In A Holding Pattern 5-28-21

 The majors are in a holding pattern after Monday's surge. The rest of the week was choppy and slow. However, they all closed in the positive territory for the week and stayed above their 20 and 50 SMA. They are in the bullish pattern but the previous highs are not broken. Therefore there is still a possibility of a double top at play. So be prepared for different outcomes next week. 

My IB netliq recovered some to close at 130K v.s 118K from last week. The leverage is down to 322 from 368. It's still vulnerable but a little better. The premiums collected are $5.4K due to no bear call rolling for the week. The realized P/L is $16K. Overall, May booked a loss of $26K v.s a gain of $14K in Aprile. Overall, my delta stayed positive while the majors were moving up slowly. 

The 0 DTE performed well this week. The Vol is falling and the market is slow. I didn't chase for entries and missed a couple of trades. That is OK. Learning to be patient. I start to set price alerts for my rolling or entries. I didn't do any IF 0 DTE due to the low buying power in the IB acct.  

The Follow Through & Turn Around 5-21-21

 It was a mixed week for the majors. SPX, RUT, and DOW booked a slight loss but way off the lows while QQQ inched up a little. The selloff continued on Monday and intensified on Tuesday. Then, the bottom appeared on Wednesday. SPX and RUT challenged their 20 SMAs but failed to close above it. Overall, it's an inside week for all the majors. It's hard to tell what's ahead for next week. If the seasonality plays out it would be a stable or breakup week. However, the seasonal lower lows haven't played out yet. Not sure which leg comes first. It's the game of probability. 

I didn't trade well this week. I panicked on Tuesday night's gap down. I made another Risk Reversal early Wednesday morning. SPX started to turn by mid of Wednesday. I didn't reverse it back. I couldn't turn it back due to the margin limit on Thursday. This mistake was originated when I broke my rule of not add a new position unless there is one out. I added one on Tuesday thinking that Monday's high was the beginning of a new rally. Now I have 3 short calls in SPX which erased all of my effort of reducing the sizes. I may have to spend $6-8K to close one next week. I plan to only roll one to late June for the expected downturn. I reduced one SPX put by combining 2 to 1 to next Monday. 

Shadow Trader's trades didn't do well this week. The QQQ debit calls lost about $300 today. I pick a couple of short-term options in AAPL and RIOT barely breakeven. The 0 DTE has been working for me this week. I got all winners in my other accounts. The key is being selective and not chasing it. I won't play it when the volatility is high. 

My goal for next week is to stay calm and be disciplined. I will work on reducing the number of positions before mid-late June. 

The First Wave Of Selloff 5-14-21

 The Monday reversal after last Friday's ATH in SPX and YM caught me and many others by surprise. The big money took the market to new highs after the poor unemployment and new job reports last Thursday and Friday. I thought the unusual surge might have delayed the expected pullback in May as the seasonality trend indicated. The 4% selloff during the first three days of this week was really sharp. Could the Thursday and Friday's rally play another trick to retest the b/o point, then push down again? Seasonally it's possible and likely. May has about a 65% chance to close positively during the last 20 years. So be prepared for a tough month. 

My net liq come down to 108K from last week's 141K, -33K. The realized gain is -43K since I had to roll so many long puts further out. I made a big mistake of moving some SPX longs closer after last Friday's ATH. I was planning to reduce my longs before the pullback. It didn't work out. Not only I was hit on the long side I was forced to reverse an SPX long to short due to the netliq below 100K during the 2% selloff on Wednesday. I failed to prepare to make stops for my recovery trades. My plan is to stop out at 2X of the premiums but I never enforced it. It could have saved me a big margin crunch and a wire transfer of 10K from ET. 

There were not many good trades to report this week. Shadow Trader stayed on the side line mostly since last week which was a very smart move. My short IWM and SPY paid off but they were small. I exited half of my SQQQ with a little profit. I have not been able to do well with these leveraged ETFs. 

Be prepared for some rough rides this summer. Stay calm!

The Bulls Are Back 5-7-21

 This week started with some selling pressure for three days. The 20 EMA was tested and held. Thursday was a big turnaround in the last 30 minutes before closing. The poor NFP report (260K v.s. 1million jobs) became the catalyst for the majors to book gains. Dow and SPX made ATHs again. SPX firmly closed above 4200. It was to my surprise that SPX made a new high before the summer begins. The seasonality chart does show there could be another push before mid of May. 

My net liq closed at 141K from last week's 135K. The leverage is at 283. The IB main account collected $2250 premiums after spending $2200 on rolling 3000C and SQQQ. I dealt with my SPX SC poorly yesterday and today. When they got blown off I spent most of today working on different orders hoping there would be a decent pullback. I was practicing my patience waiting until 3pm before rolling my positions. I ended up splitting my short calls of 4235 to ICs amount three of my accounts with similar positions. In theory, there will be only one side that could lose. That reduced the margin requirement in my personal accounts. The rolls in IB main account increased 3 C and 2 P in my SPX. Need to watch the number of positions and risk closely now. The market is sailing into the stormy zone. 

I didn't have many trades with ST or my own outside of the indexes for the week. I still don't have a good trading system for individual stocks. I trade 0 DTE and adjusting my old ones on M, W, F. I should use Tue and Thu for different trades.