So, the market goes way down on options expirations day.  Who would have guessed?

A few options I sold are expiring today. Let's take a look at what's happening today in my stock trading world... 

C - At close toay, I'm going to pocket the $71 premium on the option I sold 9 days ago, and I'm still in the money on the stock (for those of you who remember me blogging about C a few days ago, this is how the trade has turned out so far).

Dell - At close today, I'm going to pocket the $49 premium on the option I sold 9 days ago, and I'm at about break-even on the stock, which I'll get to keep.

AFSI - I'm down a little, but fully expect a rebound.

MSFT - bought some today for $28.11.  thought it was a decent, but not great price.  I'm already up a little on that trade as MSFT closed at $28.23.

On the next upturn, I'm going to sell another load of covered calls, and hopefully pocket $200-$300 pretty quickly, and even more if the options get executed. 

I was in the rental property business for a while (had 5 houses) and still am to some degree (down to 3 houses), but this is waaay easier than collecting rent, and there's no broken fridges to fix or houses to clean out.  muhahaha!!!

Upod, I've been looking at MSFT's chart.  The 52 week low is $26.87, and I bought MSFT at $28.11.  so, I feel like there isn't much downside risk.  The "Entertainment and Devices" division is profitable now too, and I think it's going to help out.  But really, a chart analysis was the main reason for this buy.  MSFT have bumped $29 a three or four times in the last 30 days.  They've also gone as low as $27.12 or so, but that was on bad days for the overall market.   Anyways, I see a rebound to $29 in the next 5-7 days of trading, and a quick $100 profit on this sucker.  Swing trade. that's what I'm calling on this one.  If it hits near $27 again, I'll just buy more. ...although I am planning on unloading a few stocks next week...in this choppy market, I'm trying to keep at least a 25% margin cushion and have been trying to use less margin in general this year.  I probably won't sell another C covered call...I might wait for the stock to run back to $21 or so before unloading.  I figure C is going to crash eventually, so I'm probably better off getting out while I can. (Even though the covered call on C worked out very well for me...I don't know if I'm brave enough to hold for a full 30 days.)