DEC/10 NDX Iron Butterfly Day-by-day Review

My DEC NDX Iron Butterfly was a good position (+5.11% ROI). It challenged the up-side once again, but it did so in a controlled manner, allowing me to cut and roll and make a profit. I had one adjustment in the last few days that cost me the 10% goal. Friday prior to expiration week we moved higher and got too close to my short strikes so I decided to close, it would have worked if I let it ride the weekend but I was moving and did not feel good about having that additional stress in my mind during the moving weekend (not to mention I was tired from flying back from Europe the same weekend). Anyway, all things considered I put in the trade and managed it regardless of travel schedule, work schedule and life schedule..

Also, the process of monitoring my well-being and overall mind-state was awesome and certainly something I'll continue to do moving forward. This is all about an on-going process of self improving, this is why I enjoy trading so much!

11/17 Daily Summary
11/18 Daily Summary
Ok, Today I can't login to TOS for one reason or a...
11/21 Game plan for Tomorrow.
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11/28 Game Plan
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12/10 Daily Summary

Going on vacation

Ok everyone, time for me to take a long awaited and well deserved trading break during the Holiday Season! I wish all of you the very best, have a great Holiday and Joyful time. Looking forward to starting again in JAN. I will be trading the FEB contracts early next year, this break means I will pass on trading the JAN contracts. I chose to do this for two reasons:
1) I want a break
2) I didn't feel very excited about the vols being so low and the value totally extracted out of the JAN contracts this week, so I'll pass on selling the iron butterfly this month. Does it mean it won't work? Of course not, you will never know (I will never know) unless you do it. But see reason #1, that is the most important one for now. :)

I will post an update day-by-day review on the DEC contracts, sometime in the next few days, as well as an update on my performance.

2010 was a positive year despite my learning curve during the earlier part of the year (read too many trades, multiple strategies and losses), things got really better for me once I focused in ONE trade per month, that made my life easier and my focused approach paid off. It worked for me, so I'll do more of the same in 2010!!

Cheers!
Gustavo

12/10 Daily Summary

Just wanted to briefly update everyone. I've closed the position on Friday, as the market moved up I felt it was time to shut things down, specially because I was moving over the weekend and didn't want to have this extra thing "hanging" in the back of my head.. Anyway, I've closed with about 5% profit for the month.

12/09 Daily Summary

Looking good, my plan is to go another day and evaluate either closing on Friday or leaving it alone through the weekend.

12/08 Daily Summary

I've picked up 5% Today, great overall recovery on this trade thanks NDX for sitting around for a few days, it is all it takes for the NDX Iron Butterfly to roll in with profits. Today I've condorized the position, it was a 1-hour long process, and I just surfed the market up and down, taking the best possible trades at great spots, this allowed me to roll the short calls and put away from the money so I can travel relaxed Tomorrow and let this thing roll through the weekend. Cheers!

12/7 Daily Summary

Yesterday's price action hit my first level of adjustment. The morning before I had a gut feeling to move my stop up to 2110, and during the first hour of trading I also had the gut feeling of moving it further up. I didn't listen to these hunches of inspiration so the contingent got triggered. Just want to register it here so I know for my future trading to listen to them when they come up.. In any event, I have a good feeling about Tomorrow (Today already here in Geneva), my goal is to condorize by the end of the trading session so I can travel back to the US on Thursday and just leave the position alone through the rest of the week. So far so good, we're in the green and will stay that way.

12/06 Daily Summary

I am very grateful the market stalled again all day Monday! Now looking for the best way to exit the position and bring it home! I will be watching price action at the close and before that prepare a possible exit strategy for me to execute.

12/04 Daily Summary

Things got back in shape during Friday's trading session. Volatility actually deflated even further and the position is showing great recovery, back at B/E level. Now Mr. NDX, you will work for me on Monday, here is what I want you to do: Open lower, around 2155, then trade back up to 2160 just to deflate the vols, stay there for most of the day and let market makers fill me on my exit. Thank you, see you then!

12/03 Daily Summary

I honestly think the P/L Today was distorted by a mis-print at closing time. I was somewhat observing the market action and P/L, and was quite surprised to see being down 12% by end of day. We didn't have this big of a move and, as far as I can tell, the volatility has dropped. In any event, I'm holding the same contingent orders and game plan from Yesterday if we keep going higher I'll hedge and see what else is left for me to do. Cheers! Gustavo

12/01 Daily Summary

Today I rolled the remaining 2125 calls and add an extra butterfly to the position. The 2125 call delta was around 65 and it is time I add theta to the position so it can recover. I was traveling to Europe overnight and had to make these adjustments prior to end of day, they would be cheapper if I was awake at the market closing time, but I couldn't do it. It would not have triggered otherwise, and this is the second time I by pass the contingent orders on my trade, I felt good about it when I did, as we were breaking out of the range on all other indexes, NDX traded down at the closing, but I still think the sentiment is more to the bullish side.

We have been bouncing hard in a range, let's see what Tomorrow brings, I'm doing my best to keep my adjustment points far away from the price to avoid this whipsaw and constant adjusting the position. I have a feeling we'll have a quiet day Tomorrow because we'll be waitting the NFP to come out on Friday. Let's see what happens.