M&A in a volatile market

The market was very volatile yesterday. It started slightly in the red, then green a bit, and then red again. By mid-day, Dow Jones was up more than 100 points. But, DJIA finally gave up the gains (ended 55 points compared to Friday close) and break through its 13,000 support level!

Anyway, the trades were all about IBM acquiring COGN for $5 billion. Typically (but not always) the acquired company will gain in stock value and the acquiring company will lose a bit. But apparently, acquiring COGN will bring in great values and investors see this and shoot up IBM stock price.

Another good example of a 'win-win' M&A (merger & acquisition) is the recent BHP Billiton (BHP) and Rio Tinto (RTP) one!

COGNOS (COGN)
Straight ITM Nov-07 52.5 Call
Entry 2,25 Exit 2.50 (11% profit)
Day trade based on TCT

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINE (IBM)
Straight ITM Nov-07 100 Call
Entry 4.00 Exit 4.50 (12.5% profit)
Day trade based on my 'revised' TCT

Anyway, I lost US$700 (for 2 contracts) on my personal account for GOOGLE (GOOG), since it dropped more than 100 points over the past few days. Fortunately, I don't trade stocks (otherwise, 2 lots x 100 points loss = $20,000!!!).

Options Trading Championship 2007

Take a look at the CNBC report on the OTC2007 (yup, the one my team got 2nd!). You can also see our team photos at http://www.freely.com/options-trading-championship.html.

p/s: You can see me at -1:45 frame. Haha.

New RSS thingy!

I realised there is really a lot of stuffs in the blogging world. I have just added a RSS reader for people who want to stay updated with my postings.

Just click the orange button to subscribe by the side of this blog (below my photo) will do. Technology really connects!

Winning Tuesday!

The night started red yesterday. I closed a position in the red for VRTX. But the market 'greened' up for me after that.

I had my first position in my managed account.

MASTERCARD (MA)
Straight ITM Nov-07 195 Call
Entry 6.30 x 2 & 5.20 x 1 Exit 7.20 x 3 (23% profit)
Day trade

But after that, I can't day trade in my managed account and thus, I traded on my own account as I see many opportunities in the market.

FIRST SOLAR (FSLR)
Straight ITM Nov-07 165 Call
Entry 10.80 Exit 11.80 (9.3% profit)
Day trade

MASTERCARD (MA)
Straight ITM Nov-07 200 Call
Entry 6.00 Exit 7.60 (26.6% profit)
Day trade

VALERO ENERGY (VLO)
Straight OTM Nov-07 72.5 Call
Entry 1.60 Exit 1.80 (12.5% profit)
Day trade

FOREST OIL (FST)
Straight OTM Nov-07 50 Call
Entry 1.50 Exit 1.65 (10% profit)
Day trade
This trade was exited on preset limit price, coz I was too tired to stay the night.

Written in KL

I'm away in Kuala Lumpur for the weekend since last Friday for the Money Mastery course in Palace of the Golden Horses.

We did a lot of things: one of which was to 'Go For Broke' and they dumped us at KLCC. We have absolutely nothing (except being dressed in business wear) with no ID, no cash, no watch, or simply means that we have nothing to even pawn.

Not trading these few days.


p/s: I will be back in Singapore on Tuesday evening!

Fed's another 1/4 rate cut

Just 3 hours ago, the Fed announced another quarter percent rate cut and here's 2 opportunities well-captured!

Goldman Sachs (GS)
Straight OTM Nov-07 80 Puts
Entry 5.20 Exit 6.40 (23% profit)

Long EUR/USD
Opened @ 1.4465
Closed @ 1.4495
PnL: 20pips

Today's Trade

CARDINAL HEALTH (CAH)
Straight ITM Nov-07 65 Call
Entry 2.45 Exit 2.75 (12.2% profit)

WEYERHAEUSER (WY)
Straight ITM Nov-07 70 Call
Entry 4.20 Exit 4.80 (14.3% profit)

Both are Day trades today (29-Oct) based on TCT!


p/s: I'm still longing POLO RALPH LAUREN (RL) and EUR/USD (for almost 10 hours already!) now.