Yes, that was a wild ride today. And a fun one, for some of us.
I began the day positioned with a fifth of my portfolio in put options:
SPY DEC 2010 105.0000 PUT
SPY DEC 2011 90.0000 PUT
Over the course of a few hours, the first of those positions DOUBLED in price. After the market bounced back up (hurting my put values) those two put positions closed up about 30% for the day.
Unreal!
SPY SEP 2010 85.0000 PUT.
Only a few days ago that option was about $0.40, can you blame me for dumping it yesterday at $0.75. After all, the sucker is expiring in a few months, and look how far out of the money it is. (SPY closed at 113 today)
But naturally, I cried when it today it peaked at $1.70, and traded last at $1.57. I missed out on an additional doubling of that position in a mere 24 hours.
NOTE: it is extremely unusual for me to have a fifth of my retirement portfolio in options. I had a good instinct, so I took a temporary risk with that 20% options position, and it paid off. I note, it is not wise to have more than about 5% of a retirement portfolio in anything as risky as options, at any one time. No I don’t want to read your flame posts lecturing me on my excessive risk. I understand the risks I take.
Ahh, but another half my portfolio is also in PROSHARES ULTRASHORT S&P 500. So I’m living dangerously.
With those positions, you can imagine, I’m up net about 10% for the day across my entire portfolio.
Tomorrow, I will probably dump ALL my short positions and go to cash (because I should have done that today at 1:30 PM!). I’m guessing the markets will soon head back up to 1200 on the S&P500. However, I’m guessing that sometime in the next 24 months, markets will hit levels MUCH LOWER than where we saw them close today. That’s why I’m holding the 2011 put options.
However, full disclosure, this has been a ROUGH year for me in the stock market, and since Jan 1 2010 my portfolio remains in net loss position, even after today’s gains. And that’s pathetic that I was unable to make money in a year where stocks have pretty much gone straight up, despite a few minor pullbacks such as we saw today. I held my bearishly biased position too long into the rally.
However, my portfolio does remain in a net positive position, relative to its value at the Oct 2007 market peak.
