In yet another horrendous day in the markets, I was able to realize a pretty nice upside gain given the 4% losses on the major indices, which at one point were down over 9%. I had posted last week on several types of trades, hedges, leveraged upside plays and individual stock trades that I executed during the melee following the House Bailout vote that failed.

While my strategy was called into question because the options I purchased were essentially "expensive" given the higher than normal volatility I was paying for in the option premium, I felt like these were moves I had to make in order to protect myself from further downside moves. What really sold me on a further decline was the rather unexpected selling patterns that occurred following a successful vote from the House on the second bailout bill.

To recap on recent trades in and out, here are some details on what was executed, what I'm still holding and what I'm doing next:

In addition to the moves I had posted mid-last week,

10/2 Thursday

Bought 5 QQQVK @ 1.49

Bought 4 AILJA @ 0.45

10/3 Friday post-vote

Bought 5 QQQVK @ 1.49 (strange, got the same QQQQ 37 puts at the same exact price)

10/6 Monday-Today

Sold: Various short/hedged positions including half the SPY puts, sold a Google put, Sold the UYG Puts I had purchased last week (I was questioned in a prior post on why I'd bank on UYG breaking prior lows...it sure happened today), Sold some of the QQQQ puts.

Bought on the dip: AAPLE 100 Call (QAAJT bought @ 4.8; up to 6.2 by market close) and 150 shares Muni ETF PMF.

Note, not even all municipal bonds, funds, ETFs should be considered safe at this point. In the case of PMF, it is one of the top choices I had highlighted previously and has just announced a sustained dividend payout and is diversified.

As it is rather cumbersome to post every symbol and trade during the prior week's flurry of activity, here's a screenshot of my account timestamped and all.

You'll note that in today's carnage, I made over $2700 on a
base of $17000 at the start of trading for a 16% Return.

While this trading account just represents a small portion of my overall holdings (yes, my 401K, IRAs and 529s are getting crushed), it does represent a successful strategy for my "active" positions rather than my 30 year horizon buy/hold retirement and college accounts. It also shows that I've got skin in the game and it's fun to follow my successes as well as watch when I crash and burn.

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