Day 122
I closed 26 positions this week and kept $1,317 after fees. Twelve Zero DTE trades during market hours made $1,564, and all twelve were winners. Three SPX trades I placed before the market opened lost $824, and all three were losers.
The closed book is not the whole picture though. I booked $1,650 of realized profit and the year still went backwards by $674, because the positions I am still holding got worse by $2,145. CRWV and a crude oil condor account for most of that.
Portfolio Status
Here is the portfolio status, including unrealized Profit/Loss. My current net liquidity is ~58.7K.
My overall realized gains for the year are $14,837 gross, moving up by ~$1.6K since the last write-up. Sort the card by "this week" to see what changed since my last write-up.
Year-to-date P/L by symbol. Open this post on the web to sort and expand the full list.
Details: $14,837 realized, minus $5,736 of unrealized losses on positions I still hold, minus $1,911 of commissions and fees for the year, leaves $7,190. On the roughly $49K I have put into this account that is 14.7%. The same math gave $7,864 last week.
The Week at a Glance
What I Got Wrong
Four positions account for $3,364 between them, $824 of it realized and $2,540 still open. The other 23 trades I closed made $2,141.
CRWV, minus $1,317 and still open. On Tuesday at 10:30 AM I bought the Nov 20 110 Call for $13.75 and sold the Oct 16 100 Put for $9.03 in one order, a bullish risk reversal for a $4.72 debit. It was a stupid trade - I have never for once traded CRWV in this manner, an at the money speculation that went the other way pretty much immdiately. I am now trying to salvage whatever I can - let's see how it goes. I was staring at a $1,317 loss but so far have salvaged back nearly $300 of it by aggressively selling Puts and Calls against the two bad trades I did.
The pre-open SPX trades, minus $824. Three trades, three losers. The worst was a 7655/7665 Call Debit Spread I bought at 12:49 AM Thursday for $5.15, more than half its width, with SPX having closed Wednesday at 7,636. I closed it ten minutes after the open for $0.30, minus $490. Tuesday's 6:11 AM Iron Condor had its short strikes only 20 points apart and lost $135 in 71 minutes. Wednesday's 5:40 AM bearish structure lost $200.
Crude, minus $752 and still open. I sold the Oct 15 Iron Condor on Tuesday with crude at $93 and my short call at 102. It settled at $96 Wednesday and $102.48 Thursday, straight through that strike. Thursday evening I paid $400 for the 99/100 Call Debit Spread underneath it, which turns the position into a long Call Condor that needs crude between 100 and 102 in mid-October. Crude settled Friday at $100.05.
The three earnings ideas, minus $471 and still open. Last week I wrote that I would sit earnings out unless I had a feel for it. On Thursday afternoon I put on an ADBE double Put Calendar, an ORCL Call Diagonal and an RH Put Calendar, hours before all three reported. The short legs expired Friday, which brought in $455 on ADBE and $45 on RH, and what is left of the three is marked at minus $630, minus $206 and minus $135. I don't think I played these right - I am annoyed at myself for not following through on my original thinking of just outright bullish or bearish trade for earnings.
What I Learned
Last week I wrote that seven pre-open trades proved nothing and that one going the other way would flip the average. Three went the other way this week, and the average fell from $176 a trade to $41.
The hold-time pattern did not survive either. Last week every winner had closed within about two hours and the one loser was held into the afternoon. This week two of the three losers were closed inside two hours, so how long I hold them does not separate the winners from the losers.
I think I need to move my pre-market trades closer to market open. My thinking is that trading further away from open leaves too much time to swing against my at the open thesis, so getting closer to open might let it survive better.
The Trades
As usual, all times are Pacific. Risk is the possible maximum loss, which is spread width minus premium received.
Zero DTE
Fifteen trades, twelve winners, $740.
During market hours it was twelve trades and twelve winners for $1,564. Wednesday's 6:31 AM 7660/7670 Call Credit Spread was the best of them at $265, sold for $3.60 and bought back at $0.90 a little over two hours later. Friday was three for three: a $5 wide Iron Condor at 7:06 AM for $145, a 7675/7685 Call Credit Spread at 7:38 AM for $115, and a $40 Put Butterfly at 8:35 AM that I closed three hours later for $20.
The three losers are the pre-open trades in What I Got Wrong.
Global Trading Session
Three more pre-open trades this week, all losers, minus $824. Here is every one I have done this year.
Ten trades, six winners, $410 net, averaging $41 a trade. The 151 SPX trades I have opened during regular hours this year average $24 a trade and net $3,637. A week ago the pre-open trades were 37% of my SPX profit on 5% of the count. Now they are 10% of the profit on 6% of the count. I am still counting them separately.
Futures
My first week trading options on futures - I am trying to learn them next. They have less buying power - so I want to deploy a portion of my portfolio to these options. As usual, since I am just learning this, I will likely only trade spreads and condors, with max risk under $1000.
The /ES trade went on during Labor Day, with the US cash market closed. I sold a 7730/7740 Call Credit Spread on the E-mini expiring Tuesday for $3.05, which is $152.50 at $50 a point, and bought it back at 1:03 AM Tuesday for $1.15.
The /ZB trade was a Put Debit Spread on 30-year Treasury bond futures, bought Tuesday for $594 and sold Wednesday morning for $68 of profit.
/CL is still on and is in What I Got Wrong. The put side of that condor closed Thursday for $58, which is the only realized part of it since the call got tested a bit and so I left it open for now.
Calendars
One trade, no winners, minus $245.
This is the PANW calendar I opened Aug 31, selling the Sep 4 410 Call for $6.33 and buying the Sep 11 410 Call for $8.76. The front leg expired worthless on Sep 4, which was the point. The back leg expired worthless on Friday with the stock near $330, so the whole $876 is gone and the calendar cost $243 across two weeks. That is seven of the last nine calendars losing money.
Defined Risk Equity Spreads
Two trades, two winners, $317.
BE is the trade from last week's What's Next. On Sep 3 I sold the 195/185 Put Credit Spread and bought the 320/340 Call Debit Spread together for a $0.57 credit, betting on the S&P inclusion. I closed both sides Tuesday morning for $2.37. That is $289 on $943 of risk in three trading days.
LULU was quick. I sold the Oct 16 110/115 Call Credit Spread Tuesday for $1.07 and closed it Wednesday at $0.76 for $29.
Undefined Risk
Six trades, six winners, $350. The gain is too small for the risk - but the catch is very few of these come off all in the same week, so this section likely will continue to be small.
AAPL was the biggest at $111, and it is a roll rather than a fresh trade. I have been walking the same short Oct 16 put up behind the stock since Aug 31, from 280 to 295 to 305, and on Friday I closed the 305 and sold the 310.
MRNA made $114 on a three day 135 Put I sold Tuesday and bought back Friday morning for $0.08.
I closed both SOFI 18 Calls on Wednesday, the one left over from last week and the one I sold Tuesday, for $57 combined. That leaves 100 SOFI shares with nothing sold against them.
The two CRWV trades that closed made $69 on Thursday. The rest of CRWV is in What I Got Wrong.
Interactive P/L heatmap. Open this post on the web to see the day-by-day breakdown for August and September.
Market Recap
SPY is at ~$764, and QQQ is at ~$715. Monday was Labor Day. The S&P closed at 7,674 on Tuesday, 7,636 on Wednesday and 7,592 on Thursday, three straight down days of about half a percent each, then took back 0.86% on Friday to close at 7,657. The week still finished down 0.8%.
Crude did the opposite. WTI settled at $93.03 Tuesday, $96.05 Wednesday and $102.48 Thursday, a 6.7% day, then gave some back Friday to settle at $100.05.
VIX closed Thursday at 17.84, its first close above 17 in about a month, then dropped back to 16.13 on Friday.
Current Positions
Most of my idle cash is in BIL.
I am long 38 deltas, collecting $83 in theta per day out of a remaining $2,367 in extrinsic value.
I have short premium in AAPL, HOOD and NFLX, the CRWV position I mentioned, defined risk bullish spreads in GLD and LLY and a bearish one in META, what is left of the ADBE, ORCL and RH earnings structures, the crude Call Condor, and 100 SOFI shares with nothing sold against them.
Running Threads
SOFI. Both calls closed Wednesday for $57. Holding 100 shares with nothing sold against them, $1,740 underwater.
CRWV. New this week, $1,317 underwater. On Friday I sold the Oct 16 110 and 115 Calls - one treating as a Strangle against a Oct 16 $80 Put, and one against the long Nov 20 110 Call. As I said, I will try some aggressive tactice to bring down my eventual loss if CRWV doesn't ever go back up.
Crude. New this week, $752 underwater, with 34 days until the Oct 15 expiration. Waiting and watching this one.
Earnings. The ADBE and RH short legs expired Friday, so I am left holding long ADBE Sep 18 puts, and on RH a Sep 18 105/125 Put Credit Spread with $1,955 of risk against $45 of net credit. On ORCL I bought the expiring 180 Call back for $0.02 and sold the Oct 16 180 against my Oct 16 190, which turns the diagonal into a 10 wide Call Credit Spread.
TGT. Giving up on this idea to sell naked calls - I might put in a spread in the next earnings cycle, for now I dont want anything to do with TGT.
HOOD. Sold the 100 Put Tuesday. The Strangle is back on, so this thread is done.
Pre-open SPX. Ten trades, six winners, $410. A week ago it was seven trades and $1,234.
What's Next
Reduction in cost basis for CRWV - or reduction in a potential loss.
I shouldn't have added to my Crude position - that may have been foolish. I will try to get out of it for a scracth if the opportunity presents itself.
A lot of my long term trades are trending red right now. If I am able to halve the amount I would lose if I was to liquidate right away - that would automatically help me increase my net liquidity that seems to have been stuck in the 57K - 60K range for the past few weeks. So I am going to try and think of ways to address the growing negative impact of open positions - and revisit the risk I am taking in unorthodox ways rather than ways that have proven to make money for me.
Thanks for reading!
📌 Disclaimer: Nothing on this site is financial advice - I'm just here to entertain! Here's my introduction, my trading philosophy, and some ground rules.
