With all of the human tragedy happening around the world right now, these posts seem somewhat trivial. Before getting into the details of trading and my weekly rhythm; I’d like to start with a quick prayer
Heavenly Father, in these turbulent times we turn to you as our source of hope and strength. God we are thankful for your provision and your love. For your unending mercy and grace. We thank you for the gift of salvation that you have provided to us, and for accepting us in our brokenness every day. You’ve asked us to bring our burdens to you, and Father we do that today. Lord help us to turn our focus to you, and Father we ask to that settle our hearts and minds brining peace. Thank you Father for your love and provision. Amen
While I don’t talk about it much on this little blog, I’m a follower of Jesus and he is my hope and strength in these difficult times. The world is a crazy place and will likely continue to be that way until He returns. I’m super thankful that the God of the Universe has decided to offer us a hope for eternity.
This week was yet another hard down week in the markets. The fed acted multiple times and it’s just been crazy! This week I also spent the entire week working from home using video conferences as my primary method of working. It was exhausting given the amount of change that is to my normal rhythm.
For the week, I didn’t trade a ton, but I did do a few things. I had a bunch of March expiration positions that closed out across most of the equity names I have in. Some I simply let expire, and a few I closed to limit risk in the unlikely event of an upturn.
My positioning is still firmly bearish, and I’m short /ES over this weekend.
Having close access to my trading platform during the week was weird for me. I opened a bunch of short /ES positions in the overnight or early am sessions that I closed early for losses this week. It was good to have quick access to glance at market activity. It seems my loss aversion, given all the uncertainties around us, has gone up a lot. That’s a shame, because the initial decision to get short was right each time. I exited early for losses that didn’t need to be realized. This was a good (although expensive session) this week and I will have to adjust accordingly as the weeks go on. I expect to be working from home for the foreseeable future and there will be ample opportunities in the coming weeks that require patience to let them play out in these exceedingly high volatility markets.
With the March cycle closing on Friday my portfolio is down to only a few symbols:
/ES – Short
EEM – Iron Condors, all breached in the April Cycle. These will likely need to be closed in the next few weeks.
FXI – Very wide Iron Condor, March 27 Expiration – currently near the put strikes. China appears to be recovering from the initial impacts of Coronavirus. If they can hold that for the next week I should be able to close this for a small profit.
IWM – Short Call Spread March 27; this should be a max winner. I’ve got a GTC in to close it for $0.02.
MNK – Long stock. It’s a small position, hopefully it plays out nicely this week otherwise I’ll cut it. I’ve got GTC’s in for my targets if it happens to bounce.
OIH – Short Put Spread 5/4, April Expiry. This one is going to be a lotto ticket. If I end up long OIH at 5, I’ll likely take the shares. Over the longer term, OIH should come back up above 5 and I’ll sell covered calls over this if needed.
OPK – Long stock. Again, a small position and I’m holding it for Coronavirus news. I’ve got GTC’s in for my targets if it happens to bounce.
SPY – I’m all wrapped around SPY, net VERY short. This is driving almost all of my portfolio delta right now. I’ve got a lot of put debit spreads, some for next week and some for April. If we get a strong bounce on fiscal stimulus news, I’ll send a bunch of call spreads as well.
VXX – I’m still short vol on VXX. This credit spread is a 37/40 so it’s way in the money. This isn’t a max loser yet, and I’ll plan to hold onto it on the chance that vol settles over the next 4 weeks or so. I will consider get into more VXX short positions this coming week.
Anyhow. I’m burned out from the week, so that’s all I’ve got for now. Stay safe, physically and financially!