9/18 Day/Swingtrades

Wrote this yesterday but forgot to post. Wish I held all those longs...

Another wild f'n day! I was short all morning for some gains and then got caught holding BEN puts just as I was about to pat myself on the back. After going to cash, I cleared my head and went long a few calls but it felt like I was picking up the scraps. So much money left on the table...



Shorts

GS - I picked up $5.00 on the Sep 140 Puts as it broke the opening range low @ $105. I sold @ 99.50. Then, I was getting my order ready to re-enter and double-up with Sep 105 Puts as it consolidated and broke through $99.00 but I was 5 f'n seconds too late as the $10+ freefall took off without me. I need to use automated contingent orders more often.



MS - This set-up a very tight range at $20.20 before breaking through. I picked up only $2.00 with Sep 30 Puts as it retraced on me before falling down to $11.70.



BEN - What f'n timing. I was trying to decide between SKF Puts on the double-top or BEN Puts on an inverse HG. Wrong choice. I went with BEN 95 Puts as it crossed below 82.50. The market turned on a dime and I ate a "hefty" $6.00 loss as BEN rallied to my "uncle" point of $88.00.



Longs

GS - After the reversal, I waited for GS to pull back and re-entered with Sep 105 Calls @ 106.00. I dumped the calls @ 114.00 for $4.00 profit.



AAPL - I was trying to decide which tech to go long in the last hour. I looked at BIDU, GOOG and AAPL. BIDU looked like it was lagging and apparently it caught up and took off after I looked at the chart. I picked up AAPL Sep 135 Calls @ 132.50 and dumped 1/2 at $135.00 for $1.00 profit.



Net-net, I made some money but missed a lot of great moves today. The 5-min charts on WB and FED looked great for low-risk entries. In the last hour, BIDU and CME were the options expiration plays of the day. BLK reversed big as well but I did look at those OTM options and the bid/ask spread was too far apart at the time.