oldnemesis. Here is a specific question:
If on May 6th one bought 1-20-16 $125 ATM Calls of AAPL @ ~$9. On May 22, AAPL was at ~$132 so he would have a gain of ~$6. At that point, he had a nice profit but still had a long way till expiration. He had the following options:
1. Do nothing and wait
2. Take partial profit, say sell half and keep the rest till later
3. Exit and call it a day
4. Take profit by roll up to another ATM Call say @ $132 strike
5. Convert the long call into a spread by selling either ITM, ATM or OTM calls, thus limit his profit but with additional lowering of his costs
6. Buy a protective put
7. Write a credit spread of equal # of contracts to lower my cost as a way for some protection
8. Do a ratio write, effectively create more credit spreads.....
The possibilities seem endless. What was the best path going forward? Recouped investment and let the rest run (what was the best path here) or exited and called it a day or did nothing?
If you were in that situation, how would you manage your trade?
Appreciate your comment and advice.
All of the above. Or none of the above... or some of the above. It depends.
Every morning when I get up I review all the news. Then I review my portfolio and then I review the news again.
e.g.
Today Janet Yellen said again she was going to raise rates.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/yellen-says-a-rate-hike-likely-to-be-needed-this-year-2015-07-10
Well she's been saying this for a while. Janet doesn't look like a broad I'd pay much attention to so I have been taking a wait and see attitude. I have been holding a spread in TLT that has a good deal of profit in it that I don't want to lose. TLT took a dip on Yellen's insistence she was going to raise rates:
http://stockcharts.com/h-sc/ui?s=tlt
This means to me that people are beginning to believe Janet so I closed my TLT position and locked in my profit.
Other days, other realities, evolving portfolio: different decisions.