I had an old short straddle on Merck (MRK) that I bought to cover today.  These were converted options (I originally sold the short straddle on Schering-Plough which subsequently became MRK options).  As such my broker’s software didn’t properly recognize them (crazy in this day in age).  The result was that I had to phone in every trade that I wanted to make.  So, I decided to rid the position (although I still retain the underlying 57 MRK shares).

Simultaneously, I had an order in to purchase more put options on ITB.  The theory was long MRK and short ITB.  However, the ITB trade never went through.  Hopefully I can increase my ITB put exposure in the near future.