03/26 Daily Summary

Ok, it seems we’re either consolidating or starting a pull back, as long as we don’t go down too deep the positions should be ok. For now I’m going to kick back, relax and enjoy the weekend!

03/26 NDX Iron Butterfly

Didn’t touch the trade, it sucks I had to level the vega on Yesterday’s whipsaw, but then again, it s part of the game, I can’t follow the tick-by-tick of the market and that’s the trade off between being a full time intra-day trader and being an income strategy trader + work full time.

03/26 NDX Fast Iron Butterfly (from 03/22)

I did not open the extra butterfly for the theta recovery Yesterday, as I mentioned earlier, selling a position by end of day on Friday is not the best way to go, plus there is still theta on the trade because we backed off from the edge of the butterfly. So all I did was to “debitize” one of my back month calls by selling a further out of the money call to cut some of the deltas. Depending on where we are on Monday I might open a new butter to bump up the theta, we’ll see.

03/26 NDX Fast Iron Butterfly (from 03/15)

It is time to close this position, I wasn’t ready to shut it down on Friday, I need to re-visit my trading strategy here, when I originally tested this idea, the plan was to let the trade go for no longer than 2 weeks, I let it run through Monday a few weeks back and it worked out in my benefit, last week it was the opposite, then again when you trade live a lot more elements come into play. So I’m adjusting as I go to what makes more sense to me.

03/26 NDX Fast Butterfly (from 03/08)

I closed the trade Today, time to refresh the capital and move on for next week’s position. In retrospect, the position was in much better shape by last Friday, which was the day to take it off as per my plan. I evaded the plan and took a bigger loss, still think that perhaps closing on Monday is a good idea.

03/25 Daily Summary

“Everyone has a plan ‘till they get punched in the mouth”
-- Mike Tyson
He is right!! Today I got a black eye and a few jabs in the lips, ribs, etc. I saw the marked opened with a gap open, then checked FinViz and saw there wasn’t much “green on the map”, so thought to myself, well, it doesn’t look like will move much from here. Then in the back of my mind I thought: would hate to be buying right now.. Sure enough, we moved just above 1 st. Deviation from Yesterday, triggered ALL my contingent orders and reverted 100% and more of the move.. BANG! BONG, OUCH!!
Here is how I honestly cope with my adversity:

Step 1) MUT*ERF#CKER!!! YOU S*N OF A BITC#!! (I vent my feelings out loud for a while)

Step 2) Got to a long walk with the dog, climbed over a hill next to our house, to the edge, watching the ocean from the edge gives you perspective.. What you gonna do? Jump? Heck no (I step back from the situation mentally and get myself calm and collected)

Step 3) I now think of what is this teaching me: manage those contingent orders not to fully stop EVER again, have them in at least 3 layers of slowing delta down. (I take ownership of the situation, try to extract some learning from it)

Step 4) Ok, trade by trade, what can I do? Is it worth hanging around? Figure it out and get on with life (I go into problem solving mode and figure out how can I manage the positions)

Here is a few links for your own reference:
http://traderfeed.blogspot.com/2007/08/assessing-your-coping-style-as-trader.html
http://traderfeed.blogspot.com/2007/10/emotional-resilience-in-trading-three.html
http://traderfeed.blogspot.com/2010/03/getting-punched-in-mouth-as-trader.html

03/24 NDX Iron Butterfly

Same story with most of my butterflies Today, got to a hedging point and whipsaw action. I will level my Greeks Tomorrow, and continue to stay on the trade. Key here is how we open Tomorrow.