Back after a hiatus

I had to take some time off to work on my house and take care of my son.

I noticed that the daily chart for Facebook (FB) showed both a bullish gap and a bullish divergence in the MACD. The implied volatility is also high, meaning that there is a lot of premium available for option sellers.
I sold 2 $19 weekly puts, expiring 8/24.

Here is the chart:

I sold the puts for 0.55 the price range was 0.30 to 0.70.
So my entry score is:
(0.55 - 0.30)/(0.70 - 0.30) = 62%

Oops. I should have stayed away today. The market was very news driven and insisted on going down, even though it knew I was long all day.

Transactions:
Buy     1       1380.75 8/1/2012  6:08:34 AM Entry      1L
Buy     1       1378.5  8/1/2012  6:35:36 AM Entry      2L
Buy     1       1377.5  8/1/2012  6:40:25 AM Entry      3L
Sell    1       1378.5  8/1/2012  7:05:34 AM Exit       2L
Buy     1       1375.25 8/1/2012  7:13:37 AM Entry      3L
Buy     1       1375.25 8/1/2012  7:13:37 AM Entry      4L
Sell    1       1375.75 8/1/2012  7:27:20 AM Exit       3L
Sell    1       1377.75 8/1/2012  7:36:55 AM Exit       2L
Buy     1       1377.75 8/1/2012  8:04:27 AM Entry      3L
Buy     1       1376.5  8/1/2012  8:12:04 AM Entry      4L
Sell    1       1378.25 8/1/2012 10:45:17 AM Exit       3L
Buy     1       1375    8/1/2012 11:00:37 AM Entry      4L
Sell    1       1373.75 8/1/2012 12:05:16 PM Exit       3L
Sell    1       1374.75 8/1/2012 12:25:43 PM Exit       2L
Sell    1       1376.75 8/1/2012 12:29:00 PM Exit       1L
Sell    1       1373.25 8/1/2012 12:49:38 PM Exit       -

Loss for today:
7.75 points

I had two winning trades to the long side today.

First trade:
The market seemed quiet and bullish. I went long early with five contracts. I used a two-point stop, and scaled out of four of the contracts for a profit. I sold the last contract because I had to run some errands. There was a nice profit on the trade.

Transactions for first trade:
Buy     1       1379.75 7/31/2012 7:59:34 AM Entry      1L
Buy     2       1379.75 7/31/2012 7:59:34 AM Entry      3L
Buy     2       1379.75 7/31/2012 7:59:34 AM Entry      5L
Sell    1       1380.75 7/31/2012 8:02:59 AM Exit       4L
Sell    1       1380.75 7/31/2012 8:02:59 AM Exit       3L
Sell    1       1380.75 7/31/2012 8:02:59 AM Exit       2L
Sell    1       1380.75 7/31/2012 8:02:59 AM Exit       1L
Sell    1       1382    7/31/2012 8:29:07 AM Exit       -

Heat for the first trade:
5.0 * (1379.75 -  1379.50) = 1.25 points

Profit for the first trade:
-5.0 * 1379.75 + 4.0 * 1380.75 + 1382.00 = 6.25 points


Second trade:
I scaled in and out of a 2-contract long position later in the day. I finally exited with a sell-limit order because I was uncomfortable staying long. The 50-period SMA on the 5-min chart had stayed negative all day. I felt that the market could go down, but was unlikely to go up much. In retrospect, I sold at a pretty good time.

Transactions for second trade:
Buy     1       1376.75 7/31/2012  9:11:53 AM Entry     1L
Buy     1       1375.5  7/31/2012  9:57:13 AM Entry     2L
Sell    1       1377    7/31/2012 10:07:57 AM Exit      1L
Buy     1       1376.75 7/31/2012 10:58:04 AM Entry     2L
Sell    1       1377.75 7/31/2012 11:05:25 AM Exit      1L
Sell    1       1378.75 7/31/2012 11:11:57 AM Exit      -

Heat for the second trade:
1376.75 + 1375.50 - 2.0 * 1375.00 = 2.25

Profit for the second trade:
-1376.75 - 1375.5 + 1377 - 1376.75 + 1377.75 + 1378.75 = 4.50

Total profit for today: 6.25 + 4.5 = 10.75

The market seemed quiet and bullish. I went long early with one contract, but was stopped out for a small gain. Later I scaled in and out of up to four contracts long using limit orders. I was finally stopped out, but made a nice profit for the day.

Transactions:
Buy     1       1384.25 7/30/2012  7:02:50 AM Entry     1L
Sell    1       1384.75 7/30/2012  7:31:55 AM Exit      -
Buy     1       1379.5  7/30/2012  8:21:40 AM Entry     1L
Buy     1       1377.5  7/30/2012  8:36:11 AM Entry     2L
Buy     1       1377.5  7/30/2012  9:05:56 AM Entry     3L
Buy     1       1377.5  7/30/2012  9:05:59 AM Entry     4L
Sell    1       1378.5  7/30/2012  9:41:22 AM Exit      3L
Sell    1       1380.5  7/30/2012  9:43:24 AM Exit      2L
Buy     1       1379.5  7/30/2012  9:47:34 AM Entry     3L
Buy     1       1378.75 7/30/2012  9:58:12 AM Entry     4L
Sell    1       1379.75 7/30/2012 10:09:26 AM Exit      3L
Sell    1       1379.75 7/30/2012 10:09:26 AM Exit      2L
Sell    1       1380.75 7/30/2012 10:34:12 AM Exit      1L
Sell    1       1378.75 7/30/2012 10:44:27 AM Exit      -

Heat:
1379.50 + 1377.50 + 2.0 * 1377.50 - 4.0 * 1376.50 = 6.0 at 0920HRS

Total Profit:
-1384.25 + 1384.75 - 1379.5 - 1377.5 - 1377.5 - 1377.5 + 1378.5 + 1380.5 -1379.5 - 1378.75 + 1379.75 + 1379.75 + 1380.75 + 1378.75 = 8.25

I didn't have time to trade yesterday. I was busy doing electrical and plumbing work on my house with my brother-in-law, Bob. I also helped my neighbor, Fred, format a hard disk and install Windows 7 on a new computer.

Today was almost picture-perfect. I went long at about 7 AM, then scaled out, and trailed the stop on my remaining contract all the way to the close. In retrospect, it would have been a good idea to add to my long position at about 10 AM.


Transactions:
Buy     4       1366.25 7/27/2012  7:06:03 AM Entry     4L
Sell    2       1367.25 7/27/2012  7:45:19 AM Exit      2L
Sell    1       1370.25 7/27/2012  8:00:20 AM Exit      1L
Sell    1       1381.25 7/27/2012 12:59:55 PM Exit      -

Heat: 4.0 * (1366.25 - 1364.25) = 8.0

Total Profit:
-4.0 * 1366.25 + 2.0 * 1367.25 + 1370.25 + 1381.25 = 21.0

The market went way down after the cash close yesterday when Apple reported disappointing earnings. I couldn't resist the bargain, so I bought four contracts, set some sell orders, and went to bed. I woke up to a nice surprise. Then, I traded a little more and made even more. I finished up early today.

Transactions:
Buy     1       1321.75 7/24/2012  1:39:36 PM Entry     1L
Buy     3       1321.75 7/24/2012  1:39:36 PM Entry     4L
Sell    1       1329.75 7/25/2012 12:15:24 AM Exit      3L
Sell    1       1333.75 7/25/2012  2:37:20 AM Exit      2L
Sell    1       1337.75 7/25/2012  5:28:39 AM Exit      1L
Buy     1       1332.00 7/25/2012  7:02:15 AM Entry     2L
Sell    1       1333.50 7/25/2012  9:47:47 AM Exit      1L
Buy     1       1332.00 7/25/2012  9:48:17 AM Entry     2L
Sell    1       1334.00 7/25/2012 10:10:21 AM Exit      1L
Sell    1       1337.50 7/25/2012 11:33:30 AM Exit      -

Total Profit:
- 1321.75 -3.0 * 1321.75 + 1329.75 + 1333.75 + 1337.75 - 1332.00 + 1333.50 - 1332.00 + 1334.00 + 1337.50 = 55.25

Oops! The market did not follow the  usual pattern of going up during the cash session. I lost big.

Executions:
Buy     1       1340.50 7/24/2012  6:59:45 AM Entry     1L
Buy     1       1340.00 7/24/2012  7:04:33 AM Entry     2L
Buy     1       1335.75 7/24/2012  8:01:46 AM Entry     3L
Sell    1       1339.75 7/24/2012  8:25:58 AM Exit      2L
Buy     1       1337.75 7/24/2012  8:29:56 AM Entry     3L
Buy     1       1329.75 7/24/2012  9:03:53 AM Entry     4L
Sell    2       1324.50 7/24/2012 12:10:54 PM Exit      2L
Sell    1       1324.50 7/24/2012 12:10:54 PM Exit      1L
Sell    1       1324.50 7/24/2012 12:10:54 PM Exit      -

Loss for today:
- 1340.50 - 1340.00 - 1335.75 + 1339.75 - 1337.75 - 1329.75 + 2.0 * 1324.50 + 1324.50 + 1324.50 = -46.00