INTRO TO STOCK MARKET MUSINGS

My other blog is about peak oil. This blog will be similar to my other blog in two ways:

1. There are a lot of other people out there who know more about this subject than I do.
2. There aren't a lot of people in my circle who I can talk to about this subject as much as I'd like to talk about it.

So I might be talking to myself. But that's no matter. Mainly I wanted to start this blog as a sort of trading journal. To keep myself honest as to how I'm doing. I was talking briefly about trading to a co-worker of mine (Chris) and while we were talking I decided to put some paper trades together and see how they've done.

Beginning capital: $5000

Initial trades:
3/31/06
Buy to open: UPL May 60 Call Option - 5 contracts @ 4.80 each - Cost basis: $(2414.95)
Sell to open: UPL Apr 65 Call option - 5 contracts @ .95 each - Cost basis: $460.03

Buy to open NDAQ Jun 40 Call option - 5 contracts @ 3.40 each - Cost basis $(1714.95)
Sell to open NDAQ Apr 45 Call option - 5 contracts @ .25 each - Cost basis $110.04

4/7/2006
Buy to close: NDAQ APR 45 Call option - 5 contracts @ .40 each $(214.95)
Loss of $105

4/12/2006
Sell Short: AAPL - 10 shares $66.70 each $652.02

4/13/2006
Buy to close: UPL Apr 65 Call Option - 5 contracts @ .45 each - $(239.95)
Gain of $220

Sell to Close: NDAQ Jun 40 Call option - 5 contracts @ 4.80 each - $2384.97
Gain of $670

My account value is currently at $5856, which is 17% higher than it was back at the beginning of April when I started. All in all I've spent maybe 30 minutes of my time actually putting the orders in. Plus another 30 minutes writing this blog. That makes a total of roughly $800 per hour spent. Not bad. That's more per hour than I make when I'm actually at work.

Who knows, I could totally crash and burn. But this blog will chronicle my victories and defeats. I also plan to post explanations for different strategies. Hopefully I can do it in a way that if you don't know beans about investing, eventually you would be able to do some of these strategies yourself. I know people pay thousands of dollars to learn how to successfully invest using some other vehicles besides basic stocks and bonds. Maybe we can talk to each other sometime. Until then... I'm signing off.