Weekly Review 8-22-15

This week was differently change in price actions and sentiments. Using SPX/ES and RUT as examples there was a surge to the upside attempting to break into higher CHVA on Monday. On Wednesday after Fed Minutes released there were enough bulls to buy on the dip although sellers stopped the push up. The gap down on Thursday was not severe until the close at low of the day with at least 2% down across the board. VIX closed above 18. Friday opened with another gap down for no any major news. Panic was spread with chain reactions. SPX/ES ended with another 3% down and closed at low of the day again. They are parked on top of the next CHVA. VIX closed near 29. RUT fared better with only 1.3% down at cliff of its CHVA.

The week ended with 100% winners and $11,900 profit largely from previously closed wheat and corn positions. However, my portfolio value decreased over 20% from the last two days of heavy selling and margin increase. I encountered the worst margin draw down on Thursday and Friday. The worst often happens on worst timing. Like the pro said, the worst draw down is always in the future. On Friday several things happened to make it my worst trading day in indices.
1. I woke up late being lazy and undisciplined. I stayed up too late watching movies on my phone knowing my margin was kind of low. I didn't wake up early to prepare for the session. I let my guard down.
2. I run into network problems with comcast and IB login. On top of those I lost my S-5 platform setups and it came up blank. By the time I switched my internet connection and log in my trading plate forms IB started to liquidate my positions on margin calls. All of my wheat and most of corn naked positions were liquidated. It costed me about -$2500. Then came in 200 shares of HD, 700 shares of QCOM, 180 shares of JPM be sold by IB. My cash position changed from -$22K to + $54K. I didn't know my credit spread positions could increase my margin so much with VIX and Vega increase. In the afternoon I closed couple puts at loss to reduce my margin but didn't help much since the sell off continued. The margin figure changed almost every minute. I finally held above $5K at closing. It won't be enough for another down day on Monday. Luckily most of my positions are in spreads, otherwise I might have been in a much bigger hole or even crushed.

My task for this weekend is to figure out the best way to shore off my margin and avoid margin calls. I can roll down my positions but spread appears doesn't reduce much of margin. I may have to reduce my sizes while roll over to take some losses for now. I must come up a detailed plan before Sunday night. To survive on this sell off and be able to trade again is my priority. Do not a assume the sell off would stop here. It may have further to go and I must prepare for the worst scenarios.