Go For Broke

Tuesday, November 30, 2021 -- $87,332.28 (-$7,150.70, -7.57%) Ouch!  Between the omicron variant spooking everyone and Fed Chairman Jerome Powell admitting that the inflation spike is going to be of sufficient duration that it should no longer be described as "transitory" the markets continued their downward trend.  CCL and ZM both went down and the portfolio suffered a substantial loss today.

  Monday, November 29, 2021 -- $94,482.98 (+$257.95, +0.27%) Finally, a day of relative calm.  ZM went down a little and so my ZM call options also went down, but this was made up for my CCL going up a little.  I did not make any portfolio moves today.   The market still seems scared of the omicron variant and its potential to wreck havoc and possibly motivate future shutdowns.

Friday, November 26, 2021 -- $94,225.03 (+$18,326.86, +24.14%) My gamble on ZM paid off, though not how I expected.  With news about a potential "super variant" COVID virus (B.1.1.529) roiling the markets, people went back to ZM as a potential beneficiary of bad news because further lockdowns would, again, increase the need for video conferencing.  Most of my ZM options expired today and I sold them, but I still have 5 remaining contracts that expire next Friday.  It will be interesting to see how ZM performs in the next week. At the same time, the portfolio was hit hard by CCL dropping $2.21/share today because the potential lockdowns could throw an enormous wrench into CCL's plans for restarting its cruise operations.  Fortunately, the gain from ZM more than made up for the loss on CCL on the day. So, over the course of the last six weeks, or so, since this investment blog was started, the portfolio has been up 20%, down 20% and is now back to just above even....

  Wednesday, November 24, 2021 -- $75,898.17 (-$4,956.62, -6.13%) This was a good news/bad news day.  CCL finally swung out of its last-30-years, record-typing losing streak of 12 consecutive daily losses to eke at a $0.01/share gain today.  Unfortunately, because I had loaded up on short-term options, the "juice" (or "premium") of those options was heavily reduced today as nearly at the expiration dates of the options. So, the bad news is that, despite CCL and ZM both not having down days, the portfolio plummeted almost $5,000 today.  At this point I am $38,824.40  (-33.84%) off of my high hit on November 5th.  In order to recover to those highs my portfolio would need to increase in value by 51.15%.

Tuesday, November 23, 2021 -- $80,854.79 (+$86.14, +0.11%) Yay! The portfolio value losing streak has been temporarily abated, if you can call a gain of a mere 0.11% an abatement.  It was not because CCL finally broke its fall, but because I made another rather crazy move into ZM, which announced earnings yesterday and a more moderate future forecast than watchers had hoped. To help give you some perspective on just how bad my timing is ... I increased my exposure to CCL on November 5th by keeping the shares purchased by the exercise of the option contracts.  Since that time, CCL has gone down in price on 12 consecutive days.  Prior to today, in the past 30 years, CCL's longest (and only) consecutive day losing streak was 12 days ending on 4/4/94.  As humans we frequently g et irrationally optimistic or pessimistic--in short we are often irrational.  Additionally, my purchasing $8,100 (almost 10% of my portfolio) of CCL call options last Friday that expire this ...

  Monday, November 22, 2021 -- $80,768.65 (-3,516.96, -4.17%) CCL has now suffered through 11 down days in a row.  My large bet on CCL  $20 call options that expire this Friday is getting crushed!  On the bright side CCL only fell by $0.16/share today to $20.33/share, so, maybe, it will have the legs to begin climbing soo.

Friday, November 19, 2021 -- $84,285.61 (-$2,882.18, -3.31%) I am, once again, attempting the rather foolhardy act of trying to catch this falling knife!  Although CCL dipped below $20/share, I did not actually pull the trigger until it had recovered to $20.48/share.  I purchased 100 CCL $20 call options that expire next week for $0.81/share for a total cost of $8,100.  If CCL closes next week below $20/share then I will have lost everything.

Thursday, November 18, 2021 -- $87,167.79 (-$2,576.61, -2.87%) The streak continues!  This is the 8th consecutive down day for this concentrated leveraged portfolio!  Yet, I am still convinced the CCL is a good investment ... so, if it goes below $20 I will probably purchase some call options.

Wednesday, November 17, 2021 -- $89,744.40 (-$2,314.57, -2.51%) Another day, another down day!  While I am experiencing great sadness for holding on to CCL in the face of this overwhelming wave of selling, FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) is starting to kick in.  If I really liked CCL at almost $25/share, then surely it must be an even better deal at $22.33/share.  This is why it is often helpful to have a very analytical and dispassionate view of your investments ... and be very wary of margin positions!

Tuesday, November 16, 2021 -- $92,058.97 (-$4,369.08, -4.53 %) I am running out of ways to describe my losing streak.  Norwegian Cruise Lines (NCLH) announced they need to raise money and this has caused a loss in confidence of all cruise stocks, CCL included.  I am at a net loss since starting this blog.  Perhaps I should change the name of this blog from "Go For Broke" to just "Go Broke"!

Monday, November 15, 2021 -- $96,428.05 (-$1,039.26, -1.07 %) The incredible shrinking portfolio doesn't want to rock the boat as we pass our 6th consecutive down day.  Imagine how much this would suck if  this happened to your life savings!

Friday, November 12, 2021 -- $97,467.31 (-$6,928.47, -6.63 %) Trying to catch a falling knife.  What you do not see from the screenshot above is that I thought CCL had fallen too far and I purchased a $22.50 CCL call options, expiring today, for $2,280 that expired worthless because CCL continued dropping, closing the day at $22.36.  Try to learn from my mistakes in managing your portfolio.  Very few people are really good at timing the market and, while some people are skilled enough to make a living day trading, the vast majority of people who attempt day trading lose money!

  Thursday, November 11, 2021 -- $104,395.78 (-$2,734.01, -2.55 %) I continue holding CCL in my death grip.  This is a good example of how it would be helpful to not be emotional about your positions.  The more CCL goes down, the more I am convinced that it becomes a better deal.  Between margin and selling put options, my net long position is $6,800 shares, my portfolio gets hit to the tune of about $6,800 for each $1 that CCL declines in price.

Wednesday, November 10, 2021 -- $107,129.79 (-$4,966.83, -4.43 %) The CCL losing streak continues.  I am down almost $5,000 today and it is not clear that this is going to change directions any time soon.  Perhaps I should realize my gains and sell, but I am just not emotionally there yet.  CCL is my anchor and for now I am just holding tight..

 . Tuesday, TueTuesday, November 9, 2021 -- $112,096.62 (-$1,628.52, -1.43 %) CCL continued moving against me and closed today at $24.17 so selling the CCL puts was not, at least up to this point, a good decision.  Today's unrealized (when looking at accounting changes and not the results of actually closing a position through a trade) of more than $1,500 was exacerbated by my investing on margin.  Fortunately my Ethereum Classic (ETC) position helped me, as ETC seemed to benefit from Ethereum's record prices in the past several days. PSA (Public Safety Announcement): Investing on margin is dangerous!  Do it at your own risk!   Do not do it if you cannot afford to lose everything!

  Monday, NovemberMonday, November 8, 2021 -- $113,725.14 (-$9 97.43, -0. 87%) CCL was moving against me (down) so I thought I would be a little contrarian and sell some CCL $25 puts.  Unfortunately, as often seems to happen, CCL continued its downward trend immediately after I sold the put options.  I sold the CCL put options for $0.78/share so I will profit or break even on this position as long as CCL closes on Friday at or above $24.22 per share.

Friday, November 5, 2021 -- $114,722.57 (+$14,175.60, +14.10%) "It is better to be lucky than good!"  News came out today of Pfizer's test of  PAXLOVID  during a phase 2/3 trial showing it is very effective at preventing severe illness and death from COVID when taken within five days of the onset of symptoms.  Shares of CCL rose on the view that this pandemic might finally be ending soon and cruise lines will soon be able to begin operating at full capacity.  While my short position in CCL (I am long 20 $23 CCL puts) is down, I fortuitously had purchased 50 $22.5 CCL calls two days ago and these have moved from a loss position to being well up. When trading options and trading on margin you will encounter new situations, often as a result of risk management practices by whichever broker you are using.  Today, Robinhood sold 22 of my CCL $22.50 call options 58 minutes before the market closed without any prior notice to me.  When I got online I could se...

Thursday, November 4, 2021 -- $100,546.97 (-$2,855.35, -2.76%) Almost 3% down today.  On a day when the broad markets were mixed, this should almost never occur in a diversified portfolio where the largest position is smaller than 5% of the total assets.  However, this is not a diversified portfolio. It turns out that my optimism for CCL was misplaced and my put position and CCL, itself, each lost about $1,500, accounting for most of the day's loss.  On the "bright" side, no matter how badly CCL does tomorrow, my CCL put position cannot go down more than the original purchase price of $4,350.

Wednesday, November 3, 2021 -- $103,402.32 (+$1,241.51, +1.26%) The portfolio is up again!  And, as they say, "during a bull market, everyone is a genius!" Today I was feeling a little bit optimistic, perhaps a little too optimistic.  So I purchased 50 CCL $22.5 calls for $0.87/share, only to see them drop to $0.76/share by press time, leaving me with a book loss of $550.00 for the day on that position.  Perhaps that "genius" label may have been adopted a little too quickly.  If CCL continues moving against me and on Friday closes below $22.50, then I will have lost my entire $4,350 investment on this position.

Tuesday, November 2, 2021 -- $102,109.87 (+$2,752.28, +2.77%) I broke $100,000 today!  Yay! My standing order to sell the 0.9 Bitcoin executed at a price of $63,878.40 and using the buying power from the proceeds, I promptly sold 20 $23 CCL put option contracts with an expiration of Friday for $0.57 per share.  So, if CCL closes on Friday at less than $23/share these will contracts will be exercised and I will be required to purchase 2,000 shares (remember, in most cases each option contract is for 100 shares) for $23/share.  Because I received $0.57/share when selling these puts, I will lose money if CCL drops to below $22.43/share.  CCL closed today down $0.16 at $22.91/share, reducing my loss on the CCL call options that I sold and putting me $260 up on the CCL puts that I sold today.

  Monday, November 1, 2021 -- $99,357.59 (+$2,181.69, +2.25%) The portfolio is edging up towards $100,000.00!  I made one move today and, at least for now, it was a bad one.  I sold 20 covered call options for CCL with an exercise price of $23, expiring on Friday.  Unfortunately CCL did well today, rising to close at $23.07, up $0.91 for the day.  Since I only received $0.31/share for selling the option, meaning I am now short those call options, upward movement in the stock price will increase the value of those options and move my short position against me.  As a result, I am down $300.00 in that position. By selling the covered call options I am giving up some upside (in this case, if CCL closes above $23.31 on Friday) in exchange for the $0.31 premium I received for each share when I sold the call option.  It is considered to be a "covered" call option because I presently own the underlying shares that I may be forced to sell.  If it were an u...