Expiration Friday

Hey guys, it's been a while since I had anything to say. I had put on a total of 5 naked option positions at various times this month. I had naked puts on GG, LEAP, VLO, and UA. I had naked calls on SPY. GG and UA expired worthless, I closed out VLO early for a gain, closed out the SPY calls today for a -$100 loss, they expired worthless three hours later, frustrating. I have a -$2000 paper loss on the LEAP puts. I will be taking possession this weekend at a strike of $17.50 with a cost average of $16.50, and will sell Nov calls on Monday. So the realized gain this month for the four positions was $1240, however, including the paper loss it currently stands at -$760 for the sum total of the five positions.

For me this was a good month because I'm back to being in the game and speculating. Between the financial crisis and the uncertainty of future employment I had been running scared for a while and just hoarding cash. Just a few weeks ago I closed out my JPM call spread and left a lot of profit on the table because I wanted to get in cash for a possible move to Chicago. I would not be closing out that position today and currently regret doing so. It's a signal to me that I wasn't in my right mind a few months back. I feel like I've got my confidence back now after having lost it a few years ago. So I'm happy, today, we'll see what tomorrow brings.