No More Weeklies

So last time I mentioned that I "exchanged" an April $41 put of AT&T for a March 24 $43 call because I disagreed with the price direction. I only paid $9 for the position since the contract price was $0.09 and each contract is worth 100 shares. I did not place a stop loss because for this size account I chose to use $10 as the risk amount per trade (minus commissions and fees).

One cool thing I am able to do with my broker is simulate a position, so I did that for the April $41 put right after I sold it. Today, after market close, it is sitting at a $20.00 net gain while the March 24 $43 call will expire worthless.

The main difference between the two is this: one is a weekly option and the other is a monthly option. I have always preferred monthly options over weekly ones, but as a confirmation of what works best for me decided to try the weekly once again. Turns out I am better at seeing longer term trends than short ones, and I like it that way.

I bought an MU May $28 call yesterday at $0.97 per contract, so the total cost basis after commissions and fees is $112.04. The direction was originally determined from technical analysis of support and resistance, but after placing the trade I realized that MU actually releases earnings after the market closes. Even though the contract expires in May, I immediately placed a trailing stop order in case the market disagrees with the trend direction because of an earnings miss, lower guidance, or whatever else is on the market's mind.

Turns out they did well. So well the contract rose to a high of $2.83. The trailing stop executed at $2.63. I believe it will rise in the coming weeks as long as the market permits it to so I bought back in at $1.97. It's currently worth $1.87 at market close. I'll hold it till the price of MU comes close to $32 or the trailing stop activates.

The VALE put without a trailing stop or stop loss recovered but is not in-the-money. I'm glad I made that a monthly option and not a weekly one. Going forward, I'll post screenshots of my account and positions like I used to, so I don't have to explain so much.

And just to summarize. The account started with $100, and I added $100 more so we can say it started with $200. It now has a value of $285.07 after a combination of winning and losing trades and $45.42 in commissions and fees.