Tuesday, April 6, 2010

04/06 Daily Summary



So here is my resolution for Q2 of my trading business: Less is more! I’ll trade only the NDX Iron butterfly, the monthly position. This will allow me to have a decent work-life balance, part of my plan for Q2 is to establish some goals that I can measure and fully control. These are not P/L based goals, since P/L is not under my control. Rather, they will be activity driven goals that I can control and measure against. More to come later on the week.
Since I’ll be focused, the blog will have more detailed information on the trade, as well as the game plan and adjustment strategies around it, so stay tuned, this might be a benefit for everyone involved :)

3 comments:

Dutch trader said...

Hi Gustavo,

Great blog, every day I have a look and I like your honesty about your trades. You made a wise decision to minimize your trades. Especially those weekly butterflies are difficult to manage (for a theta trader).
I struggle for some time with my monthly butterflies and I'm convinced that rolling your shorts isn't the way to adjust. The P/L curve is suffering. My 2 cents is tha adjusting by adding (spreads or butterflies) will increase your chances.

Anyway keep up the good work,
Dutch theta trader

Bobby B said...

Good Plan- I think trading one large solid trade has it's benefits. Best of luck through Q2.

My big trade is NDX iron condor so I will be riding the waves with you.

Gustavo's Trades said...

Thank you both for your comments, this blog has become one of my sources of inspirations. Whenever I get hit, or am simply feeling down, I remember I have a responsibility to stay in the track and keep walking the path.. Plus, I can't hide my mistakes "under the rug" sort of speak, therefore I have to make an extra effort to correct my actions whenever they get me off-track.

Yes, having many positions at once paid a toll on my well-being. Not having time to analyze and make the best possible decision was a trigger for many frustration days and that spilled through my personal life and work.

So, that being said, just by making the decision to simplify I already feel lighter.

Dutch Trader: I tend to agree with you, rolling the short is usually painful, specially because it opens up gamma exposure. That being said, with only a few days to go I didn't feel good about entering a new iron Butterfly, perhaps that would be the best way to go about it after all. We'll see. One thing I like about the modified version of Dan Harvey's guidelines is that he simply closes the spread and then re-open a new spread + extra butterfly as the adjustment, and this is in line with your thinking.

Anyway, will keep on keeping on.. :)

Cheers!
Gustavo