[Kikib]

Well that was ironic – I was having a chat with Schwab when I saw this. Currently and I just confirmed this, they do not accept credit spreads in IRAs so it may be time to look around. Thanks for the info.

Teddi – Bear Markets are why we trade SDOW right :)

[Kikib]

Thx Teddi, but as I just read in your Couch Potato Strategy, as the author of the email said, you are now my Captain. We are done with financial advisors.

Ironically and I am still reading the fine print, we were in Schwab’s Private Client program. If anyone isn’t familiar with it, you have quarterly reviews but you do not have to accept their advice ( clearly in the fine print) and can make your own trades. Their fees were actually low especially when I started to build my cash reserves (no fees charged) and took some nice profits that were on stocks that “they” didn’t like but I was really listening to your advice and methodologies so I agreed.

They are only doing their job, but I knew your 9 Myths of Investing was always how I felt but busy working and didn’t have the time. They are conservative old school and and just can’t deviate from what they are told to do.

So I started trading a lot- commission free but paid their quarterly fees until I was ready to fly solo with you as the Captain.

Well we were “kicked out” of the program and they never told us!!! All of a sudden, I see a prorated “advisor” fees and commissions charged for every trade – but caught it quickly. There was ZERO notification and didn’t even have the quarterly meeting we were paying for! We have a local account manager, and we have a good relationship to the point that I believe him when he said he wasn’t informed either.

I was told about a month prior in their politically correct way that this was a concern – they didn’t know what to do with me – most people just agree like we used to.

Now , I at least told them the fees better be refunded and the commissions had better be reduced and credited and the fees were but not the reduced commission until I pushed it.

So this is a question for all – I am paying $6.95 per trade – stock or option and .50/ contract which I believe is good? I do like their tools and platform but when I finish reading the fine print of the program, we may need to take further action because so far, this just doesn’t seem right.

So this may not be the place for this post, but since Teddi mentioned having my advisor use stop losses, which I now employ, that came to mind. I would love anyone’s feedback on this.
Thanks!

[Kikib]

OK – senior moment :) I took a break from the great education I have received here and of course, didn’t make a trade, but did figure this out later.

What I did do, because we are in somewhat of a “risky” market is close out some PUTS with a profit so I won’t have to roll them out and tie up my cash reserves – not ready to do any Naked Puts yet.

So I am OK – holding alot of cash at the moment, because now or sometime soon this will be an opportunity. I am no longer worried about huge drops but trying to fix huge mistakes that financial advisors gave us that intuitively – I knew wasn’t right but just didn’t spend the time (didn’t have it) – oh well.. at least I doubt we will end up in the streets :)

Teddi – haven’t read your latest update but that is part of my daily routine, and before opening look at the futures, and today was not what I expected but now SDOW will probably be a good trade very soon – now I will read your analysis of the current conditions and your expectations- I always knew understanding the technicals was the key.

Thanks to all – at least I can look at technicals now and tell what has happened with a stock before I look at the price!

When you take over a mess due to bad advice, you do learn painfully but I am confident that soon, I will have the portfolio where I want it and then just make adjustments as needed. When I look at my monthly statements, I have done well with options but still hold many stocks that were just bad advice – but many in IRA accounts – I will not take the hit that I was told to do before!!

My favorite example is Medbox MDBX – it’s worthless but the CB is ~$40 – it soared to $90 for a speculative stock? Nope the advisor didn’t say take a profit…. at least I converted it to the ROTH where if by some silly chance it does take off again, at least the gains will be tax free.

Have a great night and thanks again,
Valerie

[Kikib]

I am about ready to renter and SDOW trade but waiting to see some signs of market weakness first. Currently, the SDOW is trading at 23.93. Guess I need to review my technicals to see when is a good entry point. Thanks Teddi and all of you for support on this one!

[Kikib]

Well I was conservative and with 300 shares sold earlier today,made a $150 profit in less than 24 hours. Happy with that.

[Kikib]

Trying to get a fill at $19.44 right now. I am watching the 1 minute chart for an entry point and as it approaches overbought, I may be able to pick it up at this. Stop Loss at $19. My first Market Direction Trade after reading about it alot.

[Kikib]

Thanks Teddi – I was quite certain it had to do with low or almost no interest in the option – another stock that I am working my way out of. May have made some aggressive decisions, but I think it will pay off soon.

[Kikib]

Been in it longer than that…after I watched it go up yesterday, rolled some Covered Calls, then watched it go up in after hours only to be way down this AM so sold ASAP – so at least a nice profit on the CCs.

Just based on what I have seen with this one, opened a couple of STO P for expiry Friday and will probably end up with more shares but greatly reduce the CB. Made enough selling puts that to me, if the stock does what it sometimes does, get me out of the hole on this one quicker.

Summary
Initial CB = 300 shares at $52.22 ( thanks to great advice…)

Sold calls for a profit of around $2K.

STO P 7/31 $32.50 @ $1
STO P 7/31 $32 @ .67

Due to other put premiums rec’d , no overall gains but expect to see a rise but yes a little risky but wow do I want out!

[Kikib]

Sure – Thanks Tom be glad to provide the details and welcome any suggestions.
1. Stock ticker SPIL Bought 1000 shares (financial planner advice – no more!) on 3/20/15 @ 8.85/share.
2. Stock has done nothing but decline since. I want out.
3. Annual Div Ex date: 7/23 Payout: .49/share This will go a long way in getting me out of the hole. I know the price typically goes down after this??
4. Yesterday stock was down and still this morning is near the Lower BB. 52 week low around 6.70. Haven’t done a complete study of the technicals this AM but it seemed like the time to pick up shares.
5. Bought 2100 shares yesterday @ $7.09 to pick up the dividend (meant to do 2000 but not important).
6. Considering picking up another 1000 currently and have a limit order in at $6.95 that will expire on 7/22.
7. Sold 5 calls @7.50 Strike 9/18/15 @.16 before buying the shares yesterday. not really a good move.
8. Thought I should try to write some more calls now that I own more stock and my CB should be close to $7.52.
9. Have an additional small profit from selling and closing out 5 CCs and a Put Sell that I just rolled out from 7/17 to 8/21 @ 7.50 for a net credit of .71 – 10 contracts hoping to close soon with a small profit.

So these are my questions and where my original post started:
1. Assuming the stock doesn’t go into a further major decline next Thurs., before or a day after the ex-div., I should be at least in the black. But expecting a price adjustment due to the dividend but I don’t know how that typically impacts option premiums?
2. Now may not be the time consider selling calls since the stock is way down? This is where my original question came in as there aren’t any bid prices for $7.50 calls going out to Dec. I may need to run the numbers. A $10 CC has a nice premium but if the stock goes up…

I think that is about where I stand and thanks for the opportunity to just explain what I did. This type of exercise is making me a better investor.

Best Regards,
Valerie

[Kikib]

Jim- I wish that was my situation but it isn’t. Yep everything I am reading points to a down turn tomorrow but I see ways to make a profit.

Some day soon:) I will be in the conditional orders, stop losses,etc. and let whatever happens happen. Working on it! Thx to all of you.

Valerie

[Kikib]

I LOVE OptionsXpress – it’s how I stared my education with options. Because they were bought out by Schwab, where we hold the bulk of our investments, I keep a small account open and have had nothing but great, almost immediate Customer Service!

[Kikib]

Thank you Amy – I agree – I have learned so much here and I am so thankful for that. I would be happy to pay for Teddi’s personal help on this one so I will contact her – I appreciated the suggestion.

Other than that, all I can say is sometimes when you have a “disaster” that was mostly created by some bad financial advisors, I guess that is a good way to learn. Reading charts is now becoming much easier for me. I keep a diary and I have a code for the definitions of the technicals that I am or will use. I just need to work on a strategy, per stock, and stick with it to get out of some of the others. Fortunately we have the $$ to be able to do that – otherwise I don’t even want to think about what our situation would be.

Valerie

[Kikib]

Thx for this advice. I understand the concept of deep ITM calls, just haven’t tried it but that may be what I need to look at next. I am fully set up with a spreadsheet where I can do the ” what if” scenarios, and I will take a look.

I am in the process of accumulating cash and was able to sell a few stocks at a nice profit that after being here, I know are not a fit.

If I could consistently make 1%/mo or even less but still ahead, I would be very happy now.

Thx again

[Kikib]

I am only, at the moment, trying to not take a significant hit in IRA accounts. Been through tons of advice that in my head knew was wrong (the people we paid to manage our accounts) and will no longer accept it.

This is our future and I am so glad that my “under the water” stocks, has to do with letting someone else control our accounts – no more. I have managed to get some of the losses recouped- otherwise it would worse then it already is.

Not happy but I see progress and isn’t that better than anything? Not Looking to achieve major gains on losers – just get out without a major loss (50% hit in ROTH IRA for example) that I now know never needed to happen if I would have understood better.

Thx!

[Kikib]

Thank you!

[Kikib]

I know this is an older post, but if someone could point me in the direction of this topic, Designing a Trading Plan, I would appreciate it.

Thanks,
Valerie

[Kikib]

It’s very easy to find and I like it! It’s under the Strategy tab, yes it is focuses on FB in this article, could apply to many as Teddi says, AAPL – not doing so bad there.

[Kikib]

Options Teddi – Thank you.

[Kikib]

Hi John,
I really like Teddi’s Super Charge buy writes! I am a little more conservative (since I am still getting my feet wet) so for example the one I did today, on DE I entered a conditional order that only if the stock goes down to $92.50 before the ex-div date, then I will buy the shares. That may be a stretch, but it has moved around a little too. So if that happens, the premium for the call will be less and I didn’t review the delta on the option possibilities but I think there’s some space there. Plus it’s has a place as a core stock for me too. KO – great one. I also entered a trade on NEU today as well. I thought about ITW but decided it wasn’t right for me.

Having said all of that, I think your suggestion is a good one. I will try some time over the weekend to enter some parameters into a tool that is on Options Express and see if I can get any “hits”.

Yes thank you again Teddi for all your amazing help. You probably have this all figured out so to me it will be an exercise on how to use more tools and develop more confidence. That’s the other reason I like Options Express – the virtual trading platform that I now use thanks to your push in that direction.

[Kikib]

I just added the volume by price – looks like something I am going to have to learn.I have it set for 1 mo. right now and I do see a gap – attached. Is that what you are referring to? Again, this is something that I need to learn since I have never used it. This is coming from Schwab streaming charts.

Attachments:

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[Kikib]

Ironically, I was just looking at this today and saw most of what you said in your technical analysis – but didn’t follow you on the volume since that’s not what I am seeing. Having said that, I am still on a learning curve. What time frame were you looking at for the charts?

I did as Teddi suggested bought shares using the Super Charge Buy Write Strategy (sort of) to pick up the dividend that goes ex on 6/11. I was able to get the shares @ 40.70 but they are lower now @ $40.20. I wrote the calls at a $41 Strike July 26 @.55 premium which is where I deviated from the strategy (not an ITM call as the strategy outlines). Now I am considering buying more before the ex date since looking to make this a core holding anyway. Need to check where the options are at before this as well.

I think where I get confused, is #1 I have a lot of repair work going on thanks to some bad financial planners, and #2 looking at too many indicators on a stock I want. With my due diligence and also reading other posts, tells me $40 or more conservatively, $39 is the support level over the last year. But yes “mixed signals” on the signals?? I agree.

I just looked at a 1 year, 6 mos. and finally 3 mos. The 3 mos. is showing potential for everything to line up to possibly a higher trend and KO is up in after hours too. Maybe a buy for tomorrow?? Not rushing into anything since I have a lot of ground to make up for – I have a portfolio at the moment where there are only a couple of greens but part of that is because I finally learned how to sell and take a profit!

[Kikib]

I agree – yes, limited upside at this point is all I see. Even that is not the case, I want out of the stock because there are much better equities to own for us at this point in our lives.

Thank you so much for your help. I have a few more stocks that I need to work my way out of so pretty sure that your advice for GMCR will work for these as well. Right now though, GMCR is the “worst of the worst”.

[Kikib]

Makes perfect sense to me – I just wish our financial advisor at the time would have understood this too and used stop losses! I completely agree with the one product line concept. As you said, good for a while, but it’s not sustainable. We were busy working and thought we were paying someone to protect us.

Fortunately, we have enough capital to work with to make our portfolio do better and while we can’t get back time, we can at least now be educated and make well informed decisions on our own.

Besides, Teddi – how can anyone argue with your track record? This site is a financial “life preserver” for us. I am enjoying the education as well.

[Kikib]

Yes it makes sense completely Teddi and thank you (except for maybe the part about support in relationship to volume). That is kind of how my original post started. I did sell a couple of puts that at the time (week or so ago) that I thought were relatively conservative, but willing to take on more shares to get my cost basis down. Then of course, the stock continued to decline.

If the stock stays around where it’s at today, I will be assigned most likely but with the premium collected, I will own them at about the current price. 2 Puts @ $88 that expire June 19. I wouldn’t close them out now since that would be at a loss but a lot less of one then yesterday.

Yes – thanks for the article next week since I really don’t want to own any more of GMCR. Hope you are having a great trip and once again, I am so thankful that I found you and this great site!

Valerie

[Kikib]

Thanks for your advice and I will set up the charts on OX.

Actually I have never been a short term trader until recently when I realized the damage that has been done by investment advisors. I have to take control now since at this point, I have finally found this site and feel that I can make informed decisions to repair alot of damage to my (really should say our since this involves my husband) portfolios. Here’s a good example – buying FCX at the peak in April of 2011, watch it tank in my Roth IRA, held it for years, then transferred brokers who recommended selling it and took a 50% loss for sitting on something for over 4 years – a large % of the account by the way. Or there was the $40K put into a Lehman Bros. bond 2 weeks after transferring my husband’s 403b savings into an investment account. I don’t think I need to say how that felt… This was way before I knew about options. We were paying someone alot of money to manage our account – yes it’s painful to sell something in a tax deferred account but that should have been suggested – a stop loss could have saved me a bundle. FCX (the last time I looked and I don’t typically) has never been as high as when we bought it.

We initiated our first position in GMCR in Nov. 2011 so there is a history. I know when I look at the chart you are recommending, I am going to know why I feel the way I do… At one point I believe we had around 500 shares and not bought at the right time – of course.

Short term for now but with the goal of getting out of GMCR. That means learning many things (very happy about that) and I will eventually get the strategies I like and the stocks I want to own in order. I am in my mid 50s, it’s not time for any more major mistakes. Market corrections I can handle – bad advice, not protecting our assets, and now not agreeing with the investment advisors – that is something I won’t accept anymore.

So now I am off to OX to set up the chart you suggest and thanks again. I know I am long winded but find part of this forum to be therapeutic as well. Letting go of the past (we always saved first!) and moving on with the goal of wealth preservation and improved returns going forward.

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