 naked (adjusted to reflect Monday’s gap down open)
- May $10 puts are now $2.67 so a loss of $189 (-11.3%). Both our July and Oct escape rolls are still intact so no worries here anyway (this is a hedge to the others)
- 5 FAZ Oct $12.50 calls for $4 (adjusted), selling 5 May $21s for $1.05, net $2.95.
- The Oct $12.50s are now $3.29, May $21s are now .45 so net $2.85, a loss of $50 (3.4%)
So far so good! The FAZ hedges are holding up nicely while all of our upside plays were winners. Our 3 April put sales are expired $90 in profits so risk off the table and cash put back to work and May Put sales look safe enough at the moment, up…

Tags: C, DBC, FAS, FAZ, GE, Hedging, IYF, PGF, Portfolio, UNG, URE, UYG
Posted in Virtual Portfolio Review | Join Member's Chat - 6 Comments Here »
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February 11th, 2012 11:02 am
Courtesy of ZeroHedge. View original post here.
Submitted by Tyler Durden.
Some of our German readers may be laboring under the impression that following the €110 billion first Greek bailout agreed upon and executed in May 2010, the second Greek bailout would cost a "mere" €130 billion. Alas we have new for you - as of this morning, the formal cost of rescuing Greece for the adjusted adjusted adjusted second time has just risen to €145 billion, €175 billion, a whopping €210 billion, bringing the total explicit cost of all Greek bailout funds to date (and many more in sto...
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February 11th, 2012 10:35 am
Courtesy of Doug Short.
The $OEXA200R (the percentage of S&P 100 stocks above their 200 DMA) is a technical indicator available on StockCharts.com that can be used to forecast conservative entry and exit points for the stock market.
The OEXA is used to find the "sweet spot" time period in the market when you have the best chance of making money. See Is This the Best Stock Market Indicator Ever? for a discussion of this technical tool.
The chart below is current through the February 3rd close.
After a major S&P correction, the conditions for safe re-entry into the market are when:
 
a) $OEXA200R rises above 65%. And two of the following three...
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February 11th, 2012 3:28 am
Violent Protests in Greece; 6 Cabinet Members Resign; LAOS leader "I Would Rather Starve Than be Under German Jackboot"; Controversy Over Missing Paragraphs
Courtesy of Mish
Imagine you are asked to sign a document but three pages were missing. Further imagine the documents you were asked to sign were written in English but you only speak Greek. Would you sign?
That is exactly the predicament Greek officials were placed in by the Troika. Here is the story sent to me by Demetri Kofinas at Capital Account.
Hello Mish
George Karatzaferis leader of LOAS political party gave a speech today addressing why he refused to sign this latest agreement. In his speech, he said that he a...
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February 11th, 2012 12:00 am
Top 5 RisersStockRatingAnalysis
ICABUYThe projected value for Empresas ICA is still rising quickly even though past earnings have already improved significantly.
XBUYThe projected value for US Steel is still rising quickly even though past earnings have already improved significantly.
FEICBUYProjected value continues to rise for FEI while long term increases in earnings growth are also becoming more widely expected.
ASBCBUYMany analysts are expecting higher than previously expected long term growth from Associated Bancorp, and its near-term earnings outlook is also improving....
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February 10th, 2012 6:20 pm
Courtesy of Benzinga.
The following are the M&A deals, rumors and chatter circulating on Wall Street for Friday February 10, 2012:
Actuant Acquires Jeyco Pty
The Deal:
Actuant (NYSE: ATU) announced Friday that it has acquired Jeyco Pty Ltd (“Jeyco”). Headquartered near Perth, Australia, Jeyco designs and provides specialized mooring, rigging and towing systems and services to the offshore oil & gas industry in Australia and other international markets. Additionally, its highly engineered products are used in a variety of applications for other markets including cyclone mooring and marine, defense and mining tow systems. Jeyco generates annual revenues of approximately $20 million.
Actuant shares closed at $27.33 Friday, a loss of 0.18% on average volume.
...
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February 10th, 2012 4:14 pm
Submitted by Mark Hanna
Courtesy of MarketMontage. View original post here.
A little flurry of buying in the closing 5 minutes tacked on 2 S&P points and took the major indexes off the lows. Only the Russell 2000 finished with a greater than 1% loss (1.4%) as it has been relatively weak versus the senior indexes for the past few sessions. While today was the "worst day of the year" – it was quite a low bar as the previous biggest loss on the S&P 500 was -0.57%.
The S&P 500 held well above the 10 day moving average (didn't even really touch it) and did not even attempt to fill the gap from last Friday's employment report. The teflon market rolls on for now. Specul...
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February 10th, 2012 4:11 pm
Courtesy of John Nyaradi.
Greece was “saved” for less than 24 hours but now major ETFs around the world skid into the weekend on Greek fears
After wangling for a week or more, Greek took their new deal to the European Ministers meeting, only to have it promptly rejected and so as we go into the weekend, major global markets and ETFs have again hit the skids on Greece.
After two years of wangling, the European zone is demanding yet more and deeper cuts for Greece to qualify for the next round of bailout loans that will keep the country from going bankrupt on March 20th.
Major European and United States ETF responded negatively to the new developments:
SPDR Dow Jones Industrial ETF (NYSEARCA:...
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February 10th, 2012 1:40 pm
Reminder: David is available to chat with Members, comments are found below each post.
Click here for the full report.
To learn more, sign up for David's
free newsletter and receive the
free report from All About Trends - "How To Outperform 90% Of Wall Street With Just $500 A Week." Tell David PSW sent you. -
Ilene...
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February 10th, 2012 1:22 pm
Today’s tickers: TRLG, KR & IGT
...
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February 6th, 2012 9:02 am
Reminder: OpTrader is available to chat with Members, comments are found below each post.
This post is for all our live virtual trade ideas and daily comments. Please click on "comments" below to follow our live discussion. All of our current trades are listed in the spreadsheet below, with entry price (1/2 in and All in), and exit prices (1/3 out, 2/3 out, and All out).
We also indicate our stop, which is most of the time the "5 day moving average". All trades, unless indicated, are front-month ATM options.
Please feel free to participate in the discussion and ask any questions you might have about this virtual portfolio, by clicking on the "comments" link right below.
To learn more about the swing trading virtual portfolio (strategy, performance, FAQ, etc.), please click here
Optrader
...
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February 5th, 2012 5:19 am
NEW: Elliott and Ilene are available to chat with Members regarding topics presented in SWW, comments are found below each post.
Here's the latest Stock World Weekly, called "The Relentless Pursuit of Meaningless Metrics."
...
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January 30th, 2012 7:22 am
Here is a quick update of past trades and our current position.
AA Money
No trade this week as we wait for AA to settle. Phil remarked last week that AA seemed overvalued. In the meantime, it looks like we might have to roll our Feb 9 calls. Good thing we sold only 5 of them against our position.
Last week P&L - 310.00
We lost ground last week, but we still have 11 months to sell premium!
FAS Money
Very good week for FAS Money as we benefited from the large amount of premium sold the previous week. We covered most of the shorts in advance of the Fed speech, but sold another set of options on Wednesday after the speech - 2 FAS calls that expired worthless on Friday, 2 FAS put that we are still holding and 2 FAZ put that we bought back for a profit on Friday. A late stick comparable to last week's almost gave us problems at the end of the day though!
Last week P&L - $4277.00
IWM Money
A decent week in this virtual portfo...
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January 18th, 2012 1:09 am
Reminder: Pharmboy is available to chat with Members, comments are found below each post.
Finding new and exciting Biotech companies that target novel mechanisms is like trying to find a needle in a haystack. Sure there are many companies working on cutting edge science, but investing in those companies to reap the rewards of their work is a very dangerous game. More often than not, companies fail because the mechanism does not pan out, the compound(s) do not have pharmacokinetics (get into the body or last very long in the body), or an adverse event happens that knocks years off a development timeline. In addition, the stock can be manipulated by market makers so investors don't know which way is up. I approach investing in biotechs as a long term prospect. I continue to like our current portfolio of biotech companies (join in chat for many of those plays), and we continually add/subtract shares and sell/buy options on ...
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