May returns 5.89%

My returns for this month were positive but not stellar. However, the returns don’t tell the whole story mostly because I closed less than half of my open positions. I still have severel ICs, IBs, and Verticals open which will expire in June and July.

I closed a naked put position on PPD too early. Had I held out another 2 weeks I would have been up $3.00 on the 6.00 put. However I bought it back for $5.30 because of an artical I read that spooked me a bit. I’m still finding my way with naked put selling and even though I felt the trade was still good I allowed myself to be swayed by one negative article. I should have taken the article along with other ideas such as the technicals. The technicals were still good and the IV was still dropping making the position less risky than I was viewing it. Oh, well no one ever went broke taking a profit even if it is a small one.

My second area that pulled down returns was in the SPY ICs. The market got very strong for a week or so and got to around 94. My short Call strike was 91/92 so when the market pulled back to the the 91 area I started selling off the call side of the ICs. Unfortunately SPY never got low enough to make the calls break even or somewhat profitable. So I took a small loss on the SPY ICs.

The other drag was an BRCS on AAPL. I was right on this one but I didn’t stick it out long enough. I sold the 130/135 May BRCS with 18 days left and I did it the day after expiration with the feeling that it was overextended and all the good earnings news was baked in the stock. The stock stalled for several days around 125 but then the Nazz took off like a rocket taking APPL with it up to 132 over a couple of days. I held out for a few days but the Nazz remained strong and I felt I didn’t have enough time for the position to turn around so I took a 1.00 loss. Max loss on the position was 3.50. I felt it was the prudent thing to do. About 3 days after I closed out the stock fell to 128 and by expiration it was around 122. Oh well, the position could have just as easily ran to 140 as 122 and stuck me with a much bigger loss so I don’t regret getting out early.

Overall, the month wasn’t bad but I really felt like I never really had a good read on it’s direction. It was strong in the price department but volume was never strong and we only had pockets of leadership. That told me we should have been weaker than we really were. This market is still tough so a small gain is a good gain.