Another Green Week 10-28-22

 The major indices booked another green week. It was the 2nd positive week for the majors except DJ had the third green week. Most of the large techs have had poor ERs. AAPL, the largest stock in valuation saved the market on Friday. AAPL was up 7% while AMZN was down 6%. Seasonality has played a role in this rally. We may see a pullback in early to mid-November before the final year-end rally. The mid-term election on Nov 8 could be a catalyst. 

The IB Netliq is up 2K. It barely crossed the 100K mark. The leverage is down 10 points at 4.92. The collected cash is $2.1K. The realized P/L is $47K. It's still a see-saw effect for the P/L. The options short value is up 3.7K. The week was working well until Friday. The 2.5% rally on Friday caught me by surprise. It got my IB Netliq upside down. SPX is finally closed above its 50D SMA following RUT. 

The 0 DTE system performed well with a twist in hedging. It collected $3.28K cash. I took a couple of stops early in the week. I fought the trends in the trending days. I voided any overnight rollovers. However, I did a couple of intra-day risk reversals. The hedges in LCs made about $800 on Friday. It was the best week in October. 

The lessons learned:

1. Need to identify the day type early in the day from reading indicators and internals;

2. Be flexible to change bias as the market changes; 

3. Don't fight the trend;

4. Reduce the positions is still my priority for IB;

Back Above June Low 10-21-22

 The major indices closed in the green for this week. They all backed above the 200 WMA except for the small caps. Only Friday's 2+% rally saved the week. It's an encouraging sign within the bear market. Seasonally we are near or at the end-of-year rally. 

The IB Netliq is up 4.5K this week. It could have been better. But I was a bit heavy on the SCs before Friday's rally. The leverage is down 10% from 554 to 503. The realized P/L is $67K. However, the 380K options value didn't change much. The portfolio is like a see-saw. When the calls get off the book the weight goes into the puts. The only solution I can think of is reducing the positions' size. The cash collected is $2400. It's mainly from the three hedges that paid off. 

The 0 DTE is underperformed but profitable. It collected $1900 cash. I had several stops with the wild price swings. I don't feel terrible about the S/L now. I know I can make it back in a few days. I need to work on the S/L orders in IB. There were two stop-limit orders that got skipped. I should just use market orders. 

Lessons Learned:

1. I am more patient now. My daily meditation helps to keep me calm. 

2. I recognized that I still have the Fear of Lossing, FOL. Especially when I am trading the 0 DTE. 

3. I must be more disciplined in adding positions during volatile times. My patience saved me from additional troubles. My anxiety caused me to make mistakes.  

Another Wild Down Week 10-14-22

 The major indices ended with another losing week. The attempted rally after the CPI report failed again on Friday. Thursday was one of the biggest reversal range days in 2022. SPX had a 5.5%, almost 200-point swing. It gave back most of the gains by Friday. SPX is hanging on the 200 SMA weekly while NQ and RUT have been below it for the last 3 weeks. The downtrend continues leading lower. 

The IB Netliq fell below 100K again after the 5+% swing on Thursday. I overreacted to the poor CPI report before the market opened. The leverage is up 13%, from 483 to 554. The realized P/L is -7.1K. The P/L had 10K gains before I mishandled it on Thursday. The cash collected was $4K. It had a 1K hedge win and 1.8K from rolling. 

The 0 DTE system had a positive week. TOS booked 2.3K cash. It had the largest hedging profit of $3.2K on Thursday and the largest S/L of $930x3 today. The market S/L was set at $390. The IBP had an S/L order that got skipped during Thursday's rally. I had to roll the 2 SCs to next Monday. The account collected $882 for the week. It was a roller-coaster week. 

Lessons learned for this week:

1. Stay calm and make a plan before major news events. I was pretty sure the CPI report was going to drop the market. I failed to consider the opposite possibilities. 

2. Stay disciplined. I have been placing S/L orders for every 0 DTE trade this week. That's major progress. Stay on the course. I have noticed that I had fear of losing some time. 

3. Be patient. Watch for the trend and levels before entering any order. 

Strong Bear Market Rally 10-7-22

 The bear rally started on the first trading day of Oct after the big selloff on September 30th. The major indices gained more than 5% in the first two days of the week. The last time the market surged this much was the Covid crush in 2020.  I was caught in the rally with more SCs. Then, it gave back more than half of the gains over the previous three days of the week. We may see a new low next week if the seasonality plays out. An end-of-year rally may follow the last leg down.    

The IB Netliq is up 3K to 103K for the week. It had a big swing during the rally and fall. The leverage is down from 533 to 517. The realized P/L is $8132. The P/L was mainly from the unwinding of the SCs. It is basically a wash. The collected cash is only $240. No hedges worked this week. 

The 0 DTE suffered another setback because of my mistake again. I failed to take an S/L of SCs in TOS on Monday. I rolled 5 3690 SCs during the 2.6% surge on Monday. Then, the SCs were ITM during the 3% pop on Tuesday. I was forced to roll up and out into Wednesday. I decided to unwind these positions on Thursday to void NFP risk on Friday. I spent $3.5K to close three of the five positions to make the risk more manageable. Although the positions were OTM by the end of Thursday. I paid dearly for my mistake. But I feel good for taking the loss. I reduced my risk. The rest of the trades were winners for this week. TOS account lost $2430 this week. IBP gained about $300. The net loss is about $2100. I can recover the loss if I follow my rules strictly. 

I need to be more aggressively reducing the positions in IB. I have been peddling in the mud for over 6 years. I am getting deeper in the mud. I will make stops in the reversal positions once they are wrong. The system is not working without risk control.