The market put in another solid week with the Dow-30 finally breaking the 10,000 on Thursday before closing a hair below the 10K mark on Friday.
Earnings were a mixed-bag in what seemed like a winner-take all situation. Winners were JP Morgan Chase and Goldman Sachs. Loosers with Citi and Bank of America. It seems like an increasingly polarized world with an ever widenening gap between the haves and have-nots.
On the technology side, Intel and Google had strong earnings and its great to see companies in technology space awash in cash innovating for a better future. When you think about it, technology and innovation is what the US has going for it. Its certainly not low operating costs or fiscal responsibility!
Anyway, the general market has been so good lately, that its making less sense to bet on individual stocks and just buy the index. Easy buys in this environment are SPY, DIA. Don't over think it, just buy the index.
In terms of my week's trading, PWRD was a heart-breaker. After a great run-up to 50 a few weeks back, it pulled back to the 45 area in what would be considered an average or expected pullback. But it kept going south and I had to bail out of my position at about 41.25 in one account and just under 40 in another account.
This was a particularly painful loss since i've been avoiding nasty losses for the most part lately. Everything else is going well and I will cover this in my positions update.
Finally, I closed out the SPY 107 short call on Thursday for a loss of about $100 per account. I was well in the money on this position (in addition to the 105 put) about 2 weeks ago. Instead I just held on and let both legs go to a loss. On the bright side, I held onto my SPY which is now well in the money.
This brings up a good point with option trades that you can't just let them ride. You must have an exit plan and execute accordingly.
Overall i'm finally making back some of my losses for the year. See you in the positions update.