2/10 NDX Iron Butterfly (MAR)

2/10 update: NDX backed off from Yesterday, yet this move brought some volatility back into the market and it hit the butterfly a bit. Nothing major, just something to keep an eye on.

2/9 update: Moved a bit higher Today, other indexes are not following suit, I have contingent orders to close (so I can re-position) the butterfly if we close beyond my adjustment point.

2/8 update: Small up move

2/7 update: No major change from Yesterday

2/6 update: Started the MAR NDX iron butterfly Today.

2/10 IBM Calendar (Mar/Jul) Weekly Summary

2/10 Update: This wraps up the first week of this trade, still a lot of time to go, for now it is looking as good as it gets!

2/9 Update: Always good to see the P/L line growing without major changes in the trade.. It is like watching the grass grow, money grass that is :)

2/8 Update: No major change

2/7 Update: Started the Mar/Jul position Today, because IBM is in the middle of 2 strikes I decided to wait and position the final 3rd of the position if and when it touches 190 or 195.

2/10 IBM Calendar (Feb/Mar) Weekly Summary

2/10 Update: Looks like we had a pop on volatility and the trade is looking really awesome by the end of this week.

2/9 Update: Looking great Today, I'm riding this through the expiration week

2/8 Update: Got a rush of adrenaline when I saw an email on my inbox that I had been assigned 600 shares of IBM at 185,, then got myself to cool off. After all, these were hedged with the long APR calls, so I had no reason to panic. When I got a bit of free time I went in there and bought back the 600 IBM shares and sold off the long 185 calls. Turns out whoever assigned me these shares gave me a $400 gift, so thanks!

2/7 Update: No major change from Yesterday, still looking down by a little bit

2/6 Update: As expected, showing recovery from Friday's P/L state, looks like Friday was a mis-print, either that or a good price manipulation by end of day.

2/3 IBM Calendar - Weekly Summary

2/3 Update: I find it hard to follow the P/L on calendars, tracking and estimating volatility on front-month and back-month is very tricky, so the P/L chart gets quite a bit of variation, as of Today it looks to be down again. This tends to be amplified on Fridays.

2/2 Update: I bit of improvement on the position Today, IBM moved back down and it helped the trade

2/1 Update: IBM Moved higher intra-day Today, almost at the 195 level, then it faded in the afternoon. This shows some resistance at those levels and I'm looking for a pull back to benefit the position.

1/31 Update: No major change on this trade when compared with Yesterday.

1/30 Update: IBM moved higher Today and it seems volatility on the IBM Calendar didn't drop as much, trading showing very good improvement from last week.

1/27 NDX Iron Butterfly - Weekly Summary

Weekly Summary: I had to close the trade this week, made the mistake of not having contingent orders to stop or hedge the trade and ended up taking a bigger than expected loss (-22% instead of -15%). This impacts my running status and quite a punch to the face. I have since then decided to regroup my efforts and be a lot more diligent moving forward. More on that as I post later on during the weekend.

1/26: Took a 22% Loss instead of a 15% loss by not closing the trade with a contingent order at the right stop point. This is the lesson to be learned during this cycle. Back to the drawing board.

1/27 IBM Calendar Weekly Summary

Weekly Summary: I had to do another adjustment this week when IBM went through the roof after earnings. The trade took a 3 st. deviation move and still showing possibility of profits.

On 1/27: IBM retreated a bit more and vols have increased a bit, which helped the trade, note it is showing slight better numbers than Yesterday

On 1/26: After performing 2 adjustments on this trade, it still shows possibility for small profits 2 to 3 weeks away

1/20 Weekly Summary

This was a very rough week for my positions. The JAN/APR IBM Tripple calendar hit max loss and as much as I hated, I had to pull the plug on it. NDX Iron Butterfly in trouble as well, it seems the market moved up but vols didn't come back down as much as I expected so I need to enter the 3rd set of contracts to make a slight adjustment (at least bring in theta). Last but not least, the IBM had a big jump on Friday and I had to go in and adjust the FEB/APR tripple calendar.


All and all, a rough week. I'm still on the FEB positions and am looking forward to some retracement/pull back so I they can recover. Needless to say, this was one of the difficult weeks. For now there is not much else to do rather than entering the NDX adjustment on Monday and keeping a close eye on the trades.