What's in the wallet II

It was around January/February time frame that things finally started to settle out, and as even a broken clock is right twice a day the bottom finally arrived. I started making some good trades. The stock market was down and the DOW bottomed early March. This could have been one of the best times to buy in the stock market in about 50 years. Really. You had great-not good, stocks off over 50% from the highs and if you had cash (or even if you didnt have that much) you really had the opportunity of a lifetime. Using options (which are a great vehicle if you lack some cash) I bought Jan '11 $10 options for Intel for $4; that same option was selling yesterday for $10.5. I loaded up on coal options from ANR and sold many of them at over 100% profit. I dabbled in XOM (Exxon Mobil) IBM, EBAY and others. In fact the only option that expired worthless on me was an out-of-the-money call on XOM, I bought a week before expiration based on my prediction they would surpass estimates (they didn't) but I knew going in that it was 'an acceptable gamble' because that's all it was. I lost in the short term on some options I went big on DGIT in June (they are an internet advertising/webdesign group) The options were for September 17.5. I lost on the options but was still bullish on the stock so I exercised the options and received the shares, I think looking forward the company has some great potential (disclosure I own DGIT, IBM and ANR) Considering where I was 8 months ago I look back feeling pretty good, I am up 72% from February- which is great, its still not quite as high however as it was July 2008. Oh well =P

The reason I bring this up is there is a side of me that really fears this rapid climb, and I as I try to move my portfolio to a more shored up (think more cash) position and out of options I sincerely think the market is due for a pretty serious correction in the next 2-3 months. Worst case I think we could touch 8000 on the Dow again. And then I think will be another great opportunity. I'll open the portfolio so you can see whats in it tomorrow.