On a break

Just stopped by to let you all know I am taking a break from trading. My goal is to regroup so I can decide how to best use my limited time before I put on any new position.

I must be 100% sure I can dedicate enough time and attention to it while not burning out because of work and family commitments.

Cheers!
Gustavo

3/2 NDX Iron Butterfly (Mar)

Sometimes you just have to follow a hunch. Yesterday I got a quick hunch to move my NDX stop by one point, so I moved it to 2651. As it turns out, NDX traded exactly to 2650 and bounced back down. Will this be the scenario where we back off from here? Who knows, all I know is that I gained another weekend on the trade!
3/2

3/1

2/29

2/28

2/27

3/2 IBM Calendar (Mar/Jul)

The position gained value this week, IBM bounced around the same level and moved higher on Friday. So far looking good. Here are the pictures day by day:
3/2

3/1

2/29

2/28

2/27

2/24 NDX Iron Butterfly (MAR)

Update: NDX stood still for a while during this week, this allowed the position to recover P/L. Looking better than last week and hopefully will continue to improve next week. Time decay will start kicking in and as long as we don't blast off higher the trade should do well.

2/24 IBM Calendar (Mar/Jul)

Update: I had the 3rd portion of the IBM Calendar added this week when IBM crossed the 196 price zone. I was glad to see my contingent orders working, so all I had to do was watch the profile and update the contingent orders for the next levels of adjustments. Hopefully we won't trigger them. :)

2/17 NDX Iron Butterfly (MAR)

2/17 Update: Opened the adjustment butterfly, by re-positioning I cut the deltas by a little bit and give myself more room to the up-side and down-side.

2/16 Update: NDX went back up and hit the adjustment spot. Contingent orders kicked in and closed the butterfly. Will re-open Tomorrow.

2/15 Update: NDX took a retreat from Today's High, if you ask me the candle chart patterns seems quite bearish. I'm glad my contingent orders are only triggered at end of day, otherwise it would have hit it intra-day Today.

2/14 Update: NDX was down most of the day, by the final hour all indexes bounced back up and higher.. As of now very close to the adjustment level.

2/13 Update: NDX moved back higher Today, volatility seems to have dissolved from last Friday, it is again close to the adjustment point. Contingent orders are on stand-by to trigger if needed.

2/17 IBM Calendar (Mar/Jul) Weekly Summary

2/17 Update: Finished the week in an awesome spot!

2/16 Update: Trade working out well.

2/15 Update: Keep pumping theta my friendly calendar, keep pumping it :)

2/14 Update: Looking very good, still in the middle and with 2/3 of the trade on.

2/13 Update: No change, position is accumulating theta and profits, gotta like that!

2/17 IBM Calendar (Feb/Mar) Weekly Summary

2/17 Update: Closed the trade for 22% ROI, nice return for the journey.

2/16 Update: Plan is to close the trade Tomorrow, IBM in quiet mode

2/15 Update: Getting there, a couple more days to go

2/14 Update: My fingers are itching to close the trade, yet I will be good and follow it the same way backtested: till the final day.

2/13 Update: IBM closed about the same as last Friday, the position is looking good, navigating it expiration week. It has been a long time since I traded a position till the very last week.

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.