Recent PUT Option plays on SWN and AAPL – More selling?

Hello world of stock traders,

I’m back or at least for a little while. My ship has been breaking down a lot so we are stuck still at the harbor in Hawaii due to a lack of funds by the President to build us new ships for the CG.

Recently I’ve gotten back into the market. Here are my last 3 option plays in the month of July.

Bought SWN – out of the money
Thursday, July 10, 2008 $0.35 2008 AUG 30 PUTS
Sold SWN
Monday, July 14, 2008 $0.20 -42.86%
Note: Got out to early, but if I didn’t get out I would have lost another -50% the following day.

Bought SWN – out of the money
Wednesday, July 16, 2008 $1.40 2008 AUG 35 PUT
Sold SWN
Tuesday, July 22, 2008 $1.90 35.71%
Note – I got out way to early. There was potential to make over 200% on this play, but it was the right thing to do because I could not watch it due to work.

Bought AAPL – in the money
Thursday, July 24, 2008 $7.75 2008 AUG 165 PUT
Sold AAPL
Thursday, July 24, 2008 $9.25 19.35%
Note – Got in this play and out the same day. I was able to watch it develop. I actually had the chance to get out early within 2 hrs @ $9.60 but got greedy and it went up. So put in GTC order and fortunately was sold out before it his $10.20 (because the next day AAPL went up +3)

At least in these 3 transactions in the money worked the quickest as you can see while also being the most expensive. hmmm… what does this tell me? duh, stick to in the money.

So basically I started with $1000 in my first trade lost 60% of my account and with my last two trades worked my account back up to around $920 from around $400. Now my goal this time is to reach $10,000. It sounds like a lot, but if I keep doing small trades getting there with a volatile market (and of course being on the right side of the market) should get me their quickly. I think I’m going to be sticking to SWN, AAPL, GOOG, and NTRI option plays because I’ve been keeping close attention to them the most with a few others.

My condo is getting there. Kitchens are so expensive. Pretty much my whole place is being remodeled. With all new appliances it will come out to around $16,000 which includes remodeling bathrooms, new fixtures, new cabinets, new furniture, new electronics, all newly painted, and marble counter tops for kitchen. Will post pictures once it is completed.

On the positive side I was also lucky to find a parking stall for rent in our condo community so now I have a 2nd roommate paying $900/month + 1st roommate paying $1000/month for a total of $1900/month cashflow income – $100/parking stall – est. -$200/electric – $1950/mortgage = total out of my pocket to own the condo will be around -$350 expense. Plus the +$1900/roommate income will go directly to my seperate savings account where my other rent is collected so within 1 year I’ll have around $20k saved up for my trading account once I’m out of the military.