Sunday, May 04, 2008

Weekly Positions Update - 5/4/08

Better to be lucky than good - my accidental rice short on my exit ended up being a very nice trade. Looking back I covered too early, but oh well...lucky entry anyway, I was scared of being too greedy.

Not much doing now - commodities are pretty much experiencing a correction across the board. Yen and Swiss Franc are back in the tank. We'll have some good buying opps when the next leg up resumes, but best to keep everything light for right now.

Corn and meat are my two favorites - it looks like some serious supply issues will be shaping up soon in the meats, due to the high cost of the grains.

Open Positions
Date Position Qty Month/Yr Contract Strike Call/Put Entry Price Last Price Profit/Loss
04/15/08 Long 2 JUL 08 Corn 605 614 $900.00
04/29/08 Long 1 OCT 08 Live Cattle 103.850 104.475 $250.00
04/30/08 Long 1 OCT 08 Live Cattle 104.350 104.475 $50.00
Net Profit/Loss On Open Positions: $1,200.00


Account Balances
Current Cash Balance $113,330.67
Open Trade Equity $1,200.00
Total Equity $114,530.67
Long Option Value $0.00
Short Option Value $0.00
Net Liquidating Value $114,530.67

Cashed out: $10,000.00
Total value: $124,530.67

Weekly return: 4.5%
YTD return: 60.5%

***BTW, I usually "cash out" money just to pay taxes. So total value is all pre-tax. Going forward, I'll be cashing out to pay for rent and beer also.

4 comments:

Jay Rao said...

I was thinking of signing up for Kevin Kerr's resoure trader alert. I know that you have been following him for a while. Do you think the subscription service is useful? Appreciate your comments.
- Jay

Brett Owens said...

Hey Jay,

Can't say firsthand about RTA - I've haven't subscribed to that one. Any RTA subscribers want to weigh in?

I've been tempted to jump in, but the price tag is pretty high.

I do subscribe to Outstanding Investments, which Kevin contributes for - that is a great publication in my mind, but also much cheaper (<$100). Focus is on stocks rather than on futures.

Brett

Jay Rao said...

Hey Brett,

That is surprising. You have shown a great track record here. I thought you are following the recommendations of Kevin, because you mention on your blog.

How do you get these ideas for trade? I listen to Jim Rogers often, but he does not have any specific recommendations. Because of what Jim has been saying repeatedly, I have invested a lot in RJA ( Agri ETN). Is there any newsletter that follows commodities very closely?

By the way, I subscribe to OI of Kevin as well.

- Jay

Brett Owens said...

I do follow Kevin's thoughts closely, but not his RTA picks. If I did, I'd probably stop publishing my positions - I don't think it'd be right to take his picks and publish them as my own.

All his material I post here is available via Agora's free resources.

I mostly get my ideas from the articles and sources I post here. Jimmy R does give specifics every once in a while (he currently likes Chinese renminbi, Chinese/Taiwanese stocks, Japanese Yen, Swiss Franc, cotton, coffee, sugar).

In terms of commodity newsletters, I know a few - The Gartman Letter, Gann Global has a service...not too many come to mind offhand (which probably mean we have more room to run in this bull market :))

I did the Gartman trial in March, but lost money on the trade I followed him into - needless to say, I didn't spring for the $500/mo. I figured I'm capable of losing money just fine on my own ideas.

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