Trade History:
- Topped up account by 150 CAD to cover overdraft while waiting for order to fulfill. Converted by QuesTrade to 148.13 USD on March 29th.
- Order fulfilled: Sell to Open 5x DNDN, Strike 11.00, Limit 0.45.
- Queued order: Buy to Close 5x DNDN, Strike 11.00, Limit 0.01.
- If this goes through, net ROI for the options period of March 24 - April 21 will be 0.63%.
Gut Check:
- Was about to lower my Limit Price on the Strike 11.00 because it wasn't quite getting to 0.40. However, on Friday morning, the price ran up a bit, so I let it sit and crossed my fingers. It actually did hit 0.45.
- Looking back, I think it was the right move to buy back the Strike 10.00 call at a loss. If I had waited till closer to expiration, I might have had to buy it back at a loss, even, or slight gain. By selling it early, I had the opportunity to make a little more with the higher Strike price because there's still time premium left.
- Addendum (April 2nd): Price is ~10.66 over the weekend. Hoping it won't jump to 11.00 or more. Either way, I'm still leaving the order to buy to close at 0.01, just to make sure I don't get assigned.
Trade History:
- Changed order to Sell to Open, 5x DNDN, Strike 11.00, Limit 0.45
Gut Check:
- Looking back, I probably should have risked early assignment and instead let my initial Strike 10.00 Covered Call ride till closer to expiration when I could buy it back at a reduced rate. Although the way the stock was climbing, it looked like it was headed for 11.00 or more and not going back down.
- Trying it again, Strike 11.00. DNDN is still over 10.00, but looks like it is inching down. If it spikes up again like it did this morning, this order might actually get filled.
- If I do get this filled, I'll try not to panic if it goes over 11.00, but instead wait much closer to expiration before buying it back.
- Still feeling annoyed by the "day trading" level of watching I am doing.
- Hopefully this will help me recover my losses from jumping the gun yesterday and maybe even make a tiny bit of money.
Trades:
- Buy-to-Close Covered Call 5x DNDN, Strike 10.00, Limit 0.90 -- Order filled.
Gut Check:
- DNDN kept rising and I was worried it would go up too high to buy back and I would either take a big hit to buy my call back, or get prematurely assigned. Either way, at over 10.00, it was up for automatic assignment anyway.
- Naturally, as soon as I did a "stop loss" buyback, the price fell to close at 10.11. Tuesday's range was 10.10-10.66.
- Might have to settle for a very low Strike 14.00 call. For now, I have queued an unreasonable Strike 14.00 at limit 0.50. Will watch the price this week to see if I want to accept a very small Strike 14.00.
- I could also risk a Strike 11.00 but I'm worried about the price shooting up again. If I were to do that, I might try it next week. Will see how the price moves.
- Overall, feeling really ansy. The Strike 10.00 was a fair call when the price had dropped to a lot less than 10. why is it that as soon as my order is fulfilled, the market goes the other way? :-(
Trades:
- Changed Buy-To-Close order of 5x DNDN from Limit 0.12 to 0.40.
Gut Check:
- DNDN continues to climb, though there's some up and down. I might have to confirm a small loss on my buyback of my Covered Call. At least the Strike 14 Calls are now worth a little bit of something.
- Might still be too early to say since there's about 3 weeks left. But I'm starting to think I should pull the plug and accept a small loss now than risk seeing the price keep climbing. Sold my Covered Call at Strike 10.00 for 0.67. Might have to buy it back at 1.00 if DNDN keeps rising. The price could even go to 11.00!
- Something I could do is pull the plug now and wait to see where it goes in a week. If I bought it back now at 1.00, I'm at a net -2.79% loss but I could sell something else to mitigate it a bit.
- Or, I could wait till expiry and if the price isn't significantly over 10.60, I could buy it back at around 0% loss... Feeling indecisive! Urgh.
Trade History
- Changed Buy-To-Close Covered Call of DNDN from Limit Price 0.01 to 0.12.
Gut Check
- Invariably, as soon as I sell a Covered Call, the price goes up! ARGH!
- What's even more worrisome this time is that I really DON'T want to be assigned this time. I've changed the buyback price to 0.12 to get out a bit earlier if possible, even if the share price is below the Strike price of 10.
Trades:
- Cancelled order to Sell to Open Covered Call at Strike 11.
- Queued order to Sell to Open 5 contracts DNDN Covered Call at Strike 10, Limit Price 0.67.
- If filled, queue Buy to Close at Limit Price 0.01 to make sure I'm not assigned.
- I'll also have to keep a close eye on the price. If it goes over 10, I'll buy it back for a hopefully tiny net loss and sell a Strike 11 Covered Call instead.
- UPDATE: Order filled at 0.67. ROI estimated to be 4.29% after Buy-To-Close at 0.01. If I get assigned, I'd be at -24.21% (!) compared to the original purchase price at 13.95 per share plus commissions.
Gut Check:
- Lots of stress today! Oh boy! First, I couldn't log onto to QuesTrade. For some reason, my user name and password didn't work anymore. This issue cleared up shortly after, very close to 6:30 am. Yoicks!
- Then, after I queued my sell order, I wanted to tweak it down to 0.66. Couldn't do it. The interface showed me I could, but the trading platform didn't update. WTF? In any case, I'm going to leave it for this morning. Who knows? The price of DNDN might slip back up a bit, enough to fill the order.]
- Still feeling very on edge with DNDN. I'm locked in unless I want to sell at a horrific loss and start all over again. I can theoretically continue to make money off it with Covered Calls, but at this point I feel worried and trapped even though I have a game plan. Got to stop feeling so panicky!
Trade History:
- Queued 5x DNDN Strike 11.00 Covered Call, at 0.60.
- ROI: ~4.08% if it expires worthless, -17.28% if assigned.
Gut Check:
- I bought DNDN at 13.95, before their review of Q4 earnings which basically sank their stock. If I sell now, I'm realizing a pretty sizable loss that would wipe out a lot of my gains over the last few months. This was one of the risks that I understood to be there when I first started options. It's only now that I've really been tested. Have to try not to panic or throw the baby out with the bathwater by stopping options trading altogether.
- It's not really hopeful that the stock will go back to 14, but in the meantime I think I can still make a bit of money each month with some cautious Covered Calls, assuming they don't get assigned.
- The plan for now is to hold DNDN and make a bit of money each month until I can sell at a loss that is offset by the gains made off it. Even at just 4%, I'm slightly ahead of my monthly target to beat my mutual funds.
- If DNDN's price surges, I'll have to buy it back at a slight loss and re-sell at a higher Strike.
Trades:
- None.
- Order of Sell-to-Close 5x Covered Call DNDN did not go through at limit price 0.01 since the stock has not free-fallen to a super-low price. Order has expired based on date and I didn't renew it. Strike 14.00 Covered Call bid has been holding at a price of 0.10.
Gut Check:
- DNDN is still low, but slowly inching up. An article on Seeking Alpha talks about how everyone's wrong about Dendron, and that it's partially management's fault for not setting up expectations correctly. This is both the frustrating part and potentially profitable part of the stock market -- facts don't count as much as herd mentality. When price swings up or down, there's profit to be made.
- Price has swung down, so I will make money this month and hold onto my stock. That's like renting the stock instead of selling it at a good price. Good news, right? But I'm now holding onto stock that's fallen about 3 dollars. Bad news? Maybe I can rent it out again (write another Covered Call) at a good Strike Price next month? So far ROI for next month looks like maybe 3% at Strike 14.00. Urgh. Better than nothing and definitely better than confirming a loss.
- Is there hope that DNDN will at least go up to 12.00? There are still two weeks left before options expiration and another four before April expiration. Lots of time for it to recover and for me to write a decent Covered Call for more money. Not the fantastic ~10% returns in the near past, but better than the other investments out there that I know of.
