Under Construction until 1/12/14

Hello!


So I am working on revamping my blog for 2014. From the feedback here are some of the changes

1. Market commentary in addition to my trading positions
2. Increased number of posts (clearly need to work on that hah!)
3. Shorter posts (not trying to bore you to death)  
4. More interaction. If I explain something poorly, the post was too long/short, you want more updates, you want a specific news story explained. Please please let me know! I appreciate all feedback. 

My next post will be on or before January 12th, 2014!

See you next year!

Brit

P.S I will be posting a survey next week asking for feedback. I would greatly appreciate if you filled it out!

I'm back!

Just wanted to give a quick update on my positions from last week.

AAPL

Man, I can't stay away from apple. It's a perfect play when I want to get in and out since the options are so liquid. People give apple such a hard time but I think it's a solid company... how many tech companies have the ability to issue 30 yr bonds? not many. I put this on after they announced their new software/set phones but before the release of the phone. This was an event driven move, as you can see from the quick turn around of positions. Bought 2 AAPL Oct 500 calls for 2.19 and sold them at 3.49 realizing a $221.96 profit. I chose October because the september expiration was right around the corner... as an option gets closer to its expiration the value diminishes (this is the theta value- one of the inputs of the black scholes model to price an option- #thingslearnedinNewYork) I'll go into all the greeks later this week.

TSLA

Okay shoot me, I hopped on the TSLA bandwagon. This was one of my first plays, I listened to this podcast on Bloomberg that talked about how Japan is requiring all producers of electric cars to pay to increase the number of charging stations. Hellllooo Tesla. Plus who can ignore a company with 400% returns in one year? Still bullish. Bought 1 TSLA Oct13 195 Call for $2.00 and sold them at $3.45 (notice the bought for/sold at- #thingslearnedinNewYork hahahah) 

Right now I'm long the VIX it was up yesterday but it rebounded and erased some of my gains. I am also long UNG as test to my chart analysis techniques. This has been my struggle position but I'm keeping my view.

As always, any questions: comment or tweet me. @TheBritReport

Best,

Brit

Fresh off the Street

I'm baaaaa-ack.

I just ended my internship in New York, which was awesome.

Due to compliance I will not be trading for another 30 days.

In the meantime if you have any questions about anything markets/intern related tweet me or comment!

Best,
Brit

Back from under the radar

Heyy!

I know I know, who knew this blog thing would be so hard to maintain! I look up and boom there goes 2 months lol. But here I am... with a lot of excitement

I'm going to update my positions for the CME and QQQ. I'll tell you about facebook in the near future.

CME Group Inc - WINNER!
The CME has been the winner of the week! I had 2 strikes prices with a total of 5 Contracts but after today I still have the 2 strike prices but 2 contracts.

On 2/12/13 I purchased 3 CME Jun13 60 Calls when the stock was at 57.09. CME is the Chicago Mercantile Exchange where a lot of commodity and financial instruments are traded.

Why did I choose CME?
One major component that stuck out about the CME is that they profit from every contract that goes through their exchange, regardless if the market is bullish or bearish. If the economy continues to pick up the CME will benefit from hedging. if  worries of the sequester come into play the CME benefits from liquidations of equities and the purchasing of fixed income. Last but not least the calls were extremely inexpensive.

After the first purchase I added to position and on 2/19/13 I purchased 2 CMEJun13 62.5 Calls when the stock was trading at 58.95.

On 2/27/13 I sold 2 CME Jun13 60 Calls trading at 59.78.
This article confirmed my hypothesis and there was even more growth: CME Contract Volume up 7%
Today (3/6/2013) I sold 1 CME Jun13 52.50 Call trading at 61.97.

I sold them because I wanted to take some money in, increase buying power and realize a gain. If the price goes lower I can buy them cheaper, if they keep rallying I'll hang on to the 2 contracts I have. You wanna hope for the best but plan for the worst... the stock could always go back down. Through these trades I realized a $332.46 gain.

QQQ Powershares Trust Series - loser

On 2/12/2013 I purchased 2 QQQ Apr13 68 Calls trading at $67.95. QQQ Powershares are an ETF of the NASDAQ. I used an ETF because it gave me the ability to trade an index.

• ETF- Exchange Traded Fund: A security that tracks an index, a commodity or a basket of assets like an index fund, but trades like a stock on an exchange. ETFs experience price changes throughout the day as they are bought and sold. ETF SOURCE
• ETFs are also useful when getting your feet wet when it comes to commodities because like indexes the commodities are converted to ETFs to be traded like stocks.

Why did I choose QQQ?
There were two main factors that lead to the decision.
1. Stocks in the NASDAQ are tech companies, I see a huge boom in tech because investors are looking for growth companies which are most common within the technology sector.
2. A lot of non bulge bracket investors were keeping their money out of the market due to various political issues but Q1 earnings increased confidence to get back in the game and traditionally the first place they look is technology.

So all signs were pointing to a jump in the NASDAQ, we saw the S & P and the DOW reach highs and figured it was their turn.

 On 3/5/13 I sold 2 QQQ Apr13 68 Calls trading at 68.57

I attached a graph/table to show the beginning and end of the QQQ, the price was in the red for a majority of the time. It was up 4 cents yesterday and I decided to sell it. I like the index but I wanted to liquidate to lay off some risk, Apple's weakness is making it tough for QQQ to rally, especially by my expiration. After it was all said and done I lost about $22.03, which was mostly commission but you have to pay to play =)

 That's all for now!

Also as a side note. For the more seasoned market aware folks reading, I won't be posting a lot of spreads/technical analysis on my blog. A lot of the technical mumbo jumbo confuses the everyday curious reader. Plus I can't give away all my secrets =)

Best,

Brit

I forgot! follow my twitter for up to date info or to ask me questions! I enjoy questions!

@TheBritReport

Happy New Year!

Hello!

I know I have been so MIA this past month but between finals and the holidays I took a little break. I will begin updating both my blog and twitter more frequently.

Today I will be updating on some market trends.
In the next week or so I will update you with my positions.


I am so glad that Fiscal Cliff is all figured out. In the midst of the new agreement the Fed indicated that they were going to slow down their efforts to stimulate the economy. This sent most broad  indexes in the red for the day.

What do I mean by "slowing down efforts to stimulate the economy"?
When the Fed decides to stop stimulating (injecting more money into the economy by buying bonds) that usually means that consumers and business are only left to each other to buy and sell on the market and a lot of people fear that we are not stable to produce growth.
This information effects the market in more ways than one.
1. Effects economic growth sensitive equities (for example technology)
2. Effects commodities

Commodities: Commodities are gold, crude oil, soybeans, corn and various raw materials.

Why are they effected by the news?
Slowing down the stimulus -> slowing down the economy -> slowing down the use/need of  oil

In one of my previous blogs I mentioned how crude oil will show trends in the market. When there is an idea of the economy slowing down the prices for crude oil are going to drop because there will be less demand (people are pinching their pennies)

But there is in fact a light at the end of the tunnel.

Despite ending in the red zone on Thursday stocks ended higher on Friday.

What happened in those 24 hours?

Unemployment numbers! 155,000 jobs were added and unemployment met most predictions at 7.8%

How do unemployment numbers effect the market?

• When they are lower than predicted that usually means you will see some red at the end of the day, less jobs were added-> less people making money-> slow economy 
• Expectations are met indexes will be in the green. There were the jobs we expected-> expected level of consumers-> expected economy
• Expectations exceed predictions indexes and crude will end in the green. There were MORE jobs-> MORE consumers-> better economy. woohoo! 

Crude oil closed at .2% while Gold closed at -1.5% 

The S & P was the standout index ending with a 5 year high! 

Financial stocks led while tech weren't so lucky.

When looking at different stocks they effect different indexes. Since tech stocks slowed that will effect the NASDAQ which includes mostly tech stocks.

Funny how different two days can be! 

To buy: looking at Google (as always) I know I seem partial but we see good performance from Google however Google is looking a little rich (as in expensive) at these levels, I'll be looking to buy on a pullback (when there is a price drop). Also apple and BP. I'll let you know of any buys!

Let me know if you have any questions!

Brit