A Day of Resting 4-27-17

Market took a day to rest awaiting for big techs' earning reports and tomorrow's 1st quarter GDP number. Both SPX and RUT closed flat while NASDAQ hit a new ATH again. It's a late 1990s all over again. Human nature never changes. After hours earning reports from AMZN, GOOG and INTL are better than expected. We may see another trending up day tomorrow if GDP doesn't disappoint the market.

Made 11 trades across board. Two out of three of my ITM RUTs rolled out with some nice premiums. Thanks to the hedged calls with gains to help out the roll. I closed my first TSLA strangle for a 50% of profit and released margin back. Took out couple bear call spreads for clients to reduce risk. Made couple RR in IWM to hedge calls. One lesson learnt that I need to be more aggressive to roll my ITM positions when market is in my favor. I rolled many of them in March but let them loose in early and mid April in hopes of getting more. The two RUT I rolled today have nice gains a week ago but turned into loses today.

Net liq took a breather today. Margin went to put side. Margin ratio is fair for now.  I will add couple more hedges tomorrow for next week.

A Third Punch From RUT 4-26-17

RUT run up 1% before the tax plan revealed. It's the third day of 1% move. Luckily it closed with 0.6%  while SPX was barely below open. RUT made another ATH to 1425.7 and still closed above prior high. The new couple of days may tell if it can hold the break out. MACD and RSI are showing rooms above.

Made  2 trades only. Both are for hedging. Some of my RR long calls in SPY and IWM are showing profit so I sell them to buy further out of date calls to hedge for longer time. I have 3 more ITM positions for this week. I will roll them in the next two days and hope to see a small pull back.

Net liq took another punch for the third day in a roll. Net liq lost 3.8K at the end. I had to wire 10K from ET as planed. I may have to do more if the surge continues.

Raging Bulls 4-25-17

Bulls took SPX and RUT one step up, ranging from +0.93 to 0.61%.  RUT made ATH of 1415.55, took out the prior high of 1414.82 today. SPX appears will make an ATH soon. The tax reform announcement tomorrow could be the catalyst. I am not sure if it will be another buy the rumor, sell on the news event. But the earning season may hold the market up for a while. NASDAQ is above 6000 now.

Made 4 trades. Closed two bear calls at 60% profit for clients and made two small hedges in SPY and IWM for me. No premiums collected. It's a tough environment. Glad I have been holding off selling bear calls for the last two days. I may leg in tomorrow after the reaction of tax reform is clear.

Net liq lost another 12.5K today. I may have to wire money back to fend off the siege if there is another 10K squeeze. I need to think of a plan if this leg has energy to move up and hold.

French Rally 4-24-17

French election turned out to what market had hopped for. Index futures popped up around 1% on Sunday night. It was mostly an one way street during the RTH. Any pull back was bought by buyers. RUT and SPX ended up 1.29% and 1.08% respectively. It appears that both SPY and RUT will attempt to retest their ATHs set in early March, possibly making new highs as NASDAQ did today. The coming new tax reform plan may be the catalyst for the run, plus the earning reports have been good. However, North Korea tension could be a negative factor hanging over head.

Made 8 trades today. 4 put exit orders filled right off the gate. I am supposedly to check my pending orders before open every morning. But I was so focused on hedging due to the low available margin. Only a rollover in ET made $300. The rest of trades were hedges.

Of course the rally hurt my portfolio. Net liq is down 10K. The portfolio will be on alert with another 1% gain in RUT and SPX which is likely.  Margin is OK for now. But after I rollover 2 ITM RUT for this week I will need to put in more hedges.

Break Out After Basing 4-20-17

After two days base building indexes broke out to the upside. RUT and SPX closed to the high side of the day, up 1.24 and 7.6% respectively. It was a trending day with solid earnings and possible tax reform proposal nearing. The shallow pull back appears over unless a geopolitical event, such as French election or North Korea nuclear activity knock on the market.

Made 6 trades today. I rolled the RUT 1360 bear call up 10 points since there is no chance to exit it on this trending day. Filled in 3 IC 2 SPX call side of late May for clients. I sold most of my gold miner 3x stocks with mixed results.  It was unusual I didn't have any trade in IB main account.

Net liq took a blow of 10K on this break out. Margin ratio is lowered too. I will buy hedges tomorrow no matter what. There may be some early push around tomorrow as individual stock and ETF month options expiration set in.

Sellers Are Still Above 4-19-17

US market gaped up with European market hold up and good earning reports. By mid morning crude oil inventory report tanked energy market and dragged down SPX. IBM also held Dow Index lower. SPX closed in negative territory and RUT gave back more than a half of its gains and up only 0.4%. Tomorrow is monthly option expiration day. We could see a push up early and choppy in the afternoon.

Made 5 trades today. Sold couple RUT bear call spreads for clients in the morning. Also sold Tesla bear calls to make strangles as it popped up 1.5% after a recent pull back. Not much else I could do in up days. Experiencing lost time and opportunities.

Net liq still in its safe zone despite another 3.8K pull back. Margin ratio is fine for now. I need to roll a RUT 1360  in IB personal acct tomorrow.

Building Bases 4-18-17

It was a relatively choppy day. Bulls and bears tried to take charge but no one gained upper hand. It was a base building for both but the up trend is still intact. There are geopolitical concerns in Korea and France.

Made 5 trades today. Most of them are hedges in RR and ratio hedging puts. I rolled up May 1 1345 to May 2, 1355. That's about it. No order filled for clients. RUT was leading for today's recovery before closing. Wait to see where the market will go from here in short term.

Net liq gained 2.7K while RUT closed flat. Margin ratio is back above 60%. It doesn't look like I have a chance to exit another RUT ITM bear call this week.

Bulls' Revenge 4-17-2017

Market got a relief from North Korean tension since nothing happened over this Easter long weekend. Indexes pushed up through out the session and closed at high of the day. SPX and RUT were up 1.14 and 0.98% respectively. RUT/TF made a bullish engulfing following last Wednesday's bearish engulfing daily bar. I have noticed that this pattern don't play out well. It often gets reversed in short term. Both SPX and RUT are staying in their current balance area after the attempts of breaking down from last week. I guess the beginning of earning season provide bullish sentiment to the market. Indexes may test higher sides of their balance areas from here with some bumps along the way.

Made 8 trades today. Sold 4 bear call spreads of late May for clients. I still don't have much room to sell on call side despite reduced one RUT bear call position last week. The other 4 were closing positions in put side. I didn't collect any premiums today.

Net liq gave back 9K closed with 155K. That closed bear call helped to reduce pressure to the upside. Margin ratio is at 30%. I will start to buy hedge calls tomorrow.

Geopolitical Fears 4-13-17

Indexes were in a choppy session until the last 30 min of the day. SPX and RUT closed on their daily lows. SPS ended down 0.67% the largest down day in this week. RUT is down another percent. Traders don't want hold positions over the long weekend while North Korea satiation is tense and US just dropped a biggest bomb in Afghanistan. Even the better than expected bank earnings couldn't lift bank sector.

Made 5 trades today. I didn't want to commit too much over the weekend either. I rolled over one DITM RUT 1125 Call from next week to end of May. Sold one bull puts CS for each clients in SPX and RUT for end of May.

Net liq gained another 8K on today's down move. Margin levels looked better than expected so I didn't add more hedges today. I figured it would cost me less to do it on Monday since the margin is still on the call side. Of course it may be a totally different picture if a big event happens over this Easter weekend. I am glad that I bought more put protection yesterday.

VIX Won So Far 4-12-17

VIX continued to be elevated most of the day. Indexes played out to the down side. SPX and RUT gave back most of their recovery before closing. VIX closed above 15.7 for the first time after last Nov's election. Market is concerned about the North Korea tension. SPX and RUT are in lower and mid of their current ranges now.

Made 14 trades today. Finally exited my first naked bear call for at least 3 months. It's a big relief for the account. The exit price wasn't perfect but was my plan. It RUT had gone the other way It was less than 6 point away from 1380 when it opened this morning. I was able to put in hedges for both side today. Sold couple SPX and RUT put spreads in my account. Also sold a TSLA May bull put when it went down 4% after reached ATH a few days ago. It was 25% away so I think it's fairly safe for now.

Net liq got a 15K boost with RUT down 1.25% and SPX down 0.4%. Margin ratio is above safety level and projection is fine for the weekend. Margin is still on call side right now. It could switch to put side if we get a strong down day tomorrow or I sell too many puts. I will watch out for it.

The Divergence Of Indexes and VIX 4-11-2017

SPX experienced a morning sell off of near 0.8%. In the mean time RUT held well above water during the SPX drop. That was a early indication that SPX won't go down too far. However VIX and its short term product advanced roughly 8%, above 15 even as SPX was recovering back to -0.15%. RUT advanced 0.7% and RVN also moved up more than 1%. The fear of North Korea tension to escalate keeps market on edge. The divergence continues. Earning session is upon us again. So market may have another leg up baring from geopolitical events.

Made 9 trades today. I made 7 SPX late May bull put spreads for my self and clients during the morning push down. I rolled another RUT ITM 1330 call from April 28 to May 26, 1340 to lock in some profit and reduce 1k margin. The 1380 near the money call for this week is threaten again as RUT closed above 1370 today.

Neg liq lost 9K as RUT raised 0.7%. Margin ratio is lowered to 40%. The challenge still lays into next week. I will start to buy call hedges for next week tomorrow.

Something Has To Give 4-10-17

Market made attempts to go high this morning right off the gate. They all met sellers at resistant levels except NASDAQ. RUT went into negative territory briefly. SPX and RUT closed up less than 0.2%. The interesting point is that VIX continued to move up while SPX and RUT recovered. VIX April futures is above 15 and higher than May's price. It may be indicating a short term vol. Either market will drop in near term or VIX has to pull back. Something has to give soon.

Made 6 trades today. Sold couple May 2 bear call spreads for clients to form IC 2  for their positions. Luckily RUT dropped after I sold them. I didn't collect any premiums for my account. I rolled a set of SPY protective calls with RR. Bought a RUT call to reduce this week's margin.

Net liq is above safety level. Margin ratio is fair after my hedge today. I will have to start to work on hedges for next week in next couple of days since this is a short trading week for Easter.

A Resilient Market 4-7-17

NFP report released this morning was 96K new jobs v.s. 185K expected. I don't know which one is closer to the truth. The previous months' figures were revised down as well. Market didn't react to the news too badly which already recovered from the sell off of the missile strikes of Syria. Bulls shrugged off the bad news. Indexes chopped all day and closed flat for this Friday. I was anticipating a sell off before closing before the weekend.

Made 4 trades today. I wasn't able to exit the RUT 1360 bear call as the price stayed above it most of the day and closed at 1364.5. I had to roll it to next but raised it 1380 with help of a put at 1310. The roll up may not be far enough. If the market won't go down under such pressure it then may go to explore the upside. Made 2 SPY risk reversal for 4-3 wk to hedge some call margins. Sold a naked SPX 5-2 put for a client.

Neg liq recovered 2.3K. It's better than a loss. Margin is projected fine over the weekend expiration. Let's see what the market will do next week.

Bulls' Revenge 4-6-17

There was no follow through to yesterday's sell off. Bulls took control back after a brief lower test in the morning session. SPX and RUT took more than 2/3 of their losses back from yesterday. Market was positioning for tomorrow's NFP with optimistic view. The news just broke out this evening that US launched missile strikes strikes against Syria. Futures market is down about 0.5% as of now. It appears that the strike is limited to an airfield of Syria. This developing event makes it harder to predict tomorrow's market.

Only made two trades today. Both were RUT call hedges for next week. With RUT pushed up near 1%, closed at 1364 I may not be able to exit my bear call of 1360 tomorrow. I will stick to the last 1-2 hr to either close or roll the position. The best thing I can do is to follow my plan and stay disciplined.

Net liq gave back 9.4K. Margin ratio is healthy as predicted for this week's expiration. I will continue to deal with the draw down week by week.

Reversed Down 4-5-17

Indexes gaped up from overnight. RUT was up 1% 2 hrs after the open. SPX also was up 0.5%. It looked like a trending day with ADP reporting over 264K new jobs added by private sector in March. Then Fed Minutes released at 2pm. Normally it was not a big of deal since the rate hike was done. But the discussion of unwinding Fed's balance sheet spooked market. Market started to under pressure. RUT was leading and went into negative territory before 3pm. I thought it might retest today's low and buyers would step in as it has been. But today was different. The selling continued until closing. RUT closed down 1.2% and SPX was down 0.3%. It was a bearish engulfing reversal day that we haven't seen in a long time.

Made 12 trades today. Tried to sell some bear call spreads earlier when market was pushing up but none filled. Then I turned around to sell puts. Some got filled in late afternoon, couple of them were done after cash closing. Most of them were RUTs. I also sold an ratio hedges in puts. I will start to work on selling SPX as there are more available expiry dates.

Net liq popped 13K. I may be able to get one RUT bear call closed this week. Then it will be a real relief for me. Margin is still on the call side for now. The risk is to the down side now. However Friday's job report could be a strong shot to turn market around. At least we get some two way actions now.

Choppy But Bullish Market 4-4-17

Overnight futures market was weak. Then recovered at US open. Sellers made several attempts to push market down but met with strong bulls on every meaningful dip. RUT even made a new daily low around 3pm but buyers stepped in and closed the day near flat. That is pretty bullish sentiment. I don't think the market will go too far until this Friday's job report. Fed Minutes tomorrow may cause some movement but don't expect anything major unless there are some unexpected information come out. The Chinese president's visit may bring some news that could swing the market in short term. I expect certain positive development already worked out. It's more of a show for both heads of the states.

Made 4 trades but no premiums were collected. My computer has been overloaded and very slow lately. It messed up a small IWM hedge order. It defaults to positive price on my credit selling orders. I had to restart my pc twice today. I may start to shop for a new pc.

Net liq gave back most of gains today, only up 1.2K. Margin ratio and available funds are inline for now. I will try to buy hedged calls again tomorrow which none of them were filled for the last two days.

Range Bound, A Needed Relief 4-3-17

Market followed through the small sell off of last Friday before closing. RUT is the weakest one, -1.2% among the majors. SPX recovered most of its 0.6% loss. Buyers are still active in every dip. Indexes may stay within their current range until the Job report this Friday. Fed Minute release is on the Wednesday.

Made 12 trades today. Sold some RUT Mid May put spreads for clients. I sold one May 2 as well. Closed couple positions and used ratio hedge to add a little more protection to my RUT put side. I also sold 2 RUT May 12 in ETP account for the first time in about 2 months. I rolled 2 more RUT late April ITM puts to May and locked in some profits.

Net liq got a 12K relief on today's RUT 1.2% drop. Margin ratio is healthy for now. Margin is still on the call side. I will try to use this p/b and range bound to add hedges on both sides.