Still Holding Up Well 7-31-17

Market shrug off NK's missal and WH chaos. Dow made a new high, S&P held flat and RUT down 0.3%. July turned out to be a good month for bulls. The up trend may continue to early August, at least. Earnings is still the main driving force.

Made 6 trades today. Sold another AMZN put for a client as it dropped another 3% to my surprise. I made IWM and QQQ rollovers to extend hedges. Sold a set of RUT bull put in ET to make a IC 2 but it was inverted at 1360P v.s. 1310C. It could be dangers if RUT suddenly drop to or below 1360. It will require a big margin to rollover the position.

Net liq recovered 4K. Any recover is better than loss. Margin is above 50% but will drop after the month end expiry. I will continue to buy hedges tomorrow.

A Mid Day Reversal 7-27-17

Index futures made new ATHs before cash open. RUT closed a prior day's gap then bounced like a clock work. Around mid day market reversed to the down side without any major news. RUT was down 1% at one point and closed -0.6%. SPY recovered most of losses and only ended -0.1%. Then AMZN reported a miss of -70% earnings after hour. I was a big surprise for me. I was planing to buy it a 1.5% down but it ended down 3%.

Made 14 trades. Rolled 5 ITM calls across board and collected some funds except the one in ET. Have one more in ET to roll tomorrow and couple for next Monday. Glad to rolled couple IWM hedges to next two weeks before the mid day reversal. This circle of up swing may be ending base on MACD and slowing down of earnings.

Net liq got another boost of 6K. Margin ratio is above 70% so far. It looks fine for this weekend. Margin is on put side now.

Another None Impact FOMC 7-26-17

FOMC held interest rate as expected. Unwinding its balance sheet is coming soon. Market didn't care either way. The focus is still on earnings. Tomorrow will be another big day. There will be 60 S&P companies report while AMAZ is scheduled after hour. I need to be able to hold through the earning session. Then hopefully bulls will let the gas paddle go for awhile.

Made 5 trades. Volume felt very light. Several of my orders didn't get fill although prices passed mid. No premiums collected. It's the summer norm now. RUT pull back 0.5%. My order to take profit on IWM didn't get fill.

Net liq recovered 7K, that saved my day for not to wire fund in. Margin ratio is above 60% and will be good before the weekend. I definitely need to learn and practice more directional trading system.

New ATHs Again 7-25-17

Indexes gaped up this morning with some better than expected earning reports. Both SPX and RUT made new all time highs again. RUT closed right at 1450.9. It may have a little more to the upside within my target range of 1490 to 1510. SPX made to 2481, not too far from its big target of 2500. NASDAQ was dragged down a little by google's earning. It may pop again with AMAZ and FB reporting this week. This summer rally continues. Tomorrow is FOMC again. It may be ignored by the earning excitement.

Made 8 trades. Most of them were rolling hedges in small contracts. Sold 2 IWM ITM weekly to lock in some profit early in the morning. It's a tough squeeze to my holdings. I need a pull back badly. I noticed that I am much calmer now with the market surge since I have plan and guard lines for different situations.

Net liq took a 10K hit. It brought the balance to my warning line. I may have to do another wire transfer before end of this week to boost my net liq. The positions in ET is worrisome for rolling this week.

When It Can't Go Down It Will Stay Up Or Break Out 7-24-17

Market attempted to go down this morning but met with buyers even with a small pull back. RUT tested the top of its prior balance and bounced. It closed back into positive territory. Nobody seems counting how many days the market has been without a 1% pull back. Earnings continue to provide better than expected results. The political uncertainty couldn't shake sentiment a bit. I need to hang in there for the earning session passes.

Made 6 trades today. Only one of them was initiated by me in rolling a QQQ directional call. The rest of them were exit orders sitting there and finally got filled. It was a boring day.

Net liq stays unchanged. A small gain was wiped out at the end. Guess we may see another push up or down after Fed Meeting on Wednesday. I will try to place more bull calls to go along with the market.

A Day Of Rest 7-20-17

Market took a breather after the new highs of yesterday. SPX and RUT closed flat after exploring both sides. Earnings continue to roll out. Tomorrow is monthly stock option expiry day after today's index expiration. I expect bulls will hold the market up for most of the day and possibly driving to new highs before let the gas paddle go.

Made 16 trades today. Most of them were hedges to bring my margin up to safe level on this expiry day. I made it with many small contracts. I rolled the two deep ITM positions in ET with $30 debits for each contracts and expanded margin. It was a stressful task. Had to close several near expiring puts to reduce excess fees too.

Net liq up merely $700. Margin ratio is back above 50%. I can add more hedges if the prediction for the weekend expiry changes but so far it looks fine. I would consider to bring more income for the hedging activity instead of just cover my expenses.  

Majors Booked ATHs 7-19-17

DJ, SPX, NASDAQ and RUT reached new all time highs today. SPX is up 0.5% at 2473, above my estimate of 2470. Are we going to see 2500 soon? RUT surged up later to close near 1%, at 1441. Positive earnings and Crude inventory draw down pushed market up across board. Both SPX and RUT closed strong pointing to a likely continuing upward for tomorrow.

Made 10 trades today. 4 of my exit put orders were filled but no hedged calls. I rolled out QQQ and IWM directional calls to extend their life. Sold 4 bear call spreads for clients. Some of them were filled after cash closing. None of my ET roll out orders got filled. I may have to make debit roll instead tomorrow.

Net liq lost 11K on this break out and took my value down to 117K. I may have to wire more funds in before the weekend if the bulls keep push. Margin ratio is down to 31% and the projected excess post expire is below 10K in yellow warning now. I will have to bring it up to 30K no matter what market conditions are.

Failed Attempt To Sell 7-18-17

Futures went down after GS reported earnings less than better in bound trading before market open. Senator failed to vote on healthcare bill last night didn't help either. Market opened with a small gap. But the selling was short lived. SPX and QQQ closed up and RUT recovered more than a half of its loss. Bulls are still very strong and no any bad news could shake the buyers. The rally continues.

Made 9 trades today. Rolled out two RUT ITM calls in IB. Also sold couple IWM and SPY scalping in the morning. The rest of them are mainly rolling hedges. Collected some premiums through rollover and scalps.

Net liq recovered 3.6K. Margin ratio is at 44%. None of my buy call hedges were filled. Net liq is at 128K which may only stand for 1.5-2% squeeze. Still hanging there wait for my turn.

RUT Made ATH 7-17-17

RUT reached its ATH of 1434 following SPX's foot steps of last Friday. Indices held up well, perhaps awaiting for more good news of earnings. From RSI and MACD stand points this break out may have more to go. I need to add more directional plays to it while watch for the down side risk.

Made 11 trades today. Most of them were rolling hedges in SPY, IWM and RUT. Some exit put orders got filled. No meaningful premiums were collected. I got SPY and IWM directional positions but missed QQQ. I started to prepare rollovers in ET since both positions are deep ITM. I could only roll one week at time. My pressure continue to build.

Net liq settled down 1.7K after RUT fall back some from its ATH. Margin ratio is at 37%. I will put in more hedges tomorrow for the week after.

New High of SPX 7-14-17

The expected break out in SPX happened today after the reported inflation rate at 1% below expected 2%. Instead of a gap up market slowly grind up all day long until the last 15 minutes of the cash market. SPX made high of 2463 and closed at ATH of 2459. RUT also moved to the top of its current balance area but gave back more than a half of its gains at closing. But both SPX and RUT closed quite bullish. Would the new highs follow the previous pattern of quickly fall back? We will see.

Made 10 trades today. Sold couple late August bear call spreads of SPX for clients on this new high. I take profit on a SPY call of 245 while it's moved ITM. The most difficult one was to roll out SPX 2265 C in ET. As the price grind up in the afternoon I had to change my price from credit to debit. After 3:30pm I finally paid $80 for each contract to move out a week. I had to use most of the credit received from last week's rollover to cover it. It's a matter of avoiding get assigned. Guess I have to continue to take a small cut until the market turns.

Net liq survived today's surge with a 2.4K damage. Luckily RUT wasn't the main force. It may catch up next week. Margin ratio is OK for this weekend after adding a RUT call and IWM ratio hedge.

Ready To Break? 7-13-17

Indexes continued to hold up well and inched up. RUT/IWM recovered a 0.5% fall after closing the gap below. Market is waiting for CPI report to gauge inflation rate to determine Fed's rate hiking probability tomorrow morning. We may see a blow off top if the rate is less than 2%. Or however the market wants to interpret it.

Made 6 trades today. One ITM RUT 1380 was rolled out in the morning. The last one of SPX bear call in ET didn't get a chance since SPX hardly pulled back at all. Made another price error on a put spread. I must eliminate this error. Remember to check price entry before confirm. The rest of them were just hedge and exit orders.

Net liq gave back another 3.3K and the balance is below 130K now. It depends on how big the blow off top would be. It's possible a head fake too though not likely base on MACD just crossed up in SPX. It may have to go through the cycle again.

A New Leg Up? 7-12-17

The base building I described yesterday appears broken out today after Yellen's testimony in Congress this morning. Indexes futures gaped up pre-open. Both SPX and RUT closed up around 0.7%, near the highs of their balance areas. SPX closed stronger than RUT. With earnings reports we may see SPX making new ATH soon.

Made 4 trades today. Sold an IWM scalp on a small pull back. The other three were closing puts. It's a very boring day.

Net liq lost another 6.4K better than 10K during the high of the day. Margin ratio is still above 50%. I may have to wire transfer more funds if this break out is a sustainable one.  My hope for exiting one RUT bear call is diminished for this week. I have two ITM positions to roll out for this week.

Base Building? 7-11-17

Market held up well today today. A small sell off due to Trump Jr's Russia email met with buyers when reached the lower portion of yesterday. I made a strangle of TSLA at 370 on call side. TSLA popped 2.5% on production increase. RUT ended up 0.33% while SPX closed flat again. Overall, it feels like a base building for the earning session. It will go up when it couldn't go down.

Made 4 trades today. Other than that TSLA bear calls no premiums were collected. Closed couple puts to reduce excess fees. Margin ratio is OK so I wasn't eager to buy more hedges until near the week end.

Net liq reduced by 2.2K. It's within the chop range. Margin ratio is at 64%. Waiting for prices break out their current range so there will be trading opportunities.

Choppy Monday 7-10-17

It has been early selling resulting to late bounce. Bulls take any dip as buying opportunities. Today is the same for RUT. It tested the break out point of last Friday and bounced. It then went up to close a gap above. For whatever the reason RUT sold off before closing and down 0.5%. It was a choppy session. SPX didn't get into negative territory but only up 0.11%. Q performed the best, up 0.65% as major techs recovering.

Made 9 trades today. Rolled 2 ITM RUT calls for me and a client's IRA. Made another error of pricing without - sign when I entered a RUT RR trade. It cost me $35 at least. I also tried to scalp in IWM earlier but only get one fill. I may try again tomorrow. Got couple hedges in. I will try to sell bull puts and scalps if we get a decent pull back tomorrow.

Net liq recovered 4.8K. Margin ratio is above 70% for now. My main task is to continue roll my positions up aggressively.

V Bounce Again On NFPR 7-7-17

The NFP number came in 222K v.s 175K expected. Most of time the prediction is wrong anyway. Market bounced on the news and grinding up all day long. Both SPX and RUT gained less than 1% but their balance lows were held. We will see if there are follow through next week. With earnings season it's possible to see another attempt for new highs.

Made 10 trades today. Some hedges were placed barely enough to get though this weekend. Made partial IC 2 for TSLA call side on a 1% bounce. Sold couple late Aug RUT bear calls for a client. Other than that there is not much premiums collected.

Net liq gave back 7.2K and margin ratio is below 50%. I will add more hedges early next week. I am still stuck in the mud due to these DITM calls. Hopefully I could exit 1-2 positions out in July.

Unexpected Drop Before NFPR

Indices opened lower with a small gap from overnight. My expectation was a range bound day since NFPR is tomorrow. After initial selling market did bounce. Then a sell off came after 2pm broke the day's lows with no major news. It could be the results of digesting Fed Minute from yesterday. Both SPX and RUT closed near low of the day and parked on the lower end of their balance area. Let's see if the indexes will hold or break their current balance area after NFPR tomorrow.

Made 20 trades today. Rolled out 3 of my ITM positions. Sold couple SPY scalps for next 2 weeks. Made 3 bad trades in TSLA as it dropped another 5% following -7% yesterday. I left a put spread order open with near 40% raised price from yesterday. I forgot to check it this morning before open and it got filled immediately after open. I still haven't made a good habit of check my pending orders before open. I then keyed in a wrong price for a client's TSLA PCS order. It left the - sign out again. Then sold some bull put spreads in August for premiums. I need to hold off selling on both side tomorrow until market direction is clear.

Net liq popped 11K for a nice change. Margin ratio is above 60% before the weekend. I need to buy hedges for both sides tomorrow as many of my protective positions are expiring. Also need to watch IWM 239 put which is ATM now and expires tomorrow.

Fed Minute Came And Gone 7-5-17

Fed Minute release didn't cause much market reaction this time. It didn't give any time table for when it may unwind its over 4 trilling balance sheet. I am not sure if we will see any follow through actions tomorrow after market digest the contents of the minute. The earning session is upon us again. That may be the reason that market is still holding up regardless other external risk factors. NASDAQ closed up 1% while SPX only gained 0.2% and RUT lost 0.4%.

Made 3 trades only. No premiums were collected. TSLA had a big sell off, down 7.8 %. I sold July monthly puts for a client when it was down around 6%. I should have waited for a confirmation of oversold or level of support. I also placed a put spread order for me but didn't get filled.

Net liq recovered 3.8K, up to 134K. It may still not enough cushion if market break out to new highs. Margin ratio is above 60% after I bought a RUT hedging call for next week. Have couple of ITM calls to roll for this shortened week.