I took vacation time from the market just prior to the government default debacle, slowly getting back in with a few long term positions (cash secured puts on PG and WMT), I'm now studying trading plan for 2012 and looking to include long term positions and non-directional calendars or condors with very little adjustments. For now I'm easing back in the market.
Posted is the updated deviation chart, quite a difference from early August, yet one must not ignore the fact these charts tend to adapt to the current market environment (with increased volatility and wider moves).
Cheers!
Gustavo
2 comments:
Hi Gustavo,
Good to see you back! You should also still trade your NDX Iron Butterfly - you were really doing well over the long term with that trade - just that one month that let you down and you lost confidence. Just trade small to get back into it, maybe go back to MNX?
Anyway, good luck moving forward..
cheers
Doodelzack
Hi Doodelzack,
Yes, the last NDX trade was a hard one to recover from. I had a combination of factors: increased size and it blew through my stop so it was a double hit.
That being said, the biggest challenge I have to trade the NDX Iron Butterfly is the need to dedicate time on a daily basis to evaluate and set up adjustments. After our second kid was born we had little time left to spare, so I had to adjust my trading plan accordingly.
This led me to leaning to longer term strategies, less yield + less maintenance. I'm looking at positions on a weekly basis rather than daily.
All and all, I'm planning to adjust my trading schedule for 2012 to include a few monthly non-directional positions, perhaps get back into the iron butterflies if I can set aside a couple of hours every night to evaluate and position contingent orders for adjustments.
Ohh, before I forget, my broker had to change their rules on margin, so their new way to set margin $ aside for the iron butterflies has become quite complicated and I that also got me in the last trade.. I may need to do re-start with a few paper trades (or MNX positions) just to get back in gear.
Cheers!
Gustavo
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