Hey Look at that!

Ah! Isn't this wonderful with the vol pop. Vix up 1.69 at 14.73 Vix futures up .90 at 14.25 and the ES  (S&P 500 futures) down 25.75 points or 1.47%. Along with this Russell trading at 1025 down 20.6 points down 1.99%, nasdaq futures down 50 points and Dow futures down 233 points. So, finally several of my trades are on the dance floor or profitable after waiting a while. So, I have covered many of my shorts, but again I even have put on more short positions in different stocks. I have left my longs however as in BBD to give myself some theta decay, and I want to keep it as a hedge, hopefully the stock goes nowhere. So, traders I would recommend covering shorts in anything that is profitable, and I have closed several positions for a scratch. However, this down move seems harsh, so I dont know if this is just a dip in the uptrend but if we get another short rally, but then die off we are likely to see another wave of selling. Not selling as in a crash but a good amount, and hopefully we get to 1500, I hope. If you guys are wondering why? The reason is a want a vix pop to sell some vol, and hopefully get some good profits out of that. Otherwise, I am still technically long vix and hopefully we can continue to pop. So I don't usually do this but I will give you guys a list of my current positions. FYI I usually have more stock trades in and I am so heavily in verticals because of the low vol in the market...otherwise I am very non-directional with higher vol.


Portfolio:
BBD:
Long 100 shares
Short 1 call  Semptember

BBY
Short  32/24 call vertical spread September

 BRCM:
Short 27/26 put vertical spread September

CLF
Short 24/25 call vertical spread September

 DAL
short 12/19 put vertical spread September

FB
Short 36/34 put vertical spread

FXI
Short 50 shares of stock
Short 35/36 vertical spread September

FXY
short 99/98 put vertical spread September

GLD
long 125/124 put spread September

HPQ
short 27/29 call spread September

JCP
 short 12/11 put spread in September
short 14/13 put spread September

NEM
short 33/35 call spread September

QQQ
short 73/75 call spread September

SLW
short 26/28 call spread September

 UNG (my least favorite)
short 18/17 put spread september

USO
long 37/39 put spread September

VXX
 short 14/11 put spread September

WLT
short 16/14 call spread Semptember

XLF
21/20 long put spread September

XRT
80/82 long call spread September

Slow Market but Lots of Trading

The markets were really slow today. As usually we pretty much opened down and then had the 10:30 reversal and markets went up and then just chopped. Again, it kinda feels like we have been in this range for many years, but I assure you this is not the case. However, even with the markets being choppy like this they is some interesting trading in gold, silver, bonds, currencies, and individual stocks. Right now many of my 22 positions are options positions in ETF's that are not US stock ETF's. For example, interesting action might be in bonds because bonds were down around 1.5% today (which is very interesting action for bonds) along with that emerging market equities, gold, and many individual stocks today were showing action. The big stocks were AAPL shooting up due to Ichan's comments and BBRY shooting down after being up around 10% and closing up 1%. So due to the recent action I have done 12 trades today which is a little above the norm for me, and possibly looking to do some more pairs trades. I had a pair on this morning, long SPY-QQQ pair because of a reading one of my models had, but I closed it for a small profit. So, right now I am looking for vol in individual stocks and other assets while still staying short the major indexes....hence long vix, and hopefully we can get some action.

Mean Reversion.....Please

So, I know almost all year I have said the markets need to mean revert....so I have been wrong...but we did get that little down move in June. However, it is not our job as traders or investors to be right it is our job to make money....which has been very difficult this year considering the low implied volatility. So, again, we are hopefully looking for a impl vol reversion or a VIX pop (same thing). So, course I am short again because of the low impl vol (which is same as being short due to volatility skew) Otherwise, pairs trading has been a very good trade lately. I have been enjoying my pair in SLV short gold long silver....which is up money right now, but otherwise that is my only pair. I am positioned in a few covered stock positions a bearish one in APOL and a bullish one in BBD. I am almost no idea what those companies do, but I needed those positions on. I am also short lots of put spreads in the VIX and vix products, long a few individual stocks, and short the overall market. However, just to mention my favorite positions is a short call spread in FXI.......there all kinds of fundamental reasons for this and I am considering shorting stock and turning it into some type of pair, but that is for a later post.