Position Updates

Updates for positions with legs expiring today + a few others:
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Stock / Symbol: Apache / APA
Option Strategy: calendar call spread

Entry date: Jan 14th
Price at trade entry: $124.57
1st adjustment date: Feb 16th
2nd adjustment date: Feb 17th
3rd adjustment date: Feb 22nd
4th adjustment date: Mar 21st
5th adjustment date: Apr 27

Current Position:
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Long 1 APA Jul 125 Call
Short 1 APA May 130 Call

Adjusted Cost Basis: $597.80
Current P/L ($106.36)

Update: The May 130 call we sold will expire worthless today, giving us an uncalled return of 20% for the month. Next, we'll look to either sell the June 125 or 130 call against the position or simply close the position with the stock pushing back up over 125.

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Stock / Symbol: BroadCom / BRCM
Option Strategy: diagonal call spread
Price at trade entry: $40.69
Price at this post: $33.81

Entry date: Feb 24th
1st Adjustment: Apr 15th (bought back short call and added protective put)
2nd Adjustmment: Apr 27th (sold protective put)

Current position:
Long 2 BRCM JAN12 40 Calls

Adjusted Cost Basis: $969.92
Current P/L ($639.42)

Update: With the way this stock has performed, we're sure happy we've still got up to 7 months to turn this trade around. Fundamentally, BRCM is still very strong. We're going to wait for BRCM to trade back up to the 37 - 38 level before selling another near term call; with the Aug 40 strike calls being the likely candidate.

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Stock / Symbol: Pepsi / PEP
Option Strategy: calendar call spread

Entry date: Mar 11th
1st Adjustment: Apr 7th (rolled short Apr call to May call)
2nd Adjustment: May 2nd (added protective Jun call)

Price at trade entry: $64.62
Price as of this post: $71.78

Current position:
Long 6 PEP Jul 67.5 Calls
Short -6 PEP May 67.5 Calls
Long 6 PEP Jun 72.5 Calls

Adjusted Cost Basis: $240
Current P/L: $68.85

Update: Fortunately, we added those protective calls, because PEP has well exceeded our original expectations for this stock. Today, we'll close out the entire position for around a 28% gain.

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Stock / Symbol: Pan American Silver / PAAS
Option Strategy: diagonal call spread

Entry date: Mar 18th
1st Adjustment: Apr 11th (rolled short Apr 36 call to May 38 call)

Price at trade entry: $34.81
Price as of this post: $32.43

Current position:
Long 2 PAAS Oct 33 Calls
Short -2 PAAS May 38 Calls

Adjusted Cost Basis: $1160
Current P/L: ($457)

Update: We expect that silver will stabilize at its current level, and with that, PAAS should cycle back up soon. The May 38 Calls will expire worthless today, so we'll get to keep the full $950 in premium we took in by selling them. When PAAS gets back to around $35 - $36, we'll look to sell either the Jun 36 or Jul 36 calls against the position. On a positive note, PAAS announced Wednesday that it did beat earnings estimates by $0.05 per share.
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Stock / Symbol: iPath S&P 500 VIX Short Term Futures / VXX
Option Strategy: diagonal call spread

Entry date: Mar 24th

Price at trade entry: $30.67
Price as of this post: $22.54

Current position:
Long 1 VXX Jan12 30 Call

Cost Basis: $624
Current P/L: ($258)

Update: We put this trade on as a hedge against systemic risk. This trade doesn't look pretty now, but if it did, the overall market would be looking quite ugly. We'll get another spike in market volatility between now and next January, when we do we'll either sell another call or close the position for a nice profit.
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Stock / Symbol: ProShares UltraShort Lehman 20+ Year Treasury / TBT
Option Strategy: calendar call spread

Entry date: Mar 30th

Price at trade entry: $37.89
Price as of this post: $34.17

Current position:
Long 4 TBT Sep 40 Calls
Short -4 TBT May 40 Calls

Cost Basis: $596
Current P/L: ($368)

Update: The May 40 calls we sold will expire worthless today, giving us an uncalled return of 30%. We think that TBT has bottomed, at least temporarily, at 33 and will head back up to $36 near term. At around $36, we'll look to sell the June or July 40 Calls.

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Stock / Symbol: Fifth Third Bancorp / FITB
Option Strategy: diagonal call spread

Entry date: Apr 1st

Price at trade entry: $14.05
Price at the time of this post: $13.00

Current Position:
Long 4 FITB Nov 13 Calls
Short -4 FITB May 15 Calls

Cost Basis: $724
Current P/L: ($304)

Update: The May 15 calls we sold will expire worthless today, giving us an uncalled return of 11%. Next, we'll look to sell the June calls against the position with FITB trading up 4 - 5% at around $13.50.

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Stock / Symbol: Wal-Mart / WMT
Option Strategy: calendar call spread

Entry date: Apr 6th
Price at trade entry: $53.03
Price at time of this post: $55.48

Current Position:
Long 6 WMT Sep 55 Calls
Short -6 WMT May 55 Calls

Cost Basis: $468
Current P/L: $432

Update: We have an open sell order on the position at a net credit of $1.60 per contract. The current market price for the spread is $1.50 per contract. If WMT pulls back a bit today, we should get filled. If WMT does not pull back or it does not like like we'll get filled, we'll issue a revision to our sell order. We're currently up 92% on the trade.
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Stock / Symbol: Visa / V
Option Strategy: diagonal call spread

Entry date: Apr 21st
Price at trade entry: $77.63
Price at time of this post: $79.64

Current Position:
Long 1 V Sep 72.5 Call
Short -1 V May 80 Call
Long 1 V May 72.5 Put

Cost Basis: $756
Current P/L: $134

Update: We're were pretty darn close to our price target of $80 per share by May expiration. Today, we'll close out the call spread for a net credit of around $9.00 per contract. We'll just let the protective put we included at trade entry expire worthless. We're currently up 17% on the trade.
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Stock / Symbol: Yahoo / YHOO
Option Strategy: bear call spread

Entry date: May 6th
Price at trade entry: $18.68
Price at time of this post: $16.35

Current Position:
Short -5 YHOO May 19 Calls
Long 5 YHOO May 20 Calls

Cost Basis: $390
Current P/L: $100

Update: We can pat our backs on this one. We're going to let the position expire worthless to capture the full 28% yield in just 2 week's time.
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Stock / Symbol: S&P 500 Index / SPX
Option Strategy: iron condor

Entry date: May 18th
Price at trade entry: $1337.25
Price at time of this post: $1343.60

Current Position:
Long 2 SPX May 1375 Calls
Short -2 SPX May 1370 Calls
Short -2 SPX May 1305 Puts
Long 2 SPX May 1300 Puts

Cost Basis: $950
Current P/L: $40

Update: It looks like the S&P should end up somewhere in our profit range of 1305 - 1370 by the day's end. If so, we'll be able to let the position expire worthless to capture the full 5.26% yield.
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