10/08 Daily Summary

Continued to close spreads out of my position, Today I got another short call out by doing a debit spread on 2075/2100 calls, by the looks of it, I expect to reach my 5% by Monday next week, go time decay! It has been a long month, a lot of trading and adjusting, yet I like the fact I can control my position and risk exposure in so many ways with the Iron Butterfly that having one or two difficult months in the year is not such a bad deal... Remember, the September trade got me 10% in 6 days, October is making me work for my money, that’s ok :)

10/7 Daily Summary

Exiting my trade Today, not much more left to do but to roll my short calls away from the money. I used debit spreads to move my short 2025 and 2050 calls all the way to 2075, also sold all my long NOV contracts (Puts and Calls) as well as my long OCT call that I bought as a hedge.

10/6 Daily Summary

Back around break-even level after we traded down Today. The market is bouncing around and I am exiting the position at the same time, plan to exit or continue to condorize it tomorrow by doing debit spreads to move my short contracts away from the money, as it turns out the 2025 and 2050 calls are way too close for comfort, they’re being helped by the long call, so it is time to clean up the inventory, free up some theta and control the gamma exposure.

10/5 Daily Summary

We’re acting like a bull in the china shop, -1.25 st deviation Yesterday, over 3 standard deviation Today on the opposite direction, ouch! I’m glad I started moving my short calls away Yesterday, now, I certainly can’t afford to leave these other short calls too close to the fire, if we keep trading higher Tomorrow I must hedge and get out of the way, last thing I need is a fast moving train flying higher with just a few days before expiration. So, I’m back underwater, not by a lot, yet underwater, this has been a rough month for sure.

10/4 Daily Summary

As the market took a dive Today my position self-adjusted with the contingent orders. By end of day I’ve rolled a few of my short strikes out with vertical rolls. At this point I’m back in the green and looking forward to start exiting the trade or condorizing. If I have more time Tomorrow at closing I might just peel off most of the position. Looking good and I’m super grateful for the awesome recovery. I had my contingent order to the down-side triggered this morning, if it wasn’t for that I’d be out of the trade right now with +5% (my revised goal), now here comes the lesson-learned: Did I feel bad about it? Of course not! The adjustment was based on my plan, and instead of focusing on “could haves”, I’m focused on the fact the contingent order did its job (protect my position while I’m working my job) and now I’m looking forward to the next move I must make.. What is past is past, need to focus on the present and near future.

e-Book project

If you were to ask me for writing an eBook what should it be about? I have a few suggestions, but would like your feedback since you are, after all, the people I care about. Yes, I care about my family, but as my blog reader you kind of are my extended team.. Through good times and bad times I always felt I had people working with me through the blog.. So, here are a few ideas in my head:

1) My Trading plan: Everything I do with my iron butterflies, what, when, where and how to trade, adjust, etc.

2) 101 Lessons learned: Yes, I’ve been counting and am up to close to 101 lessons, each lesson I’ve learned over the years came to me with some “attached cost” to them, I’d love to have you guys avoid these pitfalls I fell into, as well as learn some tricks I’ve captured in the process.

3) I Quit my job! I’m now a full-time trader! Then… 2008 Market crash happens: Tale of what went on in my life during this period, it was prior from writing the blog, but I’ve kept paper journals on the story. Yes, I’m back to a full time job and trading, this eBook would help explain why, and perhaps serve as a “read before you quit your job to trade full time” kind of thing..

Ok, there you have it, 3 options, which one would be more useful for you? It would probably take me some time to write #2, and I might start with 10 or 20 lessons and go from there, my goal is to have something done by the end of October and make it available on the blog for a small fee *(yes, I’m selling the eBook, after all, it has value, doesn’t it? Don’t worry, I think you can afford $10 bucks or so, and it will be worth it.)

I’ve been mulling over this topic for a while now, the truth of the matter is I’ve gotten way too busy for my own good and never put this into action, but the pieces have been rolling around in my head for too long now and it is time to act.

Cheers!
Gustavo

10/1 Daily Summary

AWESOME! I am very grateful for being able to stay in the game and continue managing this position, once the market settled down for the past few days it was only a matter of time to see the volatility evaporate out of the short contracts and the recovery come up. I'm impressed as to how fast this was, and needless to say, super glad I was able to stay in the game and benefit from the recovery.