Trade Updates: GDX and TCK

I panicked on Tuesday when GDX was down again, and bought to close my 2 GDX Jul 35 puts for $1.45. From now on I will clearly be setting exit criteria for trades here on the blog. I realize now that if I had set some even moderate criteria, that these 2 puts would be good money makers for me now as GDX has rallied up to 39.99 at end of close today. The lack of an exit strategy caused me to get emotional when GDX was down and to take the loss. Literally 20 minutes after I closed the trade, GDX began it's rally, brutal.

I thought TCK was lagging it's peer group in losses lately, so I bought to open 2 TCK Aug 12.5 puts for $1.00 on Tuesday as well. TCK has also rallied, putting me in the hole as both Crude and Gold have bounced.

Seems like Gold is now bound for $1,000/oz, and I'll look for a low risk entry with some more puts, and possibly a call.

Trade Entered: Bought 2 Sep 26 SSO Puts

Last Thursday, the 18th, I bought to open 2 Sep 26 SSO Puts for $3.10 and paid $625.90 after commissions. This is my bet that the market is rolling over. After today it sure seems like it. If tomorrow is an up day, I'll probably but another put or two on some energy stocks, as I think they will drop the most. TCK looks pretty good for this as it has had an amazing run up the last few months and is ripe to place the gains back.

My GDX puts aren't looking to great as the miners got hit hard as the USD rises and the market pulls back. I may buy one back soon for a loss and let the other play out longer. I wouldn't mind owning GDX at a cost base of 33.90 for a longer term cycle.

Trade Entered: Sold 2 GDX Jul 35 Puts

What a great day for selling premium if you believe something is bullish! Well, I'm pretty bullish on gold and PMs so today while GDX was dawdling around it's 50% retracement (37.97) I sold to open 2 GDX 35 puts for $1.10 and received $214.10 after commissions. Gold and the miners index has been consolidating lately, but so much money is being printed that Gold should stay strong or flat for a while. I have downside protection all the way to 33.90, which is about 11% OTM.

I've been patient in making trades lately, hopefully it will pay off...

Trade Exited: Sold 20 GLD Stock

Today was an awful day for pretty much everything, and GLD had a particularly rough day. I have been moving my stop up as GLD has risen and today it hit @ 95.10. And since after a stop hits, it becomes a market order, my order actually filled @ 94.95, which shows how fast GLD was dropping when my stop order crossed.

Overall on the trade I made $79.40 before commissions, which was just about 1.5% of my portfolio, by only leveraging about a third of my captial.

Trade Updates

I'm a little behind, but I made two trades lately.

Trade Exited: Bought to close 1 UTX Jun 55 Call
With the market being wild lately, I decided to close my Jun 55 Call for a $35 profit while I could. After selling the call, UTX (and the market) oscillated around for a while, so on Thursday, I sold to close 1 UTX Jun 55 Call for $.35, and paid 37.95 after commissions. I originally sold the call for .70, so it was a decent profit. Writing this a few days later, the 55 Calls are now at 1.75, so I made a good call getting out when I could.

Trade Exited: Sold to close 1 SSO 24 Sep Put
I'm so not on a roll with SSO, it's the bane of my trading lately. This was an out of the ordinary trade for me, and I should of acted differently with it. Today, I closed the position at $2.05, which is a loss of $125.00 since I opened the position by buying it for $330. I opened this position with the hope that the market would continue to pull back. After a few days of being in a range, I should've closed the position, and waited for another entry point. Instead I help on, thinking 'It's a September Put, I've got a while before I have to think about it'. Wrong, I should've set exit criteria from the start, like two closes above 25.50 and I should close the trade.