The Time of Change Has Come? 4-30-21

 The majors had mixed results this week. Most of them are down for the week except NQ. SPX booked a small loss after 5 consecutive weekly gains. Overall, the market had a very good gain in April. The earning season has been mostly upbeat but the big money reacted mute or selling on the news. May could be choppy or to the downside seasonally. I need to plan and play it accordingly. 

My net liq ended at 135K after sending another 10K back to ETP. The leverage is at 292, below 300 for another week. The realized profit for the week is near 13K. The month of April is only over 14K. The IB account collected 7.2K cash which is much better than March's $804. I have been enjoying the good result that Mr. Market provided while I can. My SPX is better positioned for a downturn than RUT. I may need to switch a RUT long put to SPX to keep it more balanced. 

The ST and my own trades are better than last week. I played AMZN earning with butterflies on both sides. The positions were poorly planned. The long calls were too close to the money while the puts were too far out of the money knowing the result would be positive. Luckily AMZN pulled back today after a big surge in the after-hour earnings release. The big lesson from my TSLA BWB loss is not to blindly follow any expert's play. I am an experienced trader. I should have known it better. When in doubt don't do it. 

The Bulls Are Back Again 4-23-21

 The majors opened down on Monday and followed through on Tuesday. It was the seasonality at play. I didn't expect the pullback was such short-lived. The majors turned around on Wednesday. There was a mid-day 1-2% selloff on news of a possible capital gain tax increase. The losses were erased on Friday. The market ended in green for the week with ups and downs swings. 

My net liq is up 6K to 136K. The leverage is 294. A good level to be below 300. The realized profit is 4.8K due to now rolling for the DITM short calls. The 2-day selloff shown the vulnerability of my portfolio. My deltas are long with the trend. Luckily the selloff was short-lived. I will stick to my rule of no increasing positions. Stay with -1+1 but keep the delta long as long as the trend is still up. 

The index options ended well. I collected about 4K premiums. Most of the options went worthless today. The result of directional trades was mixed. The Apple call spreads were closed nearly the full profits. But the Tesla long butterflies went to worthless. The net was a loss. I have learned a couple techniques for defending underwater butterflies. 

Another Week of ATHs 4-16-21

 The majors booked another up week. SPX, NQ, and YM hit ATHs again with the fourth consecutive green wk. The small caps are still legging but up for this week. RUT/IWM is in a weekly and daily wedge and above both 20 and 50 SMAs. It could break out in either direction. Seasonally, we could see a pullback between last and this week. RSIs and MACDs are in overbought territories for the three majors. I wouldn't be surprised to see a mild pullback in the coming week. 

My net liq closed at 135K after sending another 5K back to ET. The leverage is at 301. The realized P/L is -8.9K due to the rollout of the SPX 2900 short call. I collected about $3.6K premiums in QIB acct. The ST and JO5K trades were mixed bags. ST trades had some losers and winners. The result is probably break even for the week. The AAPL and SPY call spread expiring next week are likely winners. The JOIF produces 3 winners this week due to the low vol conditions. I blindly followed the JO5K and the Ops Playbook in NVDA and TSLA IC and the short call made me sweat and underwater. I learned some recovery technics through these trades. I was able to turn the NVDA to profit by adding a long call spread. I am still underwater in TSLA. I rolled my call spread to next week to see if TSLA will continue to move up before its ER on 4/26. 

I haven't added any new trade services this week. I have learned some technics of trading individual stocks' options, mainly broken wing butterflies. There ways to recover a threatened BWB. My weakness is still taking decisive action in a timely manner. The TSLA BWB was a good example. If I had added a long call or a long call spread I could have reduced the losses instead of rolling it out. Any open position is an uncertainty factor. 

New SPX ATH Of 4128 4-9-21

 SPX and DJ continued to make new ATHs. SPX was up 4 out 5 days and gained over 100 points for this week. NQ and RUT were catching up. NQ was up every day for this week while RUT is the weaker one. It still struggles between its 50 and 20 D MA. SPX and YM appear to be extended while NQ and RUT have rooms to run or they could drag SPX and YM back down. The earning season will start next week which could bring some volatility back. Seasonally, we may see a pullback to retest the breakout areas in the next week or so. 

My net liq is flat at 135K range. The realized G is 1K, probably dragged by RUT. The leverage is at 3. The index options did fairly well for the week. I haven't been able to trade 0 DTE in the personal accounts. Shadow Trade took some small losses on its directional bets. But APPL long calls should offset the losses. I took a full-blown loss of $800 on GOOGL BWB following JO's 5K trades. It gapped up 4% on Monday and took out all the strikes. I didn't actively look for ways to offset the losses until the late part of the week. JO didn't update this trade until Thursday. I shouldn't wait for his either. I must actively manage my risk. 

I failed to take stop loss on my IF-JO on Monday. I didn't follow the rules and added one more on top of the first loss. I ended up reversing the 2 short calls. They finally got closed today. I was lucky because the uptrend continued. But a mistake is still a mistake. It will hit hard once I relax the rules. 

SPX Hit 4000 ATH 4-2-21

 It was a green week for the majors. SPX closed at 4020, above the 4000-century mark while RUT and NQ are catching up as well. They both closed above their 50, 20 SMA respectively. President Biden announced a 2 trillion dollar infrastructure plan might have boosted the market sentiment. The seasonality is in play too. The bulls are in control once again. 

My net liq closed above 136K even after I paid another 5K back to ET on Wednesday. It would have been over 141K.  The leverage is at 289, a relief sign when it's below 300. I maintained my rule of not increasing my total contracts and kept delta positive. My profit or recovery in IB is $5500 for the week. I did a RR of SPX SC. It was the right decision but bad timing. I wasn't patient enough to wait after 3PM to execute my plan. I could have earned several hundred dollars if I waited, so was for the RUT recovery trade. 

I made a couple of side trades besides the majors with Shadow Trader and JO. Most of them are small winners when the trend is followed. I am thinking about changing the 0 DTE to 40-50 DTE with a 50% profit target and 3X stop. This strategy is slower but less stressful. I still don't have a well-planned breakout strategy.