OCT/09 Trades

October was a great month! The market moved around (as always) but didn't breach the volatility cone for MNX or RUT positions. I over-adjusted the RUT trade, and to some extent the MNX, so that will be my focus for NOV: Let the trade run a bit more.

Having only 2 positions is great! Allows me to really focus and doesn't take up too much of my time. I'm focused on Iron Butterflies as that's the strategy that better fits my personality.

All and all, profit is a profit and a profit! :)

10/20 OCT MNX Iron Butterfly (day-by-day review)
10/09 OCT RUT Iron Butterfly (day-by-day review)

10/20 OCT MNX Iron Butterfly (day-by-day review)

This was a great trade! I still think there is room for improvement, as there were a few unecessary adjustments. I'm learning to let the trade run a bit more and adjust a bit less. But then again, this is an on-going process. Bottom line, it was over 14% ROI for the month!

09/10 Daily Summary - Started the trade

09/11 MNX Iron Butterfly - OCT

09/14 MNX Iron Butterfly

09/15 MNX Iron Butterfly

09/16 MNX Iron Butterfly - The market pushed higher Today and I added the second half

09/18 MNX Iron Butterfly

09/22 MNX Iron Butterfly - At Today's closing I felt the need to control the deltas, they were getting out of hand, so I added a long NOV contract.

09/23 MNX Iron Butterfly - The position got a break Today as the market sold off in the final hour of trading

09/24 MNX Iron Butterfly - NOTE: NOV long had to be sold: MNX pull back was not as strong as the RUT, only my first contingent order got triggered, the position adjusted itself and is now looking good!

09/25 MNX Iron Butterfly - Ooops, I didn't notice I had a long NOV Call and didn't dumpt it at the end of day Today.. I have a contingent order to sell it Monday Morning if we tick down to 169

09/28 MNX Iron Butterfly - With Today's strong up-side swing I was glad my order to sell the Nov 185 Call was based on price trading bellow 169

09/29 MNX Iron Butterfly - Position is progressing nicely! Notice the up-trend in the P&L chart, that is always nice to have!

09/30 MNX Iron Butterfly - I resisted the urge to make any adjustment Today, we were trading really close to my first down-side adjustment and I decided against jumping on it, that was a wise decision, as the market bounced up pretty hard after comming within .10 points of the adjustment.

10/01 MNX Iron Butterfly - As MNX crashed down, one of my contingent orders didn’t fire up properly, luckily I was there and caught with if right before any major damage was done.

10/02 MNX Iron Butterfly - The position recovered great after a quiet day Today. I rolled the last delta hog at the end of the day to cut deltas and to make sure it doesn't become a big problem if we keep going down next week.

10/06 MNX Iron Butterfly - I have started to peel off spreads fom the trade, I couldn't keep up with the market early AM, so I decided to cut my gamma exposure by removing spreads out of the trade.

10/07 MNX Iron Butterfly - I've started to "condorize" the trade by moving my short contracts further out of the money.

10/08 MNX Iron Butterfly - MNX was moving about 1 st. deviation when I rolled the CALL spreads, by the end of day I rolled the second contract, I'm moving the short calls and puts as further away from price as I can, and notice how this drops my Gamma risk and keeps some theta in the trade to justify staying over the weekend.

10/09 MNX Iron Butterfly - Continued to exit the trade, took off one more put and call spread and left the remaining of the potision to go through the weekend

10/12 MNX Iron Butterfly - I removed the last spreads out of the position, leaving only 1 Put and 1 Call that are further out of the money with plenty of longs to compensate in case the market crashes down.

10/13 MNX Iron Butterfly - MNX barely moved

10/14 MNX Iron Butterfly - Closed the last 2 remaining short contracts (Put and Call), closed as a PUT/CALL strangle P&L on the trade will be about 14%.

10/20 Daily Summary

Today was a mixed feeling sort of day.. Early in the morning I didn't see a lot of selling pressure, then mid-morning selling increased.. By end of the day it subsided and we ended up with a mixed day in the indexes. Notice RUT was down 1 st. dev. and MNX was flat.

Position's Details:
10/20 RUT Iron Butterfly
10/20 MNX Iron Butterfly

Price Action & Forecasts:

10/20 RUT Iron Butterfly

RUT is doing great thus far! Once again, I have 1/2 of the position on, and plan on adding the 2nd half by Thursday if nothing happens Tomorrow.

10/20 MNX Iron Butterfly

Added one more contract to the Iron Butterfly Today. I now have 1/2 of the position on. My deadline for being fully loaded is this Thursday.

10/19 Daily Summary

This may seem I'm making this up, but honestly, at or around mid-day I looked over FinViz and Vertical Solution and determined we were not very likely to move beyond 1 st. deviation. Sure enough we stayed bellow that range. I am starting to feel very good about using these two web sites as "barometers" as to when I should expect thunderstorm vs. normal rain.

Made no adjustments to the trade, I'm expecting to enter another 2/3rds of the MNX position Today.

Position Details:
10/19 RUT Iron Butterfly
10/19 MNX Iron Butterfly

Price Action & Forecasts:

10/19 RUT Iron Butterfly

RUT moved back and forth, back to where it was when I entered the trade. No adjustment planned unless we trade up and above the 640 area. At that level I plan on adding the 2nd half of the trade.