Plan update...nothing really new.

I closed a position today for a loss, in the $50 range so my win rate is 8 of 10 trades...80%. The only reason that the option lost was due to me getting in 5 cents higher than I wanted to and setting a limit order that did not get filled to exit...had I just placed a market and took the spread (only 10 cents) I would have at least broke even or made a couple of bucks.

I am gaining back what was a paper loss earlier in the week and still placing more trades. I am up to 22 active trades with two outstanding orders. The outstanding orders are only open due to the price jumping ahead and not pulling back. I figured that I would be best not to chase them at all as the Friday rush seems to have driven prices up at the end and these two stocks were already in a bit of an intraday uptrend. I might expect to see them drop back a bit on Monday and perhaps see my limit orders hit and filled.

This week has been slow. I got used to the flurry of opening and closing trades two weeks ago so this nibbling here and there is odd. I would like to see some of these move BUT quite a few are now January through March expiry so there is lots of time to let them move.

I have decided to not place any call only trades when the alerts indicate a credit spread trade. The trouble is that a credit spread already made some money so closing it while the call is still down can still yield a profit...for those entering the entire trade...perhaps not for me with only the call. I didn't really realize this problem until now. I have to review my trades to weed out those ones placed under the premise that the call was going to appreciate more than it has, maybe just set some stop losses to let them close themselves and cut my loses.

The upside of doing this will mean more capital in my account to get into the long options. I am running out of cash as positions are open and orders are placed. Part of the issue here is getting into slightly too large of positions. I am paring them down now to keep all trades no larger then the $1.20 option cost, as I mentioned in a previous post. The exception will be when a good looking trade is worth up to $1.50 leading to $150 for a single contract or slightly above $120 for two or three. $1.20 is just a close guide for me and this is only to keep the number of trades up while allowing no stop losses to be necessary.

Oh, the reason I want to keep the number of trades up is to allow the full diversification using the service that it looks like I am going to settle upon. The classic "trade the plan" means that picking a few of the lot MAY also mean that I pick the wrong ones. That would suck.