First Straddle Win!

During the recent moody subprime happening, financial companies like Lehman Brothers (LEH), Morgan Stanley (MS), Goldman Sach (GS) and Bear Sterns (BSC) are expected to swing their stock price violently when they announce their quartetly earning report face-to-back this week.

Anticipating the swing of the stock price of Lehman Brothers (LEH) on Monday night, I entered the Straddle trade on Sep 60 Call ($1.90) and Put ($3.20). LEH announced their earning on Tuesday before market open and open with a gap up of $1.36. But surprisingly, both call and put options depreciated in value (call $1.55 and put $2.00) when market opened on Tuesday morning.

But I closed the put option when I see a steady rise in the stock price at $1.20 (ya, a loss of $2.00). And the great news was definitely the announcement by Fed chief to reduce rate at 2.15pm ET and the stock continued to rally more than $5 from previous close. At around 3.40pm ET, I closed the call option at $4.60 before market close.

No doubt the put option loses $2.00 of my bought value, it was the call option that brought me the glory by rising $2.70 in value! This resulted in a $0.70 profit (13.7% out of $5.10 that cost me on Monday).

Using Straddle strategy, it was the 'insurance' that I can profit no matter which direction the swing of the stock price.



Great! My first Straddle and first Straddle win!