Hard to find time to moonlight around here. Day job, family, house, firehouse and about a hundred other things. Just have to take time for the important things and following the market is important. You have to take this seriously…

Ok so I have been watching the market and want to give you an update. Today there was some good news from Europe and the market is up…

All of my F options are down big. The September $13 Calls will probably expire worthless or close to it. Down 99% at this point. It was a good play when I bought. But I didn’t execute the sell for a profit when I had the chance. I didn’t pay attention closely enough to sell before the loss got big. Luckily this is a small portion this “experimental” portfolio. I am working to learn options. This kind of thing is part of the cost of learning the market. Learning how to take positions and how to protect yourself against loss. On this one, I left the position on because it was small and there was a chance it could come back. The mistake was not setting a floor and keeping to my discipline…

My December F $13 Calls and January F $12.5 Calls are both down big too. (Down 98% and 88% respectively). Small positions…

MGM is down 6% for me at this point.

The good news is that my other stocks are up. The bad news is that I am very defensive. About two thirds cash and one third stocks. So the market is in rally mode. Do I jump in to catch up? Or do I admit that I missed it and watch and learn… You can’t tell for sure if you can’t predict the future…

For now I decided to set some “Stops” to protect my gains and keep watching for different trends. Short term and long term (and in between…) Watching the waves in the market…

I think of these “stop limit” orders as an “insurance floor”, to insure that I lock in the profit. Stop limits may not execute as planned in a disorderly market but none of this stuff ever goes exactly as planned. It is all a calculated risk. You get paid for taking risk (when you get it right…)

I will adjust these “stop limits” over time to follow the market, until they execute.

TQNT up 12% set stop limit to protect 9%
IRBT up 18% set stop limit to protect 13%
HERO up 30% set stop limit to protect 20%

DRYS is up 11%. I will be watching that and hopefully set a stop soon…

So that is where I am now. Today. This minute…

Everything can change in a heartbeat. I will adapt as fast as I can but it is hard, when this is only a sideline… But you have to do the best you can. At this point the stop limit order is the best tool for me. We will see how it works. Will it be the insurance that I hope for? Or will it be the missed opportunity they warn you about in the disclaimers? Ya never know until you can look back on it…