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Option Side: As I mentioned yesterday, I wanted to add a new straddle today. I placed an order to sell 1 EW4Q 3075 Call at 675 and 1 EW4Q 2850 Put at 925. Call got filled. I moved my ask to 875 on the Put. Never got filled. Didn't want to chase it, so nothing done. Was still up about 200 mid-afternoon before the S&P decided it needed to blow out to new all-time highs. After all, it had been a while since that happened. Ended up down about 280 on the day. I'd like to see a pullback tomorrow. That would ease the pressure on my Calls and allow me to sell a Put at a price I'm willing to sell for. If it doesn't happen, if in fact, the market goes up yet again, I will be more likely to close Calls than sell Puts dirt cheap. I will consider, but probably not actually do, the idea of buying some Puts while they are cheap. We shall see...
Day Trade Side: An incredible day. Trade jumped right from the get go. I was up over 1K before it was even close to the time to add the 3rd leg. I gave very serious consideration to just skipping it. I was up nearly 1300 when the time rolled around. I pulled the trigger, as I should have. 10 minutes later I was up 675, the only pullback in the trade all day. It started working like crazy after that. Soon I was up 2K. My mind went to yesterday where I was way down all day (not 2K, but still...) when in the span of about 10 minutes it snapped back all the way to even, and then some, allowing me to finish the day with a modest profit. Could it do the same in reverse today? Well, sure it could, so I exited 1/3 of my position. At 2400 I exited 1/3 of the remainder, and at 2800 half of what I still had left. Was very light by then and when it cruised past 3K I closed out for a +3081 day. Had I still been fully positioned at that time, I'd have been up just over 4K. But I didn't care. I was happy to be out with a very nice profit. I even thought about what I'd write in this journal. "I left 1000 on the table and I have often been frustrated by leaving a lot less than that, but today - no problem, it was a great day". That's what I was going to write, but the trade just kept working, right up to the close and finished up about 5500. Got to admit, that did sting a little. So was the glass half-full (made 3081)? Or half-empty (left nearly 2500 on the table)? Hmmm, I'll have to think about that.
Option Side: A nice pullback, albeit with a small increase in Implied Volatility. I was able to sell my Put for 825, so I got 15.00 for the strangle. Not bad. In good position currently, though I do have a couple options with some Gamma risk. As always, I'm ready to close, adjust or roll if necessary. Up about 580 on the day.
Day Trade Side: Trade seesawed for a while, mostly down, with one or two pops to slightly profitable. Then the market started dropping and so did my trade. I got to -600 when I made the rare decision to exit just one side of the trade, closing out my longs. I don't like to do such a thing because it defeats the whole purpose of using spreads in the first place, and it makes the potential loss larger. When I do this, it is imperative that I stay disciplined if it starts going the other way. Fortunately today it kept going long enough to get me even, and when it did I closed most of my Shorts. I left a small position on with a trailing stop and exited for good at +293. It ended up being the right call, but it's not something I want to do very often.
Seems to me it's neither. The glass was full up and some spilled onto the table. You still walk away with a full glass.
For me, this has been on of the hardest things to come to terms with about trading: when it keeps running after exiting or when it runs after deciding to not get in the trade at all. I call it IKIMO (I Know I Missed Out) but I try to remind myself that there will be money to be made tomorrow and today wasn't my last chance.
I'm enjoying reading your journal, so thanks for sharing.
Thanks, FBB. I like that. Trading is sort of a spinning wheel that gives you money every day. Some days it gives you a lot, some days it gives you a little, and some days it takes your money instead. Let's hope for some full glasses today...
Option Side: As we rampaged yet again this morning, I didn't even wait to see what was going to happen. I rolled up every single Call and most of my Puts. It just never stops. I sold a lot, bought a lot, and may have ended up with more premium. I don't even want to try to figure it out right now. I'll look at the numbers in the morning. Down about 290, probably most of it in commissions and fees. A very good day for Interactive Brokers.
Day Trade Side: Shorting the Russell on my first leg put me in an early hole. That trade was obviously negated (602 loss) and I was long Russell (and short Dow) the rest of the day. Managed to get to even, and when I did I closed half of my already smaller than usual position (smaller due to the first trade being negated - I generally don't replace negated trades). Ended up positive 246, but it sure was a struggle all day long. Overall though, the week was quite good. I am glad it's Friday, and we will come back and do it again next week.
Do you use some kind of threshold for entering a trade? I can imagine that sometimes the spread of the different US equity indexes are too small and maybe not meaningfull enough to enter a trade.
Which trades are you referring to? Option side or day trade side?
Going on the assumption you are asking about options, the answer is not really. Prices are completely determined by volatility. The option writers bane is a huge volatility spike, and I am ever mindful of that. There are times it is best to be on the sidelines, and frankly, I need to be better at that. But you can't just not sell during low vol periods, or most of the time you will do nothing at all. As for strike prices, I like to be twice as far away on Puts as I am on Calls. Of course, the further away the better. But that is dependent on time til expiration and IV. So if the market is at 3025 and I want to sell a Call at 3100 (75 points away), I'd want to be 150 points away (2875 strike) or more on the Put side.
Is that what you were asking? If not, my apologies. Give me more details and I will do my best to answer.
* Total is since June 1, since I started this journal in June and June 3 is when I switched to using the micros in the daytrade portion.
p.s. I don't think I have specifically mentioned this before, but all of my numbers are after commissions and fees. So yesterday I am showing a net loss of 36.18 because that's how much less is in my account this morning. Commissions and fees were 259.68. I told you it was a good day for IB.