My confession: My mistakes!

I went into RIMM call options yesterday, making several mistakes in this trade.

1. The stock price should hit 91.50 (my trading criteria), and I entered the trade with 2 call options at 90.90 (first entry).
2. I entered again with my third call option at 90.71, thinking it will hit 91.50 soon.
3. It's the expiration Friday and yet, I bought into the current day expiring options.
4. Volatility was so high that Dow Jones rose more than 120 points and dropped more than 120 points (i.e. 240 points move within 2 hours) later.


I was purely speculating and I lost my own trading rules. And as an experienced trader, I was wrong to do something like this. As a result, I lost US$379 in 2 hours.

My 3rd EUR/JPY trade - 40 pips

My 3rd EUR/JPY trade: Long @ 156.64, Closed @ predetermined profit take 157.04 (40 pips)!

14.3% MER options profit within 45 minutes & 5 pips from EUR/USD

Merrill Lynch & Co. (MER) recorded its biggest quarterly loss since being founded 94 years ago after the world's largest brokerage took almost $15 billion worth of write-downs from bad subprime mortgage bets.

That caused Merrill Lynch to post a net loss after preferred dividends of $9.91 billion, or $12.01 per share, compared to a profit of $2.3 billion, or $2.41 per share, a year earlier. Analysts—who have had a hard time ascertaining just how steep losses would be for Wall Street banks—had been forecasting a $4.93 per share loss, according to Thomson Financial.

Imagine -$12.01 vs. -$4.93. It's a big earning disappointment! I went into MER put options when the stock price was 51.25 and got out at 50.85 within 45 minutes.

MER Jan'08 50 Put (MERMJ) - Enter @ 0.70, Exit @ 0.80 (14.3% profit)

---

Within the next minute, I also closed another forex trade on EUR/USD.


EUR/USD - Short @ 1.4683, Close @ 1.4678 (5 pips)

2 GBP/USD trades - total 113 pips!

I had 2 trades on GBP/USD today... 1 Long & 1 Short - both closed at predetermined profit takes!

GBP/USD - Short @ 1.9694, Close @ 196.38 (56 pips)
GBP/USD - Long @ 1.9643, Close @ 197.00 (57 pips)

EUR/JPY 2nd time - 61 pips

My second time trading EUR/JPY. I closed this currency pair at the 159 range yesterday and it continued to fall - today is in the 157 range already!


EUR/JPY - Short @ 157.69, Close @ 157.08 (61 pips).

Option Trade within 12 minutes

The Dow is down again, more than 200 points drop already ('at the time of press').

State Street (STT) missed the earnings estimate. And I profited 9.4% from STT within 12 minutes (in fact, 11 minutes 58 seconds.


STT Jan'08 80 Put (STTMP) - Enter @ 1.60, Exit @ 1.75 (9.4% profit)

3 winning forex trades - 111 pips!

I short 4 trades concurrently at the same time - 3 emerged as winners with 111 pips!


EUR/JPY - Short @ 160.34, Close @ 159.71 (63 pips) - 1st time I traded EUR/JPY.
EUR/USD - Short @ 1.4878, Close @ 1.4848 (30 pips)
USD/JPY - Short @ 107.78, Close @ 107.60 (18 pips)

NASDAQ Day: RIMM & AAPL - 5% wins!

A triple-digit Dow gain greeted the opening bell, and the market didn’t look back (at least until now).

Anyway, today is my NASDAQ day: I went into Research In Motion (RIMM) and Apple (AAPL), closing both tickers with 5% wins each.


RIMM Jan'08 95 Call (RULAS) - Enter @ 3.80, Exit @ 4.00 (5.3% profit)
AAPL Jan'08 185 Call (APVAQ) - Enter @ 2.31, Exit @ 2.43 (5.2% profit)

p/s: The RIMM was a roller-coaster ride. The lowest option price upon entry was only 2.60.

92 pips in total

The first trade was entered in the movies. This is the first time I executed a trade in the cinema. Before the show 'American Gangster' started, I entered in EUR/USD. During my meeting at Republic Plaza d-coffee shop, the same trade already exited on predetermined profit take. Then I entered into my favourite GBP/USD which also exited on predetermined profit take later.

Here's the results (total 92 pips today):

EUR/USD - Long @ 1.4873 in GV Marina 6, Close @ 1.4904 (31 pips)
GBP/USD - Short @ 1.9626, Close @ 1.9565 (61 pips)

ABILITY IS GREATER THAN MONEY!

I just read about Donald Trump and would like to express my kudos to him! It's his mindset, coupled with strong personal abilities that enables himself to climb to the top again.

ABILITY IS GREATER THAN MONEY BECAUSE IT CAN BE NEITHER LOST NOR STOLEN.

If you examine the lives of most successful people, you will find that they rarely climb to the top and stay there. They often reach the peak and fall to the rock bottom several times during their life, but they know that the one thing that got them where they are - their ABILITY - is always there to help them reach the top again.

Your ability is something that you own exclusively; no one can ever take it from you. You can built on it through repeated acts of analysis. This is the world of success, ability and result - not the world of money.