It seems that energy is still headed down this week, with the once high flying coal sector going along for the ride.

ICO has been gapping down the last couple of days and closed today at $8.43. All of the technical indicators are pointing down, as well as the recent trends, so it looks to me like this will be a good one to put in a virtual $7.50 PUT. JRCC is having a similar pattern, but with a possible PUT at $30.

BUCY is a company that makes mining equipment, and has seen its fortunes fall along with the energy sector over the last month or so, with the previous couple of days being the most dramatic. Today's drop cam with high volume, so I'll stake out a virtual PUT at $50.

In the interest of trying something a little different, I'm taking a look at PUT with SID. It's a Brazilian steel producer that has been on a long downward trend with not a lot of reason to turn back up. The trend is with me on this one. Steel in general has been trending downwards, but this is one I could afford if I were to do it with real cash.

I'm also going to stretch a little bit more into covered calls. With energy heading down, airlines are getting a reprieve and actually trending up a bit. A carrier like HA (Hawaiian Airlines) is in the right price range for working this strategy.

That's my trading homework for today.

And somewhat homework related – today I met for the second time the at-home dad of one of my son's classmates. Turns out he used to be involved with the stock market not too long ago. But I think he was more into daytrading and got sucked up into the minute-by-minute movements.

He's warned me against getting sucked in that way and is looking into more long term investments himself.

Maybe I shouldn't get that new BlackBerry phone…