Monday, June 28, 2010

AKAM additional position

I previously sold the July 40/39 put spread for .14 with the intent to close if it breaks its support line. Today I sold naked $50 calls for .30. I would possibly close this position as well if we broke resistance to the upside. So this is a long call away from being an iron condor. I am going to continue using the TOS risk analysis screen shots, but most trades will be done at IB until further notice. If we hit either side of the channel I'll probably close out the opposite side of the trade. I'll be quick to curtail losses in some trades as I've already got some nice gains in others.
















Update: This position crashed hard today closing literally on the support line. As of closing price it is close to my 1% of capital loss risk threshold per trade at about -1500. I would hate to close this out for a big loss when it's still above the naked strike. Today's price was down 8.68% and the SPX was 3.25%, that would mean AKAM has a beta today of (8.68/3.25) = 2.67. It's listed beta is .93. According to the risk profile I have another $1.50 to the downside on this stock until it reaches my risk threshold. It's up a bit in after hours but that means little. If we open down strong I'll be forced to close it out. It's 50-DMA is slightly above this threshold area at about $40, so if it breaks that as well as the support line on the chart I should use those as reasons to cut the trade. Below is the current chart and risk analysis of the spread trade versus just selling naked puts which was my original intention. The point I want to show is that the spread reduced risk and is allowing me to stay in this trade longer. Had I just used  naked puts the risk threshold would already be violated at -2200. 


Theoretically, let's say the stock does hold this resistance line, and ends up either expiring worthless or maybe trading sideways a few days and allowing me to get out with a much smaller loss. I'm not making any predictions, just pointing out that the spread at least is currently giving me the option of staying in a bit longer and potentially not having to take a maximum loss. I think in most cases you should use spreads to reduce risk and buying power, regardless of how this trade turns out it's been a good learning trade for me. 


Current Chart






















Current Risk Profile of spread




















Alternate profile had I used naked puts and no spread

4 comments:

  1. Damn, I did not realize before that you had that much size in the AKAM put spread sell. I think the short calls make a lot of sense in this market. And as tech has really been a bit stronger relative to the rest of the market I think you are pretty safe with the out of the money put spreads that you have sold. And like you mentioned if the market really has a huge sell off you have your protection with the SPY hedge that you put on.

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  2. The size was a bit deceiving as they were never meant to take the possible max loss. I used a spread instead of naked puts because it lowered the buying power and loss should we sell off, as we are today. We broke the trend channel today and the position is close to my threshold of a 1% loss, so I have to look at accepting a loss and closing this out.

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  3. This was one of the better tech names so I felt comfortable with this if the market were to sell off, but today's candle shows that logic didn't hold up.

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  4. I updated this post with today's post trade analysis.

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