My trades for the new year

Hello!  My December puts all expired worthless, and my CMG calls caused my 200 shares to get sold at $85.  My positions after expiration consisted of my 900 FUQI shares, my 500 NTES shares, and my 1800 STEC shares, along with the STEC backspread I described last time.  For January expiration I decided to continue my put-selling strategy, as well as my covered-call strategy.  I made the following trades:

Date	Time	Type	Description	Fee	Commission	Amount
21-Dec-2009	10:40:46	Trade	Sold 1 AAPL Jan10 195 PUT (APVMS) @ $4.50	0.0300	12.50	437.4700
21-Dec-2009	10:26:08	Trade	Sold 3 GOLD Jan10 75 PUT (GUDMO) @ $1.70	0.0300	12.50	497.4700
21-Dec-2009	10:22:31	Trade	Sold 7 AIXG Jan10 30 PUT (QWAMF) @ $0.65	0.0500	12.50	442.4500
21-Dec-2009	10:18:24	Trade	Sold 2 ABV Jan10 95 PUT (ABVMS) @ $2.55	0.0300	12.50	497.4700
21-Dec-2009	10:04:25	Trade	Sold 4 JOYG Jan10 50 PUT (JQYMJ) @ $1.35	0.0400	12.50	527.4600
21-Dec-2009	09:50:17	Trade	Sold 9 FUQI Jan10 24 CALL (QXFAY) @ $0.05	0.0500	12.50	32.4500
21-Dec-2009	09:47:31	Trade	Sold 5 NTES Jan10 40 CALL (NGHAH) @ $0.55	0.0300	12.50	262.4700
21-Dec-2009	09:46:58	Trade	Sold 33 HL Jan10 6 PUT (HLMR) @ $0.30	0.1600	16.50	973.3400
21-Dec-2009	09:46:19	Trade	Sold 2 AMZN Jan10 125 PUT (QZNMX) @ $2.54	0.0300	12.50	495.4700

The total premium for these short trades is $4,166.05.  Can't wait to see what happens next month!  Happy holidays!

A cool book, and an interesting "stock repair" idea

I came across a very interesting book, Options for the Beginner and Beyond by Edward Olmstead, at Borders last weekend.  Consider my position in STEC, which is currently underwater.  My overall cost basis is $22.78 per share.  I'm still feeling bullish about this stock.  Last Monday, STEC was trading around $12.49 per share.  What if I could get back to even, without having to require that STEC trade back to over $22?  And what if I could get paid to do it?  That's what Chapter 16 in Olmstead's book describes.  The idea is to sell a call ratio backspread... what's that???  It's like a vertical call spread, but we're selling the higher strike in the ratio of 2 to 1 to the lower strike.  Here's the trade I put on last Monday:

Date	Time	Type	Open or Close	Description	Fee	Commission	Amount
7-Dec-09	9:41:26	Trade	OPEN	Sold 18 STEC Jan11 17.5 CALL (ZKWAW) @ $2.25	0.18	-	4,049.82
7-Dec-09	9:41:23	Trade	OPEN	Sold 18 STEC Jan11 17.5 CALL (ZKWAW) @ $2.26	0.18	-	4,067.82
7-Dec-09	9:41:20	Trade	OPEN	Bought 18 STEC Jan11 12.5 CALL (ZKWAV) @ $3.86	0.07	27.00	(6,975.07)

Assuming no commissions, the net credit is $1,170.00, which I get to keep no matter what happens.  The maximum gain occurs at the higher strike of $17.50, where the short calls would expire worthless and the long calls would be worth $5 each.  Including the credit, my total position in STEC stock and options would be worth $41,670 in this case (1800 STEC * $17.50 + 1800 ZKWAV * $5 + $1,170), which would be just above my cost basis of $41,000.  Another way to look at this trade is as a covered call plus a bull call spread.

In order to "get back to even" I'd need STEC to rise to around $17.32 per share by the third week of January, 2011.  Much better than having to have it rise back to $22.78!