Trades

I cashed in my SBUX put for a 170% gain. I'm tired of waiting for it to leave its $17-$18 range, and I think its downside is limited to $14. Time to take profits and buy other stuff as the VIX was below 20.

This week I bought:

• SPY Sept 111 put for 1.07
• C Jun 20 put for 0.44
• ABX Jan'09 60 call for 1.28

The SPY put is a play on the VIX going back over 30 during the next six months. The C put is a play on C's funding plans breaking down over the next two months. Plan: sell if C drops below $20. Finally, the ABX call is the best way to play another drop in the dollar. I will try to remember to sell this if it triples, the way I should have sold the 70 call at $4.50 when gold topped $1000. It's now at $0.65. Ouch.

One of the things I've been thinking about is the massive amounts of equity that the financial companies are raising. My question is, Will the funding go according to plan? Capital raising by financial companies has received unquestioningly positive spin from the media, as well as being reported as a sure thing. However, I predict that sometime over the next couple of months, some of this funding will fall through. Suddenly, money that was reported as already raised will disappear.