From $47,000 on 2/16/2010 to target $500,000 trading options

[웃 910]

Going to try to do some extreme trading here and get some extreme results. Not thinking this will come overnight or even in one year. Just gonna take it a day at a time.

Some background:

First off, this is not my account. It's my father's account. I do have my own trading account but there is not a lot of money in it as I withdrew most of it to buy a rental house last fall. I am starting to rebuild my account though.

So, last year was my first full year of trading. I started around the Lehman bankruptcy in September of 2008. My dad saw my progress and was impressed so he started an account with $49,400 in it for me to trade as I pleased. The account was funded in January of 2009. In case you don't recall, the day president Obama was inaugurated was the worst inauguration day since 1969. The Dow Jones crashed more than 330 points.

In fact, January 2009 was the worst January on record! The Dow Jones sank 8.84% for the month. The previous record was 8.64% set in January of 1913!

I was off to a terrible start but the markets rallied very intensely from March through December. To make a long story short I made in 2009 realized profits of $42,936.57. Not bad at all. Actually that's a decent yearly salary.

Unfortunately I wasn't paid a dime not that I ever asked for one. I do sometimes feel as though my dad is not that appreciative of the massive gains that he collected without him having to do a thing. After all, I was the one in front of the computer all those hours, and I had the sleepless nights wondering about how the stock market would open. I got up at 5:30 and 6:30am checking the stock futures. My dad really never inquired much about the account. He wasn't checking every day, week, or even month. He might just casually ask me how the account was doing and I'd give him a rough estimate and that was that. He has never once logged in to his own account.

So anyhow, I ended 2009 somewhere around $85,000-$95,000, I can't recall exactly. I was carrying over into 2010 some unrealized losses. And these were positions I told myself I'd hold long-term and sell a year or so later for profits. Well, the second half of January 2010 was also a terrible month for stocks. I ended up cashing out the 2 or 3 stocks I was holding for even bigger losses.

Now, regarding options, I just starting getting involved with them for the past 6 months. I started off not knowing what I was doing. I basically wiped out what was left of my personal account (after pulling most of my account to buy the rental house) as I wanted to get it back to where it was as quickly as possible. My dad's account, however, stayed strong because he was working with a lot more funds and a $2,000 to $5,000 loss was not so big a deal in his account, but it was devastating in mine.

So back to present January 2010, just a month ago. I made a horrific options play in my dad's account. I lost $17,000 or $18,000 overnight on an options play (BIDU). I was at the point where I was ready to tell my dad his account was fvcked, and that I was going to give up. The account must have dropped to the $70,000 threshold. The second half of January brought some disaster to a couple of positions which brought the account down another $10,000. I said ** it, I'm gonna make one big options play, do or die, and that's that.

Well, the play was Google, and it did work out as planned. But not before decimating the account before skyrocketing (I think I went down 40% on the play before going up 20-30% profit). I was so shocked at where the account dropped I had to do a screenshot just to have it on record. The account dropped to $47,300!!!! This was the Friday, 2/12/2010 close posted below. The markets were closed on that next Monday, 2/15/2010 for Presidence Day so I had an extra long time to reflect on my poor trading decisions.

At $47,000 total in the portfolio, the account dropped to even less than what my dad started with in January 2009!!!! All $42,000 worth of profits from 2009 were erased!!! I literally made hundreds of trades and put in thousands of hours of time!! And the really bad part is he still has to pay taxes on that $42,000 gain regardless!!!!

I was saved by the lovely Google (you might recall I kept updating about Google and how much I loved the company a couple weeks back). When the stock market reopened on Tuesday, 2/16/2010, my Google calls doubled and that is why there is such a large difference between the two dates below.

So, here is a timeline:

2/12/2010: $47,377.58

2/16/2010: $75,392.52 (thanks to Google options)

2/26/2010: $65,159.13 (This is for Friday's close. Today, Monday, 3/1/2010, I made over $20,000 on Amazon calls so account should be back in business)

And finally, here are realized gains for this year, 2010, or shall I say realized losses (I believe I went green tonight though thanks to the Amazon calls):

YTD losses as of 2/15/2010: -$30,402.27

YTD losses as of 2/19/2010: -$13,093.27

Wish me luck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[웃 910]

2/26/2010: $65,159.13 (This is for Friday's close. Today, Monday, 3/1/2010, I made over $20,000 on Amazon calls so account should be back in business)

I seemed to have grossly miscalculated my gains today. I know I made $20,000 today (intraday) on Amazon calls. I also had 300 contracts of RIG that I held overnight. They closed Friday at $2.00....I sold 100 @ $2.6 today, and the remaining 200 between $2.2 and $2.3, that accounts for the other $10,000. I made a couple other trades too (MON calls, RIG puts, BQI stock).

2/12/2010: $47,377.58

2/16/2010: $75,392.52 (thanks to Google options)

2/26/2010: $65,159.13

3/01/2010: $97,315.70 (thanks unto AMZN options, RIG options)

Three companies I have struck gold with: Amazon, Google, Apple. Now that's what you call "The Big 3"!

Made over $32,000 today. Not a bad paycheck....

[Darnell 8,479]

These are reverting to 'cash', in the account, on the options, right?

re: playing yer Dad's Account. At some point, you should stop, and take yer new found knowledge and build up yer own accounts. IMO.

Edited March 2, 2010 by Darnell

[웃 910]

These are reverting to 'cash', in the account, on the options, right?

re: playing yer Dad's Account. At some point, you should stop, and take yer new found knowledge and build up yer own accounts. IMO.

Started back up in my account last month (February) with $3500... Closed at $6541 today.....+$3,041 or 86.9% in a month.....

AMZN went crazy today, it was my biggest gain ever in such a short amount of time:

EDIT: First line AMZN stock, then $120 March calls, then $125 March calls, then $130 March calls

Edited March 2, 2010 by Lord Infamous

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

good luck!! (it's not luck, but you know what I mean)