A Week Of Rangebound 10-5-24

 The majors were in rangebound holding the uptrend for the week. SPX traded between the 5678 and 5672 range. The pullbacks were bought and rallies were sold until Friday's NFP. The NFP was a big surprise to the upside, with 254K vs 150K expected. Down made a closing new high while SPX was only 16 points from an ATH. Tech and small caps are in ranges. The major news events are FOMC Minutes, CPI, and PPI. The major indices are bullish despite the seasonality. I shall pursue this with caution. 

IBQ Netliq is up 11% from 90.3K to 99K with the rangebound week. The realized P/L is -28829 as I had to roll out a couple of DITM SCs. The collected cash is $1967. The SPX long calls and MES barely broke even this week. The options' value is flat from -542K to -537K.  The delta went up 7% from -308 to -410. The leverage is down from 822 to 740. It's still elevated. VIX is up from 19.3 to 20.4. The total positions are C8+1 and P7+0 with the In and Out offset. There were 56 trades for the week. The commission cost is $206. I added one 1-1-2 with one that expired at the end of September.  

The IBP situation is worsening as I had to expand the spreads on the SC side. The rally relieved the SP side but pushed the SC DITM. I exited 2 more SPs but had to add 3 more due to SMA warning. I couldn't roll the SCS more than 1 day out which cost me dearly. There are 5 SCs and 6 SPs into next week.  The realized P/L is $11428. The cash collected is -4313. I had to pay to roll the 5 SCs daily without expanding the spreads too wide. This is like 1000 small cuts in bleeding. 

Lessons and Plans:

1. I didn't add Stop-loss orders to every new position this week. I realized it would cause the SMA balance to go into negative in the IBP account. I have to figure out a different way to make stop-losses. 

2 I am still working on dealing with my fear of losing. I don't like the feeling of losing subconsciously. Losing is part of trading. It's like the phoenix flying out from the ashes. 

3. My stop-loss rules are A. Take 3X losses if the premiums are less than $1000; 

                                        B. Take 2.5X losses if the premiums are between $1000 to $1800;

                                        C. Take 2X losses if the premiums are above $1800. 

        The stop-loss is the rule but there are considerations for Delta, Netliq, and the total positions.    

4. The IBP account is limited to spread expansion if the rally continues. I need to figure out the numbers or percentage of the balance tolerance.    

5. I continue to work on the sense of accountability and self-discipline. It's a long process of changing my old habits at the subconscious level. 

6. I shall stay calm and focus on recognizing, and controlling my emotions. I am under a great deal of stress with the current account situation.