Last week trading activity

Let’s summarize my trading activity last week:

08/22/2008 15:42:03 Sold Short … PHM @ 13.68
08/26/2008 15:59:46 Bought … OIL @ 69.25
08/27/2008 16:08:03 Bought … VIXJX @ 2.5

As you can see, I had a chance to get out with some profit within a few days of getting into positions, but I chose not to.

PHM advance is worrying me, as I don’t know the reason for it. Could that be that some piece of news skipped my attention or is it simple taking profit by other traders or are there buyers on the market who think the housing slump is over?

The price of crude oil unexpectedly dropped on Thursday and didn’t recover on Friday, even though Monday is closed for trading – Labor Day – and hurricane Gustav is coming straight into the Gulf Coast. I hope Gustav is not going to be as bad as hurricane Katrina, but I personally wouldn’t feel comfortable to keep short position in crude oil over the long weekend.

Volatility Index Oct 22.5 Call Options look quite attractive to me – I don’t believe in that miraculous GDP grows at times when unemployment is rising, banks defaulting, companies declare bankruptcies, home values falling and spending is contracting. The figures might reflect weakened dollar and increased prices, but to me that’s not something to be cheerful of.