Put In Mouth Disease

Boy I got my timing wrong, but though it may appear that my put buying killed me, in reality, it is actually my foray into VXX and UVXY that is doing the most damage to my portfolio.  Thankfully, I sold some calls to hedge these positions and these calls are now slightly in the green.  I will be looking to take profit on these over the next few days, but this will require the VIX to further knife downwards.  

Whilst I had thoroughly enjoyed a week of beautiful profit-taking when the market was caught unaware, I'm now suffering the financial pain of selling too soon and buying too much insurance.  Yet, there must be a way for me to have my cake and eat it too!  

Thus far, it looks like the bulls are quickly slicing into my portfolio and I reckon they are finding it quite yummy...

On the verge of expiring worthless:

DIA Mar 16 '13 $139 Puts 
XLF Mar 16 '13 $17 Puts 
XLK Mar 16 '13 $29 Puts 


Most Likely To Get Called: 

NTI Mar 16 '13 $30 Calls 
SD Mar 16 '13 $6 Calls 


I cut my losses on an issue of $152 SPY puts, albeit a little too late - allocating the remaining capital to an above-the-market $157 SPY call + put complex options trade.  I also got into some MS $23 calls and puts expiring at the end of the week.  Will the market continue to knife upwards?  Put sellers who got stuck with buying the SPY when the market topped out before Lehman must be laughing all the way to the bank right now just as I am getting the bandaids ready...


-1.95% SBA (47.25% cash)
+0.02% Roth IRA (54.87% cash)

+0.35% DJIA
+0.26% Nasdaq
+0.32% S&P 

+0.31% FTSE
-0.05% Eurofirst
+0.53% Nikkei
-0.35% Shanghai

-0.04% WTI
-0.72% Brent
+0.16% Gold
+0.12% DJT

-8.18% VIX