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Market in limbo? What now?

You know it’s bad when my own father says he’s going to retire in China because our dollar is falling to the dumper and the worst thing is that my dad doesn’t even follow the economy.  But it’s not good and there is still a lot of pain to come but for the short term, the market seems to be in a range.  I’m a little hesitant to be in the market right now until a direction has been confirmed.  As of right now the markets are rather flat.
My Valero position is down but net wise, I’m up by selling calls and buying them back when the stock drops and selling them when it rises.  It’s somewhat of a insurance to lock you gains without selling the stock.  It works well but just don’t go crazy.  As for the shorts on Garmin and Capital One, they have made me a hefty amount of money.  My Citibank putts were sold at a slight loss as I saw it rise to $25 before coming back down to $22.  Horrible trade…should have been a little better but I was thinking of doubling down but I always learn never to double down on short term trades.  At the advice of Pete Najarian, I bought some Wachovia putts last Friday and made a killing yesterday.  Thanks Pete!  You’re the best.  Someone bought $8M worth of options last Friday.  I had to trust that type of conviction.  I’m going to probably sell my Valero position after this week with options expiration and I”m holding SPG putts for protection and I’m slight up on those so I may just take my profits and just reposition myself after this week.  It’s good to refresh yourself and not get caught up with your positions.  Doing that is the path  of least resistence and good traders look for the edge.  None of my positions have any edge.

I’m looking at getting in Apple perhaps before it’s new phone launch or Terra Industries because it’s a agriculture play that has more room to run with a 10% short interest.  Another Pete Najarian suggestion that I looked into.  Of course I will be selling calls into both of these.  Apple has about $10 call profit while Terra has bout $4 with at the money calls.  So usually, I try to get in low then when it rises to a good point, I sell my calls for protection.  If it falls, I locked in my profit and get to keep the stock while I hedge with some putts to maintain further gains.  I’m trying to keep it simple now but I’ll update everyone more soon.  I think today will end flat or slightly negative by the way.

I currently hold Valero long and SPG shorts.