Welcome to July expiration.  Another one in the books, folks.

Everything went nearly according to plan until yesterday I realized that I forgot to do something.  My plan was to hold the MSFT put until the day before expiration because MSFT reported earnings.  I didn't mark my calendar and now I get to pay the price.  At the present time, it is trading down sharply, down nearly 5% pre-market.  The earnings report wasn't that bad, but the market is quite irrational these days, so anything could've sent it to the floor or to the moon.

So it could be a fun day for me.  I'll be checking on MSFT throughout the day for sure.   Oh, and for those just tuning in, I'm holding the $25 strike, so I still have some wiggle room.

The GE put was never at risk. I don't take a lot of credit typically, because I believe a lot of this is probability driven, but I honestly feel I just bought the GE put right.

I'm still feeling pain on the C assignment from last month. If you recall, I sold a put at 22.50, which was WAY WAY WAY out of the money. <laugh>. Well, that was easily assigned and while C made up some ground this week, I'm still hurting.  Yesterday, I sold a call for .51.  I lock in a relatively small loss if that is assigned.

So now I'll be flat on the short put side and looking for opportunities. The bounce this week has made things look a little pricey in the short term. I'm going to sit back and wait for things to look a little sweeter. I'll be watching my usual suspects (GE, MSFT, etc) and of course, some others.

Would be interested in hearing other option ideas for August.