Funky day

Today it is raining, actually it is supposed to rain all week so this is likely to be a funky week.

I have one position that is really in the doghouse. I bought the December option for 80 cents and it is around 25 cents today. I only have two contracts so it is not a huge problem, but that is how I am sizing these trades, I can lose the entire trade and it represents a small portion of my account. This one is about 4% if I let it expire worthless, but that is not the plan as I will close the trade with some value left unless a last minute rally looks promising. I don't hold much faith in last moment rallies though.

It is worth noting that I bought the option when the stock was in the $18.50 range and it is now at $17.10ish. That is a $1.40 per share drop had I just bought the stock and I would likely have used something just south of $17 as a stop loss so, if it continues to head south I would expect $1.60 or more as a loss. In this $1.40 drop the option has lost only 60 cents AND i have no need for a stop order that may or may not do what I want when I want...and I certainly don't have to keep checking at the open to see if I need to adjust my stop.

I have a few other positions that are in far better shape, but I will not close them yet. Most of the trades are at technical lows for their respective current trend, touching on support. I could have waited for the stock prices to approach these support areas before getting in but I was not doing technical studies for these. I will be starting that back up soon to help determine good exit points and stop loss on some of these trades. As much as I can let the whole trade hit zero, I would rather not if it is plainly obvious that the stock is more likely to depreciate than not.

My exit stops would be in the 50% of the trade mark depending upon the circumstances.

There is not much to talk about with these trades. Even though there are 15 active trades and two active orders I have done very little chart work other than a cursory glance. This makes for rather uninformative posts.

I have some waiting to do while the market sorts itself out and decides which direction it is likely to head next.

Jeff.