Matt's Positions as of December 31

AAPL:

Long 1 JAN11 100 Call

AEMD:

Long 7000 shares

CTSH:

Short 1 JAN09 20 Call

Long 2 JAN11 15 Call

GME:

Long 2 JAN11 20 Call

RIMM:

Short 1 FEB09 40 Call

Long 1 JAN11 30 Call

SLV:

Long 100 Shares

SPY:

Short 2 JAN09 94/97 Vertical Call Spread

Short 2 JAN09 95/98 Vertical Call Spread

Short 2 FEB09 80/83 Vertical Put Spread

Short 2 FEB09 96/98 Vertical Call Spread

UA:

Short 1 JAN09 22.50 Call

Long 1 APR09 25 Call

This month profit (loss):  2.3%

Year-to-date profit (loss):  (37.5%)

December was, hopefully, a turnaround month and not a fluke.  Most of the December expirations ended up in the money for me and I was able to lock in some solid profits, both with the vertical spreads on SPY and with some diagonal positions traded against the long options on some preferred stocks.

Strategy going into 2009:  Stay the course and try to make this strategy work for me.  A 2.3% gain per month is not too bad annually, if December was not a fluke that is.

Matt's Positions as of December 1

AAPL:
Long 1 JAN11 100 Call

AEMD:
Long 8000 shares

CTSH:
Long 2 JAN11 15 Call

FSLR:
Short 2/1 DEC08 110/115 Backratio Spread

SLV:
Long 100 shares

SPY:
Long 2 DEC08 68/69/106/109 Iron Condor
Long 2 DEC08 68/69/106/108 Iron Condor
Long 2 DEC08 78/79/97/99 Iron Condor
Short 2 DEC08 85/87 Vertical Put Spread
Long 2 DEC08 84/86 Vertical Put Spread

UA:
Long 1 APR09 25 Call

This month profit (loss): (9.2%)
Year-to-date profit (loss): (38.9%)


Some adjustments I'm going to make:

• Not going to do backratio spreads any more, at least not for a while. They consume too much cash.
• Need to monitor the long positions a bit closer, to figure out how to sell premium against them.
• Need to be thinking about when to get out of the UA call.

All in all, even though I'm still going down, I'm not unhappy about this yet. I mean, I'm not really that happy with it either, but the bulk of my position is in SPY, and so far it is looking pretty positive for December expiration.