Close Outs - 4/24/09 - IR, EMR, CAT, BP

I closed out the following NPs today - IR, EMR, CAT, BP and all were closed out for between 5 - 20% of original sales price.

"Pigs get fat but Hogs get slaughtered". I closed these out because the trading portfolio is up 9.9% since April 15th. After a 29% gain the previous month (these are unannualized numbers) it was time to book some profits and be ready for a pull back. I don't try to time the market but I also believe that the last dime of any CC is the hardest to earn, therefore if I can remove the risk and free up capital I will buy back. Also, now that I use IB for brokerage I have almost eliminated the brokerage costs. For example I bought back 2 contracts of IR today at 9 cents and the commission was $1.