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I made it mandatory to address my fear of losing as part of my process pre-trade, because I used to hesitate on entry with every trade I took. I hardly hesitate anymore (only when I shouldn't be performing is when I do). It's a matter of deliberately accepting the possibility of loss, in acknowledgement that the next trade is a single trade of many. When it comes to bigger opportunities though, the psychological weight of the possibility of not being able to capitalize on it is heavier than the possibility of losing a trade (IMO).
I noticed that getting a good laugh in before trading influences my state of mind greatly, and I end up taking trading less seriously. I'm no professional, these are just some thoughts.
Excellent journal, great way to log and study the what and the why of your method.
It will take a while for me to assimilate and be able to wisely comment on your trades. I think it is responsible to understand what you are doing before clouding up your hallucination with my hallucination.
One question though: The charts are SPY. Have you considered taking your delta position either long or short via selling option premium?
Zach,
I appreciate your reply and have enjoyed reading your thread! I haven’t developed a solid pre-session ritual yet and feel that it would be a good next step! For the remainder of this week I will make a point of listening to a stand up comedy bit before the open as well as meditating on accepting risk.
You are absolutely right about missing trades bearing a greater psychological weight than losing trades that fit the trade criteria. I don’t get upset when a proper trade results in a stop out but I do get upset when I pass on a trade that ends up hitting target.
I want to ensure I understand properly. Are you asking if I have considered selling naked calls/puts to initiate trades instead of going short/long the underlying?
I have considered this and would employ it IF I were trading on a longer time frame. Most of my trades are less than 10 minutes in duration and fast-paced. I like being able to trade off the chart I am watching. In other words, if I were to trade derivatives of SPY I would need another chart open of that derivative just to enter and manage the position. Another issue is the liquidity. SPY options are very liquid but nowhere near as liquid as SPY itself. If my trades were 1+ hours in duration, then the theta decay would make the inconvenience of charting multiple symbols worthwhile to me.
Thanks again for your comment and please let me know if I misunderstood your question or overlooked anything!
Even if a long term hold for you is a half hour, I think you would find that the options, most of the time, are very clean. By that I mean almost never mispriced. Most of the time they are penny wide. I guess sometimes in a half hour, certainly a half day, that volatility could get you. But my thought was that the options could give you a shit ton of leverage...more bang for the buck.
I'll try to watch this week to see if I'm missing something. I'll check how much it takes to trade the same net delta using the options and how much in both % and actual dollars the same trade does in the options.
I don't sell puts on the ETF because I don't want to buy SPY. For me the future is more efficient because I mostly hedge long stocks as a trade intraday.
Looking forward to your analysis. I'll watch it as well. My goal for the past month in trading SPY has been to improve my skills in an environment that is not demo but also extremely low leverage/risk. The goal hasn't been to actually make money, but to test my methodology and trade management. Once I feel certain that I have an edge that I can execute, I will move over to the e-mini futures. I may jump over to the micro's next month in the meantime.
With today's trade, I could have sold the ATM 283.5 Call for .64 at the same time I shorted SPY. I could have covered those Calls at .52 for a $12 gain per contract. I'm not exactly sure how intraday margin works on naked calls but assuming I was able to sell 3 contracts (300 shares short), that would have been a gain of $36. The 300 shares short made $59.
It's very possible I am missing something here as naked option selling is not something I am very familiar with...
Now I see what you are doing and I think you are exactly correct in your approach. I saw on the chart that you had $85,000 in exposure to make $60. Now I see that you are not posting to celebrate $60, rather an idea that worked and was executed within a developing method.
That is wise. My thought was optimization. It is possible to make way more as% or as dollars with way less exposure while using the same ideas about trade entry and management.
IMO you are doing it right. If you want me to chime in, let me know and I'm happy to share my thoughts. Otherwise carry on and trade well.