Three round trips today.  It’s nice to be able to do what I want- I’ll be able to do multiple round trips until my brokerage labels my account a pattern daytrader account, which should be any day now…

Market opened down and it’s now drifting.  I’m waiting.  There’s been no excessive fear or greed.  I may just have to wait for an extreme move like that- I need an excellent risk/reward play to get me back on the track to winning this competition.  So no moves for me today, just a scalp on 20 sh of FSLR (bought @ $236.33, sold @ $236.70) for a $7 gain.

I just ended up scalping myself today and ended the day all cash.  I got stopped out of BIDU puts and scalped myself with VMW calls.  My account is now down $754 from the $5000 I initially funded it with.  What went wrong?

I exited my calls for large losses.  All there’s left to do is learn from it:  lots were too large, I slipped and did not look at the charts before I bought, MA and VMW both gapped up huge yesterday and I did not wait for them to at least pullback, I was just not as picky with my entries as I should have been. 

End of Day $0 of realized profit/losses but I am sitting on a lot of paper losses and my account value is down big for the day.  But like I said when I entered these VMW, MA, and TASR calls, they weren’t entered for a daytrade.  They are January call options. 

My limit order didn’t fill so I missed out on getting BIDU puts.  So no trades for me today.  I’ll just have to wait for a new opportunity to come along.

I decided to take my profits on this.  > 100% profit is great.  I’ve decided I am done for the day. 

Sold CELG Dec07 $50 puts LQHXJ - 5 @ $3.00, 5 @ $2.55
   entered at $1.35 today
+$1402 profit, 103% (after $23 commission)
stock price when entered $52.00
stock price when exited $48.50 and $48.99

The Nasdaq spent the day wavering, undecided as to what direction it wants to go.  Is there more to come with the Santa Claus rally or is this it?  A 0.50 interest rate cut next week could really put the market in rally mode and the bulls could really start trampling the bears.  On the other hand, the market has had a nice rally and could have a pullback and an interest rate cut could be seen as a sign things are really bad.  So which way is it going?

Baidu (BIDU) stochastics are overbought. Doesn’t mean it can’t become more overbought but I think it’s tired. So I bought some Dec07 $370 put options to find out if this stock hates me as much as it hates Michael.

JCP sale at $45.66 netted me a $174 profit from my purchase price of $44.50.  I am still holding onto my AMZN put options.  The closing bid was $3.95 and my purchase price was $4.25 so I am sitting on a paper loss.  I am not worried about this…