Bought MAXY, MAXY calls

Today I put just 0.1% of my portfolio in MAXY, at $6.54 per share. I also bought five $5 strike May calls on MAXY, for $1.85 per contract. MAXY is currently at $6.53 per share. This is a speculative trade.

Bought DENN, SNS; Closed puts on TUP, INTC

Bought DENN at $3.395
Bought SNS at $386.48
Closed July $40 puts on TUP for $0.60
Closed July $19 puts on INTC for $0.36

Mar 2010 portfolio allocations

I currently have 35% of my portfolio in investable cash, 40% in stocks, 13% in cash secured puts, and 12% in calls which I own.

Closed KRE puts

Closed the puts I wrote on KRE for $0.15. I'll look at writing more puts on this ETF later, to pick up shares cheaply and to offset the cost of the 2011 calls I bought.

Sold FLS

Sold FLS for $107.50, as it was nearing fair value. My profit on this position was effectively decreased, since I chose to buy back calls I'd written on it.

I originally bought FLS for $70, via puts (which paid $5.90) and wrote calls (which paid $4.20). Then I bought back the calls for $25 (ow). Now, I've sold for $107.50. My profit is:

$107.50 + $5.90 + $4.20 - $70 - $25 = $22.60 per share.

That's 32% of the original purchase price. Still, if I had bought FLS outright at $70, and had not written calls at all, my return would have been over 50%. Further, if I had let the calls be exercised, instead of buying them back, I would have made a 29% profit. Was the extra 3% worth the effort? If I was a professional money manager, competing with other professional money managers, sure. Since I'm a "hobbyist" I'm concerned with absolute rather than relative returns, and I think it wasn't worth the trouble.

Sold RIG

Sold RIG for $84.30. RIG missed the consensus earnings estimate in its last quarterly report, its second miss in the past twelve months. I'm happy to get out of it now at a slight (very slight) profit. I'll reevaluate it at leisure. I'll look for revenue growth before I buy again.

Sold WAT

Sold WAT for $63.545. I still like the stock, and may buy it again (perhaps via puts). I sold it because it was nearing fair value, and I'm looking for better, undervalued investment opportunities.

Synthetic long on KRE

I started a modified synthetic long on KRE.

I bought Jan 2011 $24 calls for $2.55, and sold an equal number of Mar 2010 $25 puts for $0.80.

The purpose of the March puts is to help offset the cost of buying the calls. If the puts aren't exercised, I may write more to absorb more of the buy price. Each leg of this trade would, if exercised, give me half of my target position in this ETF.

Closed puts written on KCI

I closed the March $35 puts I wrote on KCI, for $0.23 per share.