Newbie here. Just bought an advisory type service for this new year. I'm trying out options and have a $5,000 account for it. I have also used $500 to grab a service advisory for option trading. No trades yet, but I'm feeling it this year. I'll use this as my journal. Matt

I paid for an option advisor last year,it was ok ,not great.i did not renew after the first 3 months.I trade options in Real$ and i didnt have to have a $5K account.I use WSS to test certain strategies and/or spreads.and as a watchlist.

Just wondering, but what service did you use.....hope I'm not using the same one lol...I did get some trade emails today

Buying MOS spread call, I'll have to carefully do that trade as I'm a bit new to this but from what they told me, its buying a call and selling the higher call. The trade is on MOS. I also got a trade to buy MON puts.

I had bought 1 MON jan 85 put at 2.25 yesterday and sold at 1.55 this morning for a loss -72. I use IB, so comm. is $1 per option, not bad. For that MOS spread call, I bought 3 MOS jan 65 call at 1.50 and sold 3 MOS jan 70 call at 0.40. I did not get the email to sell the long MOS call yet, so I'm still holding it. Was told to buy back the MOS jan 70 call at 0.05 - 0.15, but I got out at 0.19 and made +57. The 3 MOS jan 65 call is at 1.93 and gains of +129.

Overall, I realized a loss of -15, but I think once I get out of MOS jan 65 call, I should be making money. Matt

I am not familiar with IB.You can make trades here in WSS to watch .Congrats on your profits.I wrote on your wall giving you my take on the adviser service i had used last year.one thing i do with options is always try to trade In-The-Money.now if your trading costs are a$1 an option you should do good.I personally dont try to trade on a really short term as i cant stay absolutely on top of the markets while working.I get to check several times a day.but i have my stops set just in case.

thanks for your update....I actually get to watch the screen all day because I'm one of them statistics.....yep, unemployed stastics getting UE payments weekly for now. Might as well do something while I"m out. But I still have MOS options, and they had new trade today....actually 3 trades.

Buy GPN Jan. 50 calls at 2.95, and I bought 2 at 2.95, cost me -592

Buy APOL Jan. 60 puts at 1.70, and I bought 3 at 1.70, cost me -513

and Buy ESI debit spread......Buy ESI Feb. 110 call at 2.75, and sell ESI Feb. 115 calls at 1.40....I bought 5 110 call at 2.70, and sold 5 115 calls at 1.45, so it cost me -635 for the whole thing.

I would not trade any of the stocks you mentioned as stocks.maybe MOS for a buy-n-hold maybe.now in short term trades of options as your doing i dont see anything wrong.except for me it would be about $11 a trade either way.i am generally out of an option by the latest of 10 trading days from expiration.the good part the options you're trading arent in the pennies so they do have a chance to move.

I took a loss in GPN I got out of GPN at 0.60 and my loss was -474.

I sold APOL jan. 60 puts at 2.20 for a gain of +144.

I also got out MOS jan. 65 calls at 2.45 and made +279

Total loss is now -66, looks like the service has given me a loss so far...Hope it works out later, and I'm using www.ykoptions.com. I'll comment on how poor or how good they are at picking trades in 2 weeks once I get a better grasp...

I still have that ESI spread, but its at 1.05 now, so I'm showing an unrealized loss of -100. Matt

They had new trades out yesterday.

I bought 5 INFY jan. 55 calls at 1.20, they said to buy at 1.10, but looks like I was too late for that price. It did say that the trade was a low risk because the IV was low. That's why I bought 5.

They also said to buy JPM, and I'll will post once I buy that trade.

Well, I sold all 5 at $3.00 and made $890 on this trade alone.

Still have JPM spread and ESI spread, but I have gains of $824.

havent seen an update to your journal for a few days. I'm glad to see the markets on the up today.

I'm still here. My ESI spread is worth 0.95, down from 1.25 buy price.....and guess I didn't post JPM trade, but I did buy 6 JPM jan. 44 call at 1.06, and sold 6 jan 46 calls at 0.28. It cost me -480 for this trade, so its even cheaper than my ESI trade, but we'll see how that goes tomorrow I guess as they report that earnings are due tomorrow morning.

Well, I still have ESI spread, and its cheaper again now at 0.45.

I did sell that JPM spread last Friday. I got back $216, so my loss on this trade was -$264.

For yesterday, they sent out 2 trades....IBM Feb. 135 calls at $2.10 or less, and CREE Feb. 55 calls at $3.50 or less.

I bought 3 IBM Feb. 135 calls at $2.08 for -$627, and I bought 3 CREE Feb. 55 calls at $2.75.

Looks like IBM is a bummer, but I could like the out come on CREE. Will update once I get out.

Well, my loss so far stood at -$560, and I was about to give up on this service until this morning.

I closed IBM calls at 0.76 and took a loss of -$401, but I also closed CREE at $8.20, and that's WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT....

Just checked my gain/loss on IB and for CREE I made +$1,629.....I'm at a gain of +$601 so far this year. Hope you are all doing well yourselves. YEAAAAAAAAAAAAH.

Bought 5 FFIV Feb 55 calls at $1.40 today per email...

also bought 3 EBAY Feb 23 puts at $1.32 today....

so far, looks like EBAY puts are losers and I may have a winner in FFIV calls.

Glad to hear about CREE.saw the big move it had tues.

I'm going to the sidelines.had some major downs in the last few days.

The problem I had from the advisor 's i had used they were too slow to react to negative markets.i did only use some of their advice and made sure i had stops,most of the time a lot tighter than they suggested.some times as close as 2%.

Sorry to hear about how that service went.....I'll give you my take on the one I'm using now once the subscription is over in April. I have a 3 month subscription. As for today's trades, they said to buy GOOG Feb. 540 puts and sell to open GOOG Feb 530 puts for debit of $2.70 or less. I got 4 for $2.10. I also bought 4 SYNA Feb 30 calls at $2.00. Both are trades made today.

As for previous trades, closed the 5 FFIV for $2.10 and made $350. I sold the 3 EBAY puts at $0.40 and that was a loss of -$282. Overall for the day, it was a small gain of $68. I hope GOOG drops and SYNA flies tomorrow. My total gain is now $669

 GOOG is dropping in afterhours

I just sold my GOOG puts.....heck, they hit it with that GOOG put spread trade. I got a total of $4.40 back, so not bad, but I sold SYNA calls at $0.25 on Friday and took a loss on that....

I did want say per their email recommendation I did buy 5 VMW Feb. 43 call at 1.95 and sell Feb. 46 call at 0.80. Hope that one goes well.

I also bought AMGN feb. 57.5 puts at $2.45 (they said to buy at $2.37 or less), so I bought a little high and only bought 2.

I hope both goes well.

WOW, I should have bought more of VMW, but oh well. My loss on SYNA was -715.1, and gain on GOOG put trade was $899.70. Overall, I made $184.60 on those trades. Hope I can get the same on AMGN and VMW too. My total gains is now $853.60.