March Options Expiration

So this has been my first full month of options trading, let's look at the details.

ERX
2/20/09 Sell 1 Mar 17.5 Put @ 1.15.
3/2/09 Buy 1 Mar 17.5 Put @ 2.05.
Loss of $90.
This was a rocky road for me. I was anxious to make a trade and the 3x Energy ETF had such high premiums for being so far Out of The Money (OTM). The problem is since its 3x, there are huge swings, and I'm not able (yet) to handle them. I need to be able to set price targets for this ETF over a period of time and stick to a plan about how to handle it. When I bought it to close, I had visions of ERX dropping to 10 and crushing my portfolio. This would've ultimately ended OTM, but I didn't want to take put my portfolio at risk any further.

XSP
2/23/09 Sell 1 Mar 61 Put @ .51.
Expired Worthless.
Gain of $51.
I sold this 18% OTM, "How could the market drop 18% in a month? It's free money!" So maybe I didn't think exactly that, but it was close. The S&P actually hit 666 (putting XSP at 66) at its low for the year. I can't say I was ever worried about this trade, but it certainly was a rocky month for the S&P. I like XSP and will probably continue trading it in the future, as deep OTM puts in this market are fetching high prices do to the high volatitlity of the times.

DIG
3/6/09 Sell 2 Mar 14 Puts @ .2.
Expired Worthless
Gain of $40.
Looking to make up a gain from the ERX loss I target another energy ETF and put this trade on. If I would've looked at a one minute chart before trading this, I would've made a way better decision on the timing of the trade. Also to keep in mind, when you deal with options that are deep OTM and have low prices, it's hard to close them early. In this trade for example, the Mar 14 Puts had an Ask of .1 up until the end.

I also closed PCLN (see previous post) this month for a gain, and am looking for another April option to trade . XME, DIG, USO, and things in Precious Metals/Oil are looking good for a trade.