03/31 Daily Summary

Very short posting Today, Had only one adjustment that was more like fine turning than adjustment on one of the butterflies.

03/30 Daily Summary

Ok, not much to report Today, I added an iron butterfly intra-day to help my 3/22 position, other than that spent most of the day away enjoying our family Spring break.

03/30 NDX Iron Butterfly

Still on waiting mode, as we were trading slightly lower Today it started showing some profits, if we pull back for just a little bit the position will be in great shape. Let’s see what develops.

03/30 NDX Fast Iron Butterfly (from 03/22)

I added an iron butterfly mid-morning Today, got the position leaning bearish as we were trading sideways, we ended up moving higher and closing higher. I still see the candle patterns showing weakness at the top, that was my reason for leaning bearish Today, we’ll see how it develops.

03/30 NDX Fast Iron Butterfly (from 03/15)

NDX pushed higher once again, really close to my stop level, will have to hang in there and see what happens in the next few days.

Daily Summary

Ok, not much to report Today, I spent most of the time away from the computer and enjoying some time with family. Our son is on school break so we took time off to go out and enjoy.. I’m glad the market didn’t decide to go nuts either.. Let’s all relax, shall we? :)

03/29 NDX Iron Butterfly

Not much to be done except to wait for time decay and market retreat. So far, the position is ok, and I still have some moves left to be made if we push higher.

03/29 NDX Fast Iron Butterfly (from 03/22)

I had an order to open the upside iron butterfly Today, but it didn’t get filled. I wasn’t watching the market at the closing, as we took our son out to enjoy his spring break. I will attempt to enter the extra butterfly Tomorrow if it make sense. I’m keeping my powder dry sort of speak.

03/29 NDX Fast Iron Butterfly (from 03/15)

No major change in P/L on the position Today, there is not much left to be done on this trade, except to wait for time decay to do its thing and, of course, for NDX to take a break. I’ve added the price chart to give some perspective on when I entered the trade and where we are Today, as we can see, it started as a bearish butterfly and only took upside swing, so it has been challenging to say the least.

03/26 Daily Summary

Ok, it seems we’re either consolidating or starting a pull back, as long as we don’t go down too deep the positions should be ok. For now I’m going to kick back, relax and enjoy the weekend!

03/26 NDX Iron Butterfly

Didn’t touch the trade, it sucks I had to level the vega on Yesterday’s whipsaw, but then again, it s part of the game, I can’t follow the tick-by-tick of the market and that’s the trade off between being a full time intra-day trader and being an income strategy trader + work full time.

03/26 NDX Fast Iron Butterfly (from 03/22)

I did not open the extra butterfly for the theta recovery Yesterday, as I mentioned earlier, selling a position by end of day on Friday is not the best way to go, plus there is still theta on the trade because we backed off from the edge of the butterfly. So all I did was to “debitize” one of my back month calls by selling a further out of the money call to cut some of the deltas. Depending on where we are on Monday I might open a new butter to bump up the theta, we’ll see.

03/26 NDX Fast Iron Butterfly (from 03/15)

It is time to close this position, I wasn’t ready to shut it down on Friday, I need to re-visit my trading strategy here, when I originally tested this idea, the plan was to let the trade go for no longer than 2 weeks, I let it run through Monday a few weeks back and it worked out in my benefit, last week it was the opposite, then again when you trade live a lot more elements come into play. So I’m adjusting as I go to what makes more sense to me.

03/26 NDX Fast Butterfly (from 03/08)

I closed the trade Today, time to refresh the capital and move on for next week’s position. In retrospect, the position was in much better shape by last Friday, which was the day to take it off as per my plan. I evaded the plan and took a bigger loss, still think that perhaps closing on Monday is a good idea.

03/25 Daily Summary

“Everyone has a plan ‘till they get punched in the mouth”
-- Mike Tyson
He is right!! Today I got a black eye and a few jabs in the lips, ribs, etc. I saw the marked opened with a gap open, then checked FinViz and saw there wasn’t much “green on the map”, so thought to myself, well, it doesn’t look like will move much from here. Then in the back of my mind I thought: would hate to be buying right now.. Sure enough, we moved just above 1 st. Deviation from Yesterday, triggered ALL my contingent orders and reverted 100% and more of the move.. BANG! BONG, OUCH!!
Here is how I honestly cope with my adversity:

Step 1) MUT*ERF#CKER!!! YOU S*N OF A BITC#!! (I vent my feelings out loud for a while)

Step 2) Got to a long walk with the dog, climbed over a hill next to our house, to the edge, watching the ocean from the edge gives you perspective.. What you gonna do? Jump? Heck no (I step back from the situation mentally and get myself calm and collected)

Step 3) I now think of what is this teaching me: manage those contingent orders not to fully stop EVER again, have them in at least 3 layers of slowing delta down. (I take ownership of the situation, try to extract some learning from it)

Step 4) Ok, trade by trade, what can I do? Is it worth hanging around? Figure it out and get on with life (I go into problem solving mode and figure out how can I manage the positions)

Here is a few links for your own reference:
http://traderfeed.blogspot.com/2007/08/assessing-your-coping-style-as-trader.html
http://traderfeed.blogspot.com/2007/10/emotional-resilience-in-trading-three.html
http://traderfeed.blogspot.com/2010/03/getting-punched-in-mouth-as-trader.html

03/24 NDX Iron Butterfly

Same story with most of my butterflies Today, got to a hedging point and whipsaw action. I will level my Greeks Tomorrow, and continue to stay on the trade. Key here is how we open Tomorrow.

03/25 NDX Fast Iron Butterfly (from 03/22)

Hit the hedge, came back.. what else is new? Well, if we go down will level my Greeks and see what I can do with the position. So far not at a deep loss level, and there is plenty of time for NDX to get quiet and give up profits.

03/25 NDX Fast Iron Butterfly (from 03/15)

Whipsaw Today, got all the way up to my max loss, triggered my hedging and came back in full force. If we keep going down Tomorrow I have contingent order to sell the call back and level the greeks.

03/25 NDX Fast Butterfly (from 03/08)

Didn’t touch this trade Today, and plan on leaving it alone Tomorow, might decide to exit it by end of day, will see how the market is behaving. At this point, there is only 1 butterfly here, so not a lot of risk on the table.

03/24 Daily Summary

Today was a great break for my set of positions! I added a new iron butterfly for this week, it is my last one for the APR contracts, next weekly trades will be on the MAY contracts.

03/24 NDX Iron Butterfly

Moving back on the profit chart. No touch on the trade Today. If we move down a bit more it will be approaching my target profit.

03/24 NDX Fast Iron Butterfly (from 03/22)

Decided to go ahead and enter the position for this week. I didn’t do it on Monday due to limited time, that actually worked in my favour as I didn’t have to go through Yesterday’s upside move. I got in early morning Today and as the market kept going down it made the position profitable right from the start.

03/24 NDX Fast Iron Butterfly (from 03/15)

Moved away from the stop point, almost in a profitable situation with the trade. Let’s see what the next few days will bring.

03/24 NDX Fast Butterfly (from 03/08)

As we pulled back this morning I put in an order to get out of ½ of my remaining butterfly. I wanted to add another position on and didn’t feel right to leave the full trade as it is hovering the stop loss zone. Today’s price action helped a bit, plan to fully exit the trade in the next day or so.

03/23 Daily Summary

I can’t see any clear signal that this bullish movement is about to stop. All I can see is a long wick at Today’s candle on the NDX, but that may or may not mean much.. So far it has been rough on my bearish butterflies, I had to hedge and exit each and every one of them for the past 2 weeks. The Monthly Iron Butterfly for APR is doing ok, no issues there.

03/23 NDX Iron Butterfly

Got back to break-even, not a big deal, so far it is within the no adjusting zone. If we rise above 1975 Tomorrow then I’ll hedge the trade and start adjusting to the up-side.

03/23 NDX Fast Iron Butterfly (from 03/15)

Approaching the stop on this position as well, have a contingent order to hedge the trade if we keep rising Tomorrow.

03/23 NDX Fast Butterfly (from 03/08)

No pull back Today.. Well, the position hit the skids and now I’m taking it off. I removed the bottom butterfly (had to trade each order separately) and will continue on my way to the exit Tomorrow. Looking back, there was one key mistake on this trade: buying that extra long 2050 call.. If it wasn’t for that, when we pulled back on Friday I’d have quite more profits on the table to close the trade. The fact I didn’t have profits, and quite honestly the fact I saw the bearish close on Friday as an indication of pull back caused me to leave the trade on for 2 days too long.

03/22 Daily Summary

Today was very busy at work for me, and I had to work through lunch. The result is that I couldn’t pull the plug on my NDX Fast Butterfly from 2/15. I also didn’t enter the OEX weekly this week, even if I wanted, I spent 10 minutes looking at it mid-morning and did not see a position there: There was no credit for a wider position, and I didn’t want to sell anything too close to the fire. Volatility might be way too low for the OEX condor this week, let’s see if something shows up Tomorrow.

03/22 NDX Iron Butterfly

So far so good, the position is doing good, still profitable. I have contingent orders to flatten myself if we keep pushing higher Tomorrow.

03/22 NDX Fast Iron Butterfly (from 03/15)

Didn’t touch the trade Today, to be quite honest, I thought about closing one of my long calls on Friday and leaning bearish for Today. I sure am glad I didn’t do it ;)

03/22 NDX Fast Butterfly (from 03/08)

Did not have the time to exit the position by early this morning, will have to work my way out of it Tomorrow. Hopefully will have better luck then, also, hopefully we’ll pull back

MAR NDX Iron Butterfly Day-by-day review

The MAR position was fantastic! I got my P/L target really quickly and simply took my money off the table. I know by talking to other Sheridan students that whoever stayed longer got their profits taken away. I’ve been there done that, so am really glad that I’m maturing as a trader and able to walk away with my money! :)

Trade 1: From 02/16/2010 to 02/23/2010 +13.75% ROI
Day by day:

02/17 NDX Iron Butterfly

02/19 NDX Iron Butterfly

02/22 NDX Iron Butterfly

02/23 NDX Iron Butterfly

MAR MNX Iron Butterfly Day-by-day review

The MAR position was fantastic! I got my P/L target really quickly and simply took my money off the table. I know by talking to other Sheridan students that whoever stayed longer got their profits taken away. I’ve been there done that, so am really glad that I’m maturing as a trader and able to walk away with my money! :)

Trade 1: From 02/16/2010 to 02/25/2010 +10.45% ROI
Day by day:

02/25 MNX Iron Butterfly

02/24 MNX Iron Butterfly

02/23 MNX Iron Butterfly

02/22 MNX Iron Butterfly

02/20 MNX Iron Butterfly

02/19 MNX Iron Butterfly

02/17 MNX Iron Butterfly

FEB NDX Fast Butterfly Day-by-day review (3 trades)

In February I started to test this strategy live, it came about as an idea and after I tested it became clear to me I am onto something here. 3 trades, 2 wins, 1 loss. Below are the results:

Trade 1: From 02/08/2010 to 02/09/2010 -8.20% ROI
Day by day:

02/08 NDX Fast Butterfly

Trade 2: From 02/16/2010 to 02/19/2010 +1.67% ROI

02/19 NDX Fast Butterfly

Trade 3: From 02/22/2010 to 02/25/2010 +8.13% ROI

02/22 NDX Fast Butterfly

02/23 NDX Fast Butterfly

02/24 NDX Fast Butterfly

02/25 NDX Fast Butterfly

FEB NDX Iron Butterfly Day-by-day review

This is by far one of the trades I am most happy with! I was able to stay in the game, manage taking a large loss early on, kept my head cool despite some early mistakes, looked for ways to control the position yet regain profits. Stayed on top of it, got some lucky help from the market and as the result was able to dig myself out of the hole and into profitability! Very good, very good indeed (pat myself on the back).

Trade 1: From 01/19/2010 to 02/12/2010 +1.54% ROI
Day by day:

02/12 NDX Iron Butterfly

02/11 NDX Iron Butterfly

02/10 NDX Iron Butterfly

02/08 NDX Iron Butterfly

02/05 NDX Iron Butterfly

02/04 NDX Iron Butterfly

02/03 NDX Iron Butterfly

02/02 NDX Iron Butterfly

02/01 NDX Iron Butterfly

01/29 NDX Iron Butterfly

01/28 NDX Iron Butterfly

01/27 NDX Iron Butterfly

01/26 NDX Iron Butterfly

01/25 NDX Iron Butterfly

01/22 NDX Iron Butterfly

01/21 NDX Iron Butterfly

01/20 NDX Iron Butterfly

01/19 NDX Iron Butterfly

FEB MNX Iron Butterfly Day-by-day review

Took a loss on my FEB MNX position, in retrospect, I think it could be traded slightly better, towards the end of the trade I stopped bringing in theta and became too defensive (too many long back-month calls). The market moved widely against the position and I focused on avoiding further losses (focus on loss, you get loss).

Trade 1: From 01/14/2010 to 02/12/2010 -14.34% ROI
Day by day:

02/12 MNX Iron Butterfly
02/11 MNX Iron Butterfly
02/10 MNX Iron Butterfly
02/08 MNX Iron Butterfly
02/05 MNX Iron Butterfly
02/04 MNX Iron Butterfly
02/03 MNX Iron Butterfly
02/02 MNX Iron Butterfly
02/01 MNX Iron Butterfly
01/29 MNX Iron Butterfly
01/28 MNX Iron Butterfly
01/27 MNX Iron Butterfly
01/26 MNX Iron Butterfly
01/25 MNX Iron Butterfly
01/22 MNX Iron Butterfly
01/21 MNX Iron Butterfly
01/20 MNX Iron Butterfly
01/19 MNX Iron Butterfly
01/15 MNX Iron Butterfly
01/14 MNX Iron Butterfly
01/14 MNX Iron Butterfly

FEB RUT Iron Condor Day-by-day review

My February condor was a loss, after taking that loss I finally made my peace with this strategy, thank you but no thanks, will move on and trade other things. See the performance report posting for details as to why I left this strategy behind.

From 01/14/2010 to 01/22/2010 -13.04% ROI
Day by day:

01/22 RUT Iron Condor

01/21 RUT Iron Condor

01/20 RUT Iron Condor

01/19 RUT Iron Condor

01/15 RUT Iron Condor

01/14 RUT Iron Condor - FEB

FEB OEX Weekly Iron Condors Day-by-day review (4 trades)

In February I was able to trade 4 OEX weekly Iron Condors, 3 wins, 1 loss, bellow are the results:

Trade 1: From 02/01/2010 to 02/05/2010 +7.83% ROI :

02/02 OEX Weekly Iron Condor

02/03 OEX Weekly Iron Condor

02/04 OEX Weekly Iron Condor

02/05 OEX Weekly Iron Condor


Trade 2: From 02/08/2010 to 02/12/2010 +8.09% ROI

02/08 OEX Weekly Iron Condor

02/09 OEX Weekly Iron Condor

02/10 OEX Weekly Iron Condor

02/11 OEX Weekly Iron Condor

02/12 OEX Weekly Iron Condor


Trade 3: From 02/16/2010 to 02/17/2010 -20.98% ROI

02/17 OEX Weekly Iron Condor


Trade 4: From 02/22/2010 to 02/26/2010 +7.83% ROI

02/22 OEX Weekly Iron Condor

02/23 OEX Weekly Iron Condor

02/24 OEX Weekly Iron Condor

02/25 OEX Weekly Iron Condor

02/26 OEX Weekly Iron Condor

03/19 Daily Summary

Today was great, the pull back much appreciated by my Iron Butterflies, thank you! Started peeling one of them off, will close it and enter a new one on Monday. Plan on doing some cleaning up on the blog over the weekend, also update the performance charts with the recent trade results.

03/19 NDX Iron Butterfly

So far so good, the position is doing great, I don’t have to make any changes here.

03/19 NDX Fast Iron Butterfly (from 03/15)

Didn’t touch the trade Today, looks right in the center and with good theta to accumulate over the weekend.

03/19 NDX Fast Butterfly (from 03/08)

The trade surfaced above water Today, so I started peeling it off the table, cleaned up the deltas a bit and left the rest for Monday. Plan on exiting it fully by Monday.