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Paper trade.

Date/ Action/ Symbol Description / Quantity/ Price / Commission charged/ Net gain/(loss)

NSM
1/9/2006 STC .NSMAE-NSM JAN 25 Call Qty:1 Px:$3.5 Comm:$14.95 Net:335.03
1/4/2006 BTO .NSMAE-NSM JAN 25 Call Qty:1 Px:$2.35 Comm:$14.95 Net:-249.95
Gain of $85.08

INTC
1/11/2006 STC .INQAE-INTC JAN 25 Call Qty:1 Px:$1.45 Comm:$14.95 Net:130.04
1/4/2006 BTO .INQAE-INTC JAN 25 Call Qty:1 Px:$1.15 Comm:$14.95 Net:-129.95
Gain of $0.09

SCHW
1/17/2006 STC .SHQNW-SCHW FEB 17.5 Put 1 2.6 14.95 245.04
1/11/2006 BTO .SHQNW-SCHW FEB 17.5 Put 1 2.05 14.95 -219.95
Gain of $25.09

ELX
1/20/2006 O STC .ELXNX-ELX FEB 22.5 Put 1 1.7 14.95 155.04
1/13/2006 O BTO .ELXNX-ELX FEB 22.5 Put 1 1.9 14.95 -204.95
Loss of ($49.91)

Balance in account: $5,290.58

ELX
When I first made my trade on ELX, it dropped from $1.9 to about $1.5 on the same day. I forgot to make a stop loss and the price stayed around $1.5 on Tuesday (Monday was holiday).

I hoped and prayed that it went back up to at least the cost which I paid ($1.9), but it didn’t… It kept going down for 3 more days. It was until Thursday that I gave up and decided to just make a limit order of $1.70 and hope that the loss will be minimum. ‘Wo dee ho’, the market fell and ELX also fell which resulted in the increase of the premium price of the put to as high as $1.85. But it was already too late as I had made a limit order of $1.70 (and wasn’t at my computer to monitor my trade). OX has automatically executed my order.

I hope I’ll stick with my rules – make a stop loss order and not delay further in hopes that the option premium will rise again.

SCHW
OX’s virtual trading simulation doesn’t support contingency orders nor trailing stop, I think I may have gotten a better gain on this one if a trailing stop was used. I think I had exited this trade too early.