Monday, September 7, 2009

A Diamond Strategy, Options on DIA

Diamonds Trust is an exchange traded fund (ETF) that track the Dow Industrial composite. Buying calls or puts at the money at market open or before an expected correction is a fairly low-risk strategy to provide recurring income.

The last week of August led the $INDU higher and market history says that we are do for a minor correction in September. With that the Diamonds were trading around 95 on the last Friday of August so I picked October 92 PUTS at 1.90. As I expected the market to make some southern adjustments. As expected the market on average news took profits broadly an ended up with an almost 200-point drop on the 1st of September, quicker than I had anticipated but to lock in profits I was able to sell between 2.50 and 2.90 on2 September. I still believe we are headed a little further south which would provided greater returns on my puts, however, the number one rule in trading is not be emotional—hence greedy.

The idea here is that this is a fairly repeatable trade, whichever side you are on for the week or month you can buy CALLS or PUTS around the money and take profits relatively quickly.
I don’t recommend selling calls or puts, especially in this market environment since you can get yourself into trouble rather quickly. By being a buyer you know what your maximum loss is going into the trade.

Happy Trading

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