Self Inflected Wounds 2-26-21

 The majors took bigger losses for the 2nd week of the seasonal pullback. It was dragging and pulling on daily. The broken-down highs were retested on Wednesday and failed from there the next morning. SPX closed weaker than RUT. It parked right at 50 SMA with a gap below at 3770 area. RUT is below 20 MA but above 50 MA.  Not sure how the majors will react to the 1.9 trillion relief pack. It may have been priced in already. The majors are in a bearish posture. They may have to run their own courses before resuming the uptrend. 

My portfolio took a big blow this week. NL closed at 93K. The current available funds are dangerously low at 7300. I have to reduce or combine my long put the first thing on Monday morning. The last result may be to wire more funds from ET. That would put my ET acct in danger too. 

I made two critical mistakes this week. On Wednesday I rolled in one each put of SPX and RUT without waiting for the confirmation of breaking the double tops. The mistakes contributed to more than 10K losses and reduced buying power. I need to be more patient and waiting for confirmation instead of affected by emotions. Setting price levels will help me to measure the market's directions. 

The Seasonal Pullback In Progress 2-19-21

 The majors closed down for the week, except DJ formed a Doji. They haven't had two consecutive down weeks since last Oct. Today was a gap and crap day that I wasn't prepared for. The O/N gap up made me think it was a reversal up day. But the monthly options expiration day turned into two-way price action. The pullback may not end yet base on the lower closing today. 

My net liq improved a little this week, ending at 112K. The leverage is at 403. I should have over 50K excess liquidity for the weekend. Delta is positive in the 80s. This could be a problem if the selloff deepens. 

My trades are positive overall. I didn't encounter a stop-loss situation to test my disciplines. I am including the rollovers in my 2-3X stop-loss plan as well. I didn't play many 0 DTE trades since I have been working on resolving my last JOIF fallout. The long put is out but I got sucked into a bad risk reversal I did today. I misjudged the o/n gap up and acted with FOMO. 

Shadow Trade is working with small gains. I have learned some new options strategies. I picked up some JO5K trades for a learning purpose. Need a more solid system to turn around. 

A Quick Turnaround To New Highs 2-5-21

 It was a complete turnaround week from the selloff last week. The majors took off on Monday and hit new highs this week. SPX and RUT closed at 3387 and 2333 ATHs respectively. It appears the Feb seasonality is in play. There could be another leg down to retest last week's low before resuming the uptrends if the seasonality holds true. However, the MACD and other technical indicators just turned positive from last week. I will keep both possibilities in mind. 

My net liq improved a little at 103K. The leverage is at 4.52. I was expecting a double top so I placed some short calls in SPX and RUT which burned me today. I am still struggling with my stops. I had to roll some of my SPX and RUT short calls as they were deep ITM today. If I had stopped them at 3X it wouldn't have caused me these 10x losses. One thing I was able to do is that I reversed one short RUT 1420 to long call out to 2900 in Sept on Monday. This risk reversal saved me from the big rally this week. I have to work down the strikes like I have been doing with my SPXs. 

I realized that the major factor that blocked me from turnaround my trading is not to make stops. I won't be able to do the work successfully without following the rules and the basic math. Period! I will follow JO in FB for his 5K trading practices. I want to learn his various strategies. Stick to it.