Matt's Trade Log - 8/12/08

Three trades today:

• Sell 4 AOB JAN10 5 call
• Buy 1 ISRG AUG08 260/270 vertical put spread
• Buy 1 FSLR AUG08 280/290 vertical call spread

AOB ended up a loser this time. I bought when I got a buy signal and sold at the sell signal, but ended up buying the call at $5.60 and selling for $4.40. This is a good argument to sell premium instead of buying (or at least to do it in addition to buying), but selling premium on AOB is hard because the price is so low. AOB might be good to stay out of for now, or maybe a different strategy is required.

The trades for ISRG and FSLR were to exit positions. It seemed wise to secure gains in both in case of the possible, however unlikely, wild move in either before expiration. The ISRG spread was initially sold for $3.50 and bought back for $.09 securing a profit of $3.41. The FSLR spread was initially sold for $3.15 and bought back for $.30 securing a profit of $2.85. Not bad for either.