Trust the process - Week in review (Sep 11 - Sep 15)
On a small winning streak recently.
Don't want to get excited about it though. Otherwise, I'm going to start getting reckless again, thinking I'm a genius.
Just need to keep sticking to my trading rules, whether I win or lose. Don't focus too much on results, but instead on the process.
Trust the process.
Fairly slow week. Opened a few more positions, and started testing one last strategy.
Opened #
Rolled CSCO option out; tried "adding to winners" a different way by opening extra SPY credit spread.
- MSFT
- SPY (x2)
- SBUX
- V
- CSCO (option roll)
| Ticker | Action | Type | Date | Expiry | Sell Strike | Buy Strike | Premium | Qty | Fee | Net |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MSFT | open | BPS | 2023-09-11 | 2023-12-15 | 295 | 285 | 1.15 | 1 | 1.41 | 113.59 |
| SPY | open | BPS | 2023-09-12 | 2023-09-22 | 436 | 426 | 0.68 | 1 | 2.84 | 65.16 |
| SBUX | open | BPS | 2023-09-12 | 2023-11-17 | 90 | 85 | 0.9 | 2 | 2.81 | 177.19 |
| V | open | BPS | 2023-09-12 | 2023-12-15 | 225 | 215 | 1.03 | 1 | 1.4 | 101.6 |
| CSCO | close | Short Put | 2023-09-13 | 2023-09-15 | 0 | 57 | -0.64 | 1 | 0.7 | -64.7 |
| CSCO | open | Short Put | 2023-09-13 | 2023-09-29 | 57 | 0 | 0.9 | 1 | 0.7 | 89.3 |
| SPY | open | BPS | 2023-09-14 | 2023-09-25 | 439 | 430 | 0.67 | 1 | 2.1 | 64.9 |
Closed / Expired: #
A few more profitable closed positions this week:
| Ticker | Action | Type | Date | Expiry | Sell Strike | Buy Strike | Premium | Qty | Fee | Net | Profit/Loss |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MSFT | open | BPS | 2023-07-18 | 2023-10-20 | 300 | 290 | 1.02 | 1 | 1.4 | 100.6 | $58.50 |
| MSFT | close | BPS | 2023-09-14 | 2023-10-20 | 290 | 300 | -0.4 | 1 | 2.1 | -42.1 | |
| MSFT | open | BPS | 2023-08-08 | 2023-09-15 | 285 | 275 | 1.27 | 1 | 1.27 | 125.73 | $64.33 |
| MSFT | close | BPS | 2023-09-11 | 2023-09-15 | 275 | 285 | -0.6 | 1 | 1.4 | -61.4 | |
| SPY | open | BPS | 2023-09-05 | 2023-09-15 | 438 | 427 | 0.54 | 1 | 1.32 | 52.68 | $52.68 |
| SPY | expired | BPS | 2023-09-15 | 2023-09-15 | 427 | 438 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
| MMM | open | BCS | 2023-09-07 | 2023-11-17 | 115 | 120 | 0.75 | 2 | 1.48 | 148.52 | $71.71 |
| MMM | close | BCS | 2023-09-13 | 2023-11-17 | 120 | 115 | -0.37 | 2 | 2.81 | -76.81 |
- Closed Net Profits/Loss: $247.22
Notes and Lessons #
Third winning week in a row. Still in a pretty big hole though.
Stay calm, trust the process.
Adding to winners #
Last week, I added to a winning SPY position by simply increasing my position on an exisiting credit spread that was giong to expire soon. I made a tiny amount extra, but it was also very low risk.
This week, SPY was bullish again, so I opened a completely new credit spread with a different expiry date (but also 10 DTE).
Of course, SPY then dropped significantly on Friday, making me rethink why the hell I did that.
If market continues to be bullish next week, I will make a lot more. But, if not, then I just increased my risk a lot.
So, it seems the method last week is low risk / low return; and this week's method is higher risk / higher return.
Rolling short put #
Rolled my short put on CSCO out a couple weeks. It was going to expire in the money and get assigned, so I rolled it out for a tiny credit ($24).
Should've waited another day or so, and could've got more premium.
Not sure if it's better to roll it out, or let it get assigned then sell calls on it? Something to think about it.
I didn't want to use up my cash this week, so I decided to roll it out.
New strategy (V) #
Adding one last strategy to my repertoire.
Basically, I'm selling far out (90+ DTE) bull put spreads on fundamentally sound companies that I think will go up in long run. This is similar to the MSFT strategy I'm using, except I'm just going to sell once per month instead of every week.
THe first company I'm testing on is Visa (V). Ran some simple backtests on Option Alpha, and it seemed to perform well. Of course, after I opened my position, Visa took a big drop because they announced some "share exchange proposal".
Another company I was trying to do use this strategy on was McDonald's (MCD). Their option volume/interest is surprisingly low, so my orders didn't get filled.
Will continue researching some more companies to experiment with, or double up on Visa.
I'm only picking companies that are out of my budget to buy 100 shares (i.e. Visa is $240/share, so would cost me $24k which is too much for me). Otherwise, it's probably better to sell naked puts on them.