Sep 27 Option Trades Update

Asian markets traded in positive territory today. I wrote additional N225 Dec 19500 Call Options for 20-25 points. UK market is up now & US futures are pointing towards a higher open as well. ACH pre-market is already up some $1.16 to $70.7 as we speak. If the trend continues or to be more specific, ACH remains above $65 come Oct 19(Oct options expiry day), the options will be called out & certainly no complains here.

Sep 26 Option Trades Update

Well I did it. Last night, I sold the Oct 65 Call Options for the remaining ACH positions for a premium of $6. This would yield a call return of 13.4% for a 4 weeks play. So much for the US market. UK market is trading in positive territory as we speak & the US Futures are pointing to a positve start too & this is good. Asia market rose modestly today, I queued to write more Nikkei 225 Dec 19500 Calls but did not get filled. Lets try again tommorrow.

Sep 25 Options Trades Update

Last night, I wrote the Oct 60 call option at a premium of 8.90 for ACH(bought on average for 62.6). This would yield a call return of 10% for a 4 weeks play. Not bad I must say. I still have a couple of ACHs which I have yet to write call against. Looks like it might be tonight given that market across Asia is down today, FTSE is now trading in negative territory & US futures are also heading for lower open. For this 2, I will probably go for the Oct 65 Call Option. As for the Japan market which just came back from a holiday on Monday, the market rose modestly & I wrote the Dec N225 19500 Call Options for 15 pts.

Sep 24 Options Trades Update

The Sep options writing plays ended as per in the table. For the Oct's option, I have have already written some Oct & Dec's puts as a pilot to test out the new strategy. More details to follow. Meanwhile the ACH(Sep 50 Call, except the Sep 65 Call) & STLD(Sep 45 Call) covered call plays all got called out last Friday which is a good thing. I bought additional ACH at an average price of 62.6 last Friday & am ready to write some ITM covered calls (Oct 60 Call options) this week. For Asia plays, I am still waiting for the next big upward move to write some Dec N225 Calls.

Sep 19 Options Trades Update

Today, I met up with my trader friend (JL) who has given me some pointers about writing ER2 options. He emerged unscathed where everyone else crash & burn in Aug & still make a tidy sum to go on a short holiday + pay for for golf lessons. He quite aptly sum up the options writing strategy to essentially:
a) Dealing with Probablity
b) Risk Management (position sizing)
On hindsight, whilst I have gotten the probability aspect covered, I did not do too well with the risk management part. You can bet I will be tweaking my strategy with his good advise.

Sep 16 Option Trades Update

I squared off the Dec N225 20500 call options for 6 pts on Sep 13 Thu. With the Fed's possible announcement of interest rate cuts on Feb 18, this might give world markets a boost in the short term. I will be buying back to close selected & partial Sep expiring covered call positions especially ACH(Sep 65 Call) which has decayed to some 80% of its premium value & possibly look to write secondary ones for Oct expiry.

Sep 6 Options Trades Update

I squared off the N225 Nov 20000 call options at 6 pts yesterday. Nothing exciting this period. I may be looking to write more N225 Nov & Dec call options on volatility. ACH & STLD are holding up well & above their original purchase price. The covered call positions have a high likelyhood of being called out. If not, secondary calls will be written as per normal.

Sep 1st Options Trades Update

Stocks rallied Friday after investors got some reassurance that forces are at work to help stem the contagion effect of the subprime mess on the world's largest economy. This bodes well for my US covered call positions as at this rate that will all be called out. I am particularly pleased with ACH as I will get a high average call return rate of 7% plus. In the spirit of letting the winners fly, I actually did not sell the call options immediately after purchasing the stock ..... I have one position which I bought the stock for $49.7 & in turn, sold the Sep 65 call options for $6.2 after the stock surged some 30 plus % after about a week later. However, its still too early to tell if this is a good thing or not as the stock need to hold around the current levels come Sep expiration. I suspect, there will be much volatility ahead. In addition, Sep is the worst month of the year for trading.....we shall see. As for the N225 options writting positions, there may be some risk in the short term as its likely that the Asian markets will be taking its cue from Wall Street & go up next week. This means that the options premium may recover against me.