The Rally Continues 3-25-22

 The majors closed another week for green except for RUT with a little Doji on weekly. However, all of them are still under 20 SMA weekly and near the top of their range. There could be resistances above and result in different levels of pullbacks. Overall, the bulls are in control so far. 

The IB Netliq ended at 178K, up 15.8K for this week. The realized P/L is $19.22K with 3K cash collected. The cash is mostly coming from the debit hedges. It may be worked less than half of the time. The leverage is down to 232 from 284. I made 80 trades in IB this week alone. It's kind of overtrade. I feel a big relief with the continued rally. But my portfolio is too heavily reliant on the market directions. I have a lot more deleverage ahead. 

The 0 DTE continues to work in my personal accounts. I am more proactive in hedging my positions when the market is volatile. The realized P/L in both ET and TOS is $1.98K. It averaged $660 per trading day.   The premiums are rich when VX is around the mid-20s.  

Lessons learned this week:

1. Actively hedging my positions when the market is volatile;

2. Paid more attention to levels, but not consistently yet; 

3. Being more patient and willing to wait a little longer;

The tasks for next week:

1. Place stop orders for every position entered, make it a habit;

2. Identify the daily trends early in the day. May add short-term moving averages. 

Is The Down Trend Ended After The Fed Rate Hike? 3-18-22

 Another volatile week just ended. This time it was a big reversal up week. The majors started to position the day before FOMC's rate hike. The seasonality trend is also indicated a mid-March reversal. SPX and RUT rallied 6% and more this week. The market sentiment has improved a lot. However, the majors are still in their weekly balance range. The downtrend is not broken in weekly yet. VIX is 23.87 at the low of its uptrend and right above the 20 SMA. Bears may still have a chance to attack. 

The IB Netliq ended at $162,336, up 17K from last week's $145392. The leverage is 284, down from 341. The realized P/L is $9,879. The collected premium is $2,824. The cash was mainly from buying hedges. It recovered from the $2.8K loss of the big surge after FOMC on Wednesday.  

The personal account at ET performed well. It also benefited from debit IC which works when the vol is high. The realized P/L is $1,614 for the week. I still haven't traded the TOS account.  

Overall, it was a good week since the market turned around. There are a couple of lessons learned. 

1. I wasn't prepared for such a big bounce like every other time. I need to be more objective base my assumptions on key levels and price actions. 

2. I still don't have a habit of placing stop orders right after my order is executed. I need to study IB's order types this weekend. 

3. Stay calm to optimize my hedges. Like this Wednesday, I didn't promptly roll or close 2 short calls in the last 15 min. I lost $2800 when the last min rally came. Today, I made an assumption to let the 25x call spread stay. I could have moved it up for $500 more on every higher strike. 

My plan for next week:

1. Delevrage my short calls while preparing for a possible pullback. 

2. Place a stop order immediately for every order that is executed.  

3. Study and identify daily trends and place alerts on the key levels of the day. 

The Down Trend Continues 3-11-22

The majors booked another losing week on the Russia-Ukraine war and rising inflation concerns. SPX and RUT gave back their previous week's gains and continue to slide inside their down-channels. Interestingly VIX had a down week too but still closed above 30. There is no relief in sight yet. 

The IB Netliq ended at 145K, up 8K from last week. The leverage is slightly down from 363 to 341. The realized P/L is $9,322. It's mainly through reverse rollings. There is no exit of base positions. The collected premium is $6,446, thanks to some of the hedges paid off. The debt spread hedging seems to work more than half of the time in this volatile market. 

The 0 DTE strategy in my ET account earned $2,982. The volatility actually produces higher premiums. But trading it is not easy though. I haven't traded the TOS account for the last 2 weeks. I need to practice it more with it. 

The good results of this week were mainly from the relatively stable high VIX. I was able to identify the down-trend and trade with the trend. My emotions are reasonably calm. 

My plan for next week:

1. Stay with the trend and don't take any drastic action;

2. Prepare for the FOMC before Wednesday. I won't trade 0 DTE during the FOMC day. 

3. Mark and set alerts for the major levels and plan my trade around these levels.  

Another Volatile Week Waiting For The Range Break 3-5-22

 It was another volatile week but the majors traded in ranges. The Ukrainian crisis is worsening as Russian troops advance which pressured the market sentiment. The majors failed to breakout to the upside after the reversal from last week. They all formed a wedge pattern awaiting a breakout one way or another. 

The IB Netliq is up 39K from last week. It's the result of the rangebound week. The leverage is back from 548 to 363 which provided some relief. The realized P/L is $31,800. But the collected cash is - 1,900 since most of my hedges didn't work out, also the results of the rangebound market. A positive outcome is that I reduced 4 of the SPX SC and 2 of the RUT SC. I will have less risk if the market pops, or more room to reverse the SP if the market goes down next week. 

The 0 DTE system in the small accounts is my bread and butter now. It collected $830 premiums after ST's SPY BF C went worthless. I didn't take stop loss quickly on Thursday's reversal. 

Lessons for the week:

1. Be patient and watch for the levels. 

2. Pay attention to my emotional changes. 

Plan for next week:

1. Keep in mind that the majors are still in the downtrend and VIX is still above 30. The war in Ukraine is not likely to get better any time soon. Adding hedges with the trend. 

2. Continue to deleverage my SP positions. The RR 4430 from SC to SP was a bit of an emotional trade. 

3. Trade 0 DTE with the directional of the day when B/P allows in IB.