Stock/Option Plays and Discussions

Friday, June 22nd

2007-06-21T13:11:00.000-07:00

Thursday, June 21st:

Thusrday started what will hopefully be another streak of up days for me. While the DOW gained about half a percent, my account was able to move up one and a quarter percent. The move was virtually all from UTVG, which announced an acquisition yesterday after the market closed and continue to plow ahead. I did not make any trades on Thursday, but CHCG has dropped to a point where I would consider buying some shares up.

Holdings as of the end of the day Thursday:

AOB 37.9%
CEDA 18.0%
LWLL 3.4%
QAEIC 2.4%
UTVG 22.7%
Cash 15.7%

Outlook for Friday:

I will keep a close eye on CHCG to see if it will move into a potential buying range. Also, as my XING option appears to be dead money for the next month, it will be even more important to maximize my gains in UTVG. Hopefully that stock will continue its move up into the high 2s. I am also hoping to see CEDA continue its push up into the mid .60s after taking a bit of a breather Thursday.

Thursday, June 20th

2007-06-20T13:55:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, June 19th:
As expected, Wednesday did indeed end my run of consecutive up days for my account. All the major indices went down over 1% and my account dropped 1.5%. The reason for the drop had to do with weakneed from AOB and XING stating that it could be another month before they release their 06 numbers. I did not make any trades, as I did not feel there were great buying or selling opportunities.

Holdings as of the end of the day Wednesday:

AOB 38.2%
CEDA 18.5%
LWLL 3.4%
QAEIC 3.1%
UTVG 20.9%
Cash 15.9%

Outlook for Thursday:

On Thursday I am going to be looking for more gains from UTVG. This stock has been one my best buys and I am hoping for the upward trend to continue. Additionally, I will be watching for any pullback in CHND or CHCG that would create an attractive entry point.

Wednesday, June 20th

2007-06-19T15:23:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, June 19th:
Well, Tuesday did indeed mark the 7th straight up day for my account. Not only did it extend the streak, but it was also my largets dollar gain thus far. While the DOW increased slightly, my account was able to gain 2.4% today on a strong move from UTVG and CHND. This rally has brought me to within 8.3% of attaining my goal. I made one trade today, selling off the rest of my CHND at 3.28. I will be looking to rebuy into the stock, however, on any pullbacks.

Holdings as of the end of the day Tuesday:

AOB 38.9%
CEDA 18.2%
LWLL 3.4%
QAEIC 3.8%
UTVG 20.0%
Cash 15.7%

Outlook for Wednesday:

I have a feeling that Wednesday could mark the end of my winning streak on the market, especially if the overall markets take a reprieve. Most of my stocks finished very close to their highs of the day and have had a significant run up the last week or so. I believe that there could very possibly be a pullback with a couple of the stocks I own, causing my value to drop. This will be alright however, as long as I can continue the general trend up going forward. In other news, the Hedge Fund account had another up day and has approached a 2% return for the month. This return is made more remarkable given the fact that we have only been trading for about a week and we only have approximately 40% of our funds invested at this point.

Tuesday, June 19th

2007-06-18T13:21:00.000-07:00

Monday, June 18th:
My account carried on with the momentum from last week, making today the 6th consecutive up day for my portofolio. While no move has been overly dramatic, these solid days have gotten me to within 10% of my goal to break even before pulling out of the account. I made only 1 trade today, selling my initial shares of CHND after they announced a nice contract for one of their subisiary companies. In other news, UTVG seems to have broken out of its trading range and CEDA reached .60 for the first time in a while.

Holdings as of the end of the day Monday:
AOB 40.6%
CEDA 17.8%
CHND 5.4%
LWLL 3.4%
QAEIC 3.7%
UTVG 18.2%
Cash 10.6%

Outlook for Tuesday:
Tuesday will try to bring the streak to 7 straight up days for my account. I will be looking for UTVG and CEDA to continue their rallies, as well as watching to see if AOB can break through 10. Other than that, I will be doing the normal price observing for opportunities to make some money. In Rick and my hedge fund account, we will look to build on a solid day Monday and try to solidify our long term holdings while at the same time making a profit in the short term.

Monday, June 18th

2007-06-15T13:38:00.000-07:00

Friday, June 15th:
Friday was another good day for me. I was able to beat the DOW and made it every day this week that my account gained value. While it may be hard to continue that run going into the following week, I am holding out hope that XING releases their earnings and I can bank off of my option. On Friday I took the chance to add to my position in CHND at $3.02. The stock later fell to 2.85, but came back to close at 3. I am hoping that this can get a little pop early next week and get out for a 3-5% profit.

Holdings as of the end of the day Friday:

AOB 41.0%
CEDA 17.3%
CHND 15.3%
LWLL 3.6%
QAEIC 4.6%
UTVG 18.3%
Cash 0.0%

Outlook for Monday:

Will XING report earnings? Will they announce an earnings release date??? That is the big question. I am hoping for them to release it sometime during the week, so why not Monday? This stock will be rags or riches for me, as my option will either triple in value, or be worthless after this report I believe. As for the rest of my stocks, I will be watching CHND carefully to hopefully play the sell side of my swing. Other than that, I have no cash available. So, I will have to sell something if a great buying opportunity comes along.
In other news, my first contribution for our Hedge Fund account should be in on Monday. If Rick's brother's contribution also clears, the account value will push over $10,000 for the first time...the first milestone of many hopefully.

Friday, June 15th

2007-06-15T06:18:00.001-07:00

Thursday, June 14th:
The markets had yet another rally today as consumer spending continued to grow at a good pace. My account lagged slightly, only gaining a fractional amount. I did not make any trades on Thursday, but CHND is consolidating to a price where I may be tempted to buy more.

Holdings as of the end of the day Thursday:
AOB 41.1%
CEDA 17.6%
CHND 5.2%
LWLL 3.6%
QAEIC 3.7%
UTVG 18.3%
Cash 10.5%

Outlook for Friday:

I will continue to watch the markets today for any buying opportunities. Between the recently started hedge fund and my personal account, I have plenty to watch for. I continue to wait for XING's long awaited earnings report, but do not hold out much hope for them reporting before next week.

Thursday, June 14th

2007-06-13T13:11:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, June 13th:
The market had a good rally today, leading many stocks higher. AOB was helped along somewhat due to them finally announcing an acquisition. While it is somewhat smaller than I had hoped for, I think there may be some more acquisitions on the horizon for the company in the next few months. One of my smaller holdings, CPNE, climbed over 20% at one point today, allowing for me to sell out of it with an 8% profit after being down 15% on it a couple days ago. All in all my portfolio had just over a 1% increase today, slightly underperforming the DOW.

Holdings as of the end of the day Wednesday:
AOB 41.6%
CEDA 17.1%
CHND 5.4%
LWLL 3.4%
QAEIC 3.7%
UTVG 18.2%
Cash 10.6%

Outlook for Thursday:

As time goes on, I am beginning to believe that QAEIC, my XING option, is the key for me to get back to even. It had jumped from about $80 a few days ago to $130 yesterday before falling back down today. I await XING's earnings release in hope that it will send the stock upward and hopefully giving me at least a double on my investment. As for my strategy for the day, it remains the same as before.

Wednesday, June 13th

2007-06-12T14:31:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, June 12th:
Well, as expected, I was not able to do much market watching throughout the day. This was the first day in over a week where I did not make any trades. All in all it ended up being a pretty good day, however. The DOW dropped over 100 points, and I was able to gain .5% in my account even with my top holding falling over 4%.

Holding as of the end of the day Tuesday:
AOB 40.8%
CEDA 16.7%
CHND 5.4%
CPNE 3.3%
LWLL 3.7%
QAEIC 5.3%
UTVG 17.9%
Cash 6.8%

Outlook for Wednesday:

Hopefully I will have some more time to watch the market today. The past couple days CHND has traded lower than normal, and I will be watching to potentially add around 3.05. Other than that, it will be normal watching and waiting.

Tuesday, June 12th

2007-06-12T14:14:00.000-07:00

Monday, June 11:
Monday ended up being quite a wild ride for me. At one point, my account was up over 4% for the day before settling in at a modest 1.2% gain. JASO proved to be a good trade as it announced favorable terms on a supply deal and rose over 5% on the news. After buying the stock at 23.50 on Thursday, I was able to sell it Monday for 24.70.

Holding as of the end of the day Monday:

AOB 42.9%
CEDA 16.1%
CHND 5.5%
CPNE 3.2%
LWLL 3.6%
QAEIC 4.2%
UTVG 17.7%
Cash 6.9%

Outlook for Tuesday, June 12th:
As always, I will do my best to find opportunities for a quick, value trade. However, I will be busy with work most of the day and may not have the time to do much watching.

Monday, June 11th

2007-06-08T13:40:00.001-07:00

Friday, June 8th:
Well, Friday was not a good day at all for me. My account dropped while the market rallied big time. I was able to make one good trade with CHNG, buying it at the open at 2.77 and selling it shortly afterwards for 3.02. Other than that though, it was not a day to be please about. My largest holding fell as muc as 4% intraday, one holding fell 14%, and CEDA could not hold its gains on high volume.

Holdings as of the end of the day Friday:

AOB 42.5%
CEDA 17.6%
CPNE 3.1%
JASO 6.5%
LWLL 3.8%
QAEIC 3.2%
UTVG 17.7%
Cash 5.6%

Outlook for Monday:

Pray.

Friday, June 08 Update

2007-06-07T13:11:00.000-07:00

Thursday June 07:

Thursday was a bit of a setback for me. My account lost approx 1.4% of its total value, but with the market as negative as it was, it does not surprise me that my stocks took a bit of a hit. My biggest loser percentage wise was UTVG. With a low float and a quick drop down, I took the chance to buy some more at what turned out to be the low of the day. Hopefully in the next few days I will be able to get positive on this stock and sell it for a gain. I also took the weakened prices to buy into JASO, a chinese solar company, for the first time. This stock has fluctuated quite a bit as of late, and I am hoping to catch a swing to the upside in the coming days.

Holdings as of the end of the day Thursday:
AOB 42.4%
CEDA 17.7%
CPNE 3.6%
JASO 6.5%
LWLL 3.7%
QAEIC 3.2%
UTVG 17.7%
Cash 5.2%

Outlook for Friday, June 08:

During the trading day Friday, I am going to continue doing the regular tracking of my core stocks, and look for ways to take advantage of their prices. If stocks continue to decline, I may decide to sell a couple of my stocks for a small loss to consolidate them into some of my current holding and increase my exposure in them.

Thursday, June 07 Update

2007-06-07T09:06:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, June 06:

Considering how the markets were in negative territory throughout the day, my stocks were able to hold up fairly well and I got out of it with a minimal loss. One of the main reasons for my account holding up was CHCG, which I sold for 6.50 and buying in at an average price of about 6.10. In the end, this turned out to be too quick of a sale as it later rose to 7.00 right before the close for a 13% gain on the day. In other action, I also added to my position in UTVG and opened a position in CPNE.

Holdings as of the end of the day Wednesday:
AOB 42.3%
CEDA 17.8%
CPNE 3.6%
LWLL 3.8%
QAEIC 2.9%
UTVG 10.2%
Cash 19.7%

Outlook for Thursday:
The biggest stock for me to watch today will be CHCG. I am hoping for it too drop back below where I sold yesterday, but do not forsee it occuring. Another stock I will be following closely is CHND. There seems to be some good news coming out about the company and I will look to add it to my portfolio on any weakness today.

On a side note, Rick and I's joint account has opened up and we could see our first funds in it as early as today.

Wednesday, June 06 update

2007-06-05T14:25:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, June 05:
Today was a fairly good day for me I believe. I was able to raise my account value slightly on a down day in the market. While I am still far off from my goal, I feel like I am positioning myself better to reach that mark. As I stated in my previous post, I bought an intial position in UTVG, and watched for other values throughout the day. I was able to find what I thought was a good value by buying CHCG under 6 and increased my holdings in the company.

Holdings as of the end of the day Tuesday:
AOB 42.8%
CEDA 17.1%
CHCG 5.4%
LWLL 3.8%
QAEIC 3.5%
UTVG 6.8%
Cash 20.5%

Today's plans:
Today is going to consist of more watching for potential value plays that will return a quick profit. If a couple of my current holding rise to a point where I could get out with a 5+% return, I will look to take the profits and wait for the next channeling of prices. Most of my attention remains focused on my largest holding, AOB, as an acquisition is imminent before the end of the month.

Tuesday, June 05 update

2007-06-05T08:12:00.000-07:00

Monday, June 4:

Well, yesterday proved to be an eventful day, with my largest holding announcing an offering of 13 million shares to raise funds for future growth and acquisitions. I took an opportunity to pick up some more, as I think the next month could show some significante steps in the growing process of this company. I also sold out of my position in CPHI and added LWLL, a small high growth company with solid prospects going forward.

Holdings as of the end of the trading day Monday:
AOB 43.3%
CEDA 15.6%
CHCG 3.4%
LWLL 3.8%
QAEIC 3.0%
Cash 29.4%

Today's plans:
As you can see, my cash position has increased with the sale of CPHI. With this money, I have arleady taken an initial position in UTVG. I will continue to monitor CHCG, CHNG, CPNE, and CHND, as well as other stocks for good entry points.

Back after hiatus

2007-06-04T07:39:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone,

I have decided to start my blog back up after taking some time off. Since my last post my account has been getting battered as chinese stocks have gotten hit. With my overall acount now down 20%, I am going to begin a series of consolidation in my holdings to try and get back to even in a fairly quick timeframe. I look forward to attempting to achieve this goal in what looks like a timid chinese market. As the days go by I plan on documenting my moves so you all have an idea of how I am trying to do this.

Last Friday: At the end of last week I finally sold my worst performing investment to date, BBC (now BBCZ). This was my first move in consolidation by building enough of a cash base to make some quick high percentage investments.

Today: Today I have taken a portion of that money and bought 10 shares of AOB. The Asian market sold off over 8% yesterday, which I feel has created a buying opportunity in this stock. An acquisition is on the horizon and I think this is a $12 stock that is trading in the low 10s due to the recent sell of in Asia. I also currently have a sell order in for all of my CPHI, as I feel that the upside is limited until the next earning announcement in August. Finally, in addition to AOB, I am looking at adding UTVG, CHNG, CPNE, and more CHCG for quick moves as I feel they are are trading at low valuations.

Current holdings followed by % of my account:
AOB 43.36
CEDA 17.20
CHCG 3.28
CPHI 18.60
QAEIC 3.11
Cash 14.53

New Game

2007-04-20T14:26:00.000-07:00

Since I have just started playing options a couple weeks ago, this Friday brings a whole new strategy for playing earnings. Before, you would have to buy an option the day before the earnings were announced and sell the following day. With options experation now behind us for April, a couple of things change. One, options are more expensive. Since the option is good for another month, it has an added time value to it. Two, you can hold the options longer and sell at different times if you want. Without the pressing need to sell before experation, you can wait longer to sell your options and give the stock more time to get in the money. Also, before today I would always sell both the call and the put on the same day, usually within minutes of eachother. However, it is not possible to sell one and keep the other for longer if you feel a stock could continue to move in a particular direction in relation to the strike prices.

Review of Yesterdays Play:
Well, AMD turned out to be a bust. While history had showed big price swings the day after releasing earnings, not even a huge miss could send AMD low enough to make money on a straddle option. Earnings missed, but it apprears that investors are holding the price up due to the idea that it might get bought out by a private equity group in the future.

Play for Next Week:
My next earnings play is USG Corporation, which is releasing earnings Tuesday before the bell. With moving to May options, this has become my most expensive straddle play to date. In looking up historic earnings movement on the company, I found that the stock moved on average 7.4% the day after releasing earnings. With options being worth 7.7% to straddle, it costs a little more than the average movement. However, I like the play due to the time value that is still created with these options. If there is even a 2% time value in the options, it appears to be a fairly decent play for these prices.

Welcome

2007-04-19T15:11:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone,

Since I have started playing earnings and options more recently, I figured I would start up this blog to give my ideas on any potential plays and review previous ones. While I am still relatively new to the options game, I am in the money in 3 out of 6 plays. More importantly, the winners outweigh the losers by a good amount. So far, I have only tried to do straddle options, buying a call and a put at the same strike price, on the expectation of earnings volatility. I was drawn to this by losing a couple equity earnings plays and noticing the extreme price movements many stocks can have after releasing earnings. I then decided to play options so that I can potentially make money if a stock declines or rises sharply after earnings.

In addition to options, I have been trading equities for about a year and a half. While I have had some big winners, I have taken my licks and learned my lessons (hopefully). All in all, it is a learning process, and hopefully I can continue to better my abilitities in this area of investing as well. Currently, all of my equity holdings are Chinese companies listed on US markets. I feel the China poses a great opportunity as their economy is expanding rapidly and the government is helping some of the new startup companies out in order to foster growth.

Play for tomorrow:
For tomorrow's trading I bought a straddle on AMD at $14 a share. The stock has been beaten down for a while and there appears to be the potential for strong pressure to either the up or down side. While AMD has reported a much wider loss than expected, the stock is currently up after hours as it appears investors might have already factored a major disappointment into the stock price and are showing some optimism for the future. I will try and report back on this play tomorrow.

Thank you for reading,

Brian