The weeks been volatile. Luckily, the way I trade now, I barely have to be present and I barely have any stress. I have alerts setup and I take care of them. However, that said, when I enter the trades for the following month, I tend to have to be more present with monitoring the markets especially during big down days as I use that as an opportunity to get paid more on the insurance I sell. It’s funny, I now love big down days, because I salivate at the increases in credit for the MIC legs I sell. I rub my hands together, get excited, and start putting in orders.
I’ve got about 30 units in for the June trade via both RUT and SPX. I got some good entry points. Once I close off the rest of May, I’ll probably add another 10 units max. Now, the easy part, set alerts, wait for ’em and adjust. Every morning I do review all the updated greeks on each trade and make sure the alert points are set.
Note: The SPX options are now open a few hours earlier which is kinda neat. I forgot about this and was pleasantly surprised to see some GTC orders close pre-market. Gives some flexibility in the trade during big pre-market moves. I like it.
I haven’t been too close to adjustment on any side (both for the May and June trades) yet so things are fine. I have “here and there” sold some call and put spreads on extremes but nothing really relevant. I’ve been peeling off portions of the May trade via GTC orders. The trade should do 6% (maybe 7%) overall depending on how the markets are until Monday.
I’ve reduced my protector portfolio by about 20% when it hit the highs around SPY@212. I feel more comfortable with the MIC trades in these types of market conditions. I feel and understand MIC trading dynamics so well now.
We’ve solidified plans for our move back to Cayman, the kids got into a school sorta by a favor (unexpectedly) and we’re going to be back by at least September. We have no idea if we’ll go back earlier or later. We might drive the Tesla down to UK to try and sell it (which equals extended road trip). Maybe extended 3 month road trip? I don’t know 100% yet. Someone is interested in it here, called excitedly as he was boarding a plane and is comign back on the 8th so it might sell then. We’ll see. Can’t plan anything because of the unknown variables of the everything