SPX Making Highs Five Times This Week 1-26-24

 SPX made new highs every day of the week. It breached 4900 several times but failed to close above this century's figure. However, the bulls are still in charge. The bull flag is holding up in daily and weekly charts. The 3.33% quarterly GDP was better than the 2% expected. PCE is up 0.2%, and M/M matches the expectations. The January effect is positive so far. The small caps are the only index leggings.   

IBQ Netliq is 212K, down 1.8K from last week. I had to split the 1-31 4450SC to 2x 4-19 5075SP to balance the negative delta. The realized P/L is $20767. It partially recovered the 76K loss of last week. The collected cash is $6.3K. I traded two BF expansions on Tuesday and Friday. Each had 2K and 2.5K. I was a bit greedy to roll 2x for each of the BFs. The delta improved to 27 from -350 last week. The split risk reversal helped for now. The leverage is up slightly from 223 to 227. The total positions are C7 -2, and P9  -2 after so many in and out. I added one more XSP 1-1-2 on March 1st for $120 this week. I made 61 trades this week. The commission cost is $323. 

The two small accounts are still in the ICU. I used inverted RRs to roll them up 10 points at a time. The realized P/L is -$4271. The collected cash is only $1761. IBP and TOS got $1168 and $598 each. I didn't want to spend too much B/P. 

Lessons and Plan:

1. I continued to use the delta hedge strategy. The risk is that too many positions on one side of the boat. It will suffer heavy losses if the trend changes suddenly. 

2. I adjust positions in far DTE and roll them into short DTE. That leaves me room to adjust if the price direction changes. 

3. I plan to add a mid-day meditation session to help me stay calm and alert. 

4. I will study Gamma effects on 0 DTE. I will look for a gamma graph for 0 DTE.         

SPX All Time High @ 4840 1-20-24

 All the major indices except RUT reached all-time highs this week. The strong bulls are following the bullish January seasonality. What happens next? The technical indicators have not shown any overbought conditions. We may see a sharp pullback in the late part of this month. I will follow the price actions between support and resistance levels. I shall not make any preassumptions above the market directions. 

IBQ Netliq suffered a blow of -26K on Opex Friday. It's down 9% from 231K to 214K for this 4-day week. The realized P/L is -76177. It's down $47K from last week. I had to roll out 3 DITM SCs from last Nov and Dec. The EOY Rally didn't give them a chance for recovery. The collected cash is $5.2K. Thanks to the $4.5K from the LCs on Opex Friday. The delta is -350, unchanged from last week. The leverage is up 13.5% from 193 to 223. The total positions are C9 -0, P11 -1 after so many in and out. I added a XSP March 1-1-2 for $120 this week. Made 82 trades for the week. Some of the trades were from prior months. The commissions are $332. The directional debit trades paid off handsomely on Friday. 

The two small accounts didn't get much relief after the brief pull back a week ago.  The collected cash is $2320. It's about the same as last week. IBP and TOS got $1415 and $905 each. I did a few 0 DTE. They ended up being winners eventually. However, I only enforced stop-loss orders one day. I was disappointed by the randomness of the stop loss executions by IB. I will study more for the stop loss orders in IB. 

Lessons and Plan: 

1. The delta hedging strategy helped to reduce netliq fluctuations. However, It is not effective in a trending day of 1% movement. 

2. I started to place stop loss orders for my 0 DTE trades. I was disappointed after some random executions in IB. I have to study IB stop loss orders this weekend. I have to learn to solve my mental issues.         

3. I finished my trade plan for 2024. I may refine it and add more details in my strategies and risk management. I set an remind in my calendar to review the plan every month. 

A Short Lived Pull Back 1-12-24

 The new year's pullback was shallow. SPX recovered the loss from last week. It touched a new high of 4802. It's only 30 points away from ATH now. The inflation is cooling. December's CPI and PPI this week didn't trigger a rally. Is it Mr. Market's trick hat? 

IBQ Netliq is up 1.14% from 228K to 231K. It's basically flat. The delta-neutral strategy helped in the rangebound market. The realized P/L is $28.8K, up $8K from last week. This month is still in red so far. The cash collected is $1280. The delta is down to -360. The choppy price action helped. The leverage stayed at 190 level. The total positions are C9 -3, P12 +0. I added another XSP 1-1-2-1 for $140 this week. Made 52 trades for the week. The commissions are $209. I made some debit spreads. I wanted to be more adaptive to the market moves. 

The two small accounts didn't get relief. The collected cash is $2381. IBP and TOS got $1750 and $631 each. I did a few 0 DTE. They ended up being winners eventually. However, I failed to enforce the stops. 

Lessons and Plan: 

1. The delta hedging strategy helped to reduce netliq fluctuations in the rangebound market at least. 

2. It is apparent that I still don't have the willpower to enforce my stop-loss rules. I use different tricky adjustments to void the pain. I have to learn to solve this mental problem.     

3. I didn't work on my 2023 results and trade plan because of the busy birthday weekend. I will work on both tasks this weekend.

4. My daily meditation helps me to stay calm and clear-minded.   

    

The First Week of The Year 1-5-24

 The major indices started pulling back on the first trading day of 2024. The nine consecutive up weeks came to an end. The law of gravity takes effect now. The seasonality has yet to play out for the last 2 months. I have to watch out for the price actions day by day. 

IBQ Netliq recovered 5% from 217K to 228K. It's still 130K lower from the high of 359K in June of last year. My overconfidence messed up this time again. The realized P/L is -20K. I was betting that the rally would continue a little further. The collected cash is about $700 for the 4-day week. The delta improved from -184 to -40. Delta is one of my references now. The leverage is down 7% from 211 to 196. The total positions are C11 +3, P12 +1. They need to be lower. I only made 22 trades for the shortened week. The commissions are $71. 

The two small accounts got a little relief from the pullback. The realized P/L is $23555. It recovered some from last month's -$70K. The collected cash is $2582. IBP and TOS got $1604 and $978 each. My new problem is that both SC and SP are ITM now. 

Lessons and Plan:

1. I followed the newly added Delta rule. It helped to reduce the netliq fluctuations. The size rule is to be considered as well.  

2. I need to finish my 2023 results and write my trade plan for 2024.