I shouldn’t have to say it, but the present recovery on Wall Street is really amping up the returns on my portfolio.  Because I use an automated options trading program I make my picks long in advance, wait for the market to move and the trades automatically excute while I eat caviar (well, ok, it’s tuna but what the heck).  My trades are programmed in such a way that I’m forced to buy low and sell high.  I don’t necessarily always buy at the bottom (though I must say I’ve done quite well), and I don’t always sell at the top either.  On the other hand the disciplined approach that is born of automation takes the worst part of emotion out of the equation.  In other words…

When I hit a buy price, the automated options trading program buys the specific number of contracts.

When I hit a sell price, the automatic options trading program sells the specified number of contracts.

At the end of the day (or week, or month, or quarter, or however long it takes) I consistently have more than when I started.  Stock prices became so battered in Q1 09 I can’t imagine there will be too many people who bought in during Q1 who will ultimately end up in the red.

If you want to read a bit more about automated options trading my buddy Martin Sage has written a couple of pieces on it.