Time to Trim

Violent swings and market uncertainty do make one thing for certain. It is completely necessary to trim the portfolio. Below are my options in my portfolio with my actions with explanations that I wish to execute by days end.

5 APVAT (AAPL JAN 200 trading at .23, bought for 1.50) - Incurring big losses here, I bought after RIMM's earnings and then the market as a whole came down. I just feel AAPL has too much cash on their books, which is why I bought this. No sells on this, but my inaction in cutting losses earlier has killed me with this investment.

3 FCXAL (FCX Jan 60 Call...trading at 4.00, bought for 2.65) - Selling 2 of these today, looking for a little higher gain. I may sell all three today, but I bought because FCX was oversold and I was looking for a slight bounce.

6 HPQAJ (HPQ Jan 50 Call...trading at 1.00, bought 3 for 1.10 and 3 for 1.70) - If the option gets to 1.40 I'm selling 3 of these. It's important to have cash on hand in this type of environment.

5 MSAF (MS Jan 30 Call...trading at 2.00, bought 2 for 2.20 and 3 for 1.30) - Hesitant to sell this as a rate cut would send this stock soaring at open. However, short selling ban ends tomorrow and this should weigh somewhat on the market. Looking to sell 3 of these today...2.00 would be sufficient.

20 NCCAU (NCC Jan 7.50...trading at .20, bought for .25) - Bought these in hopes of a quick pop after the bailout passage...this didn't happen, but I'm not worried about this trade. There is much time for this to work and coordinated rate cuts could cause a pop in this. Looking to sell half at .40 or so.

10 AUYAC (AUY JAN 15.0...trading at .40, bought at .60 and .85) - Keeping this as a hedge against the market. If the market goes downward people will buy gold, driving up its price, helping gold companies.

5 YUMAG (YUM JAN 35.0 Call...trading at 1.25, bought for 1.40) - Come out with earnings today and I believe YUM has been oversold, especially with its growth in emerging markets. We will have to see if earnings take a hit.

10 UFBBJ (FWLT FEB 50.0 Call...trading at 1.25, bought 2 for 7.50, 1 for 5.80, 2 for 1.90 and 5 for .80) - Yeah, so this took a hit in the big selloff. I had a chance to sell when it got back up to 45 but the most recent selloff put shares of FWLT down to 28.00. This is absolutely ridiculous, but it's the environment we are in. I hope to sell half of these around 1.90 or so.

I'm overexposed on Calls, I know. I'm looking for good puts to buy, and am zoning in on IBM, CVX, BA and XOM. These stocks are not down nearly as far as they could be.