Weekend Portfolio Analysis (April 26, 2014)

SPX went from 1865.79 to 1863.40 this week for a small 0.13% loss and my trading activity was limited to a new Iron Condor entered yesterday using SPX 1710/1715/1965/1970 with June options which I entered yesterday.

S&P500 is now up 1% for the year. The Dow Jones is down 1% and the Russell 2000 is down by 3.5%. Who would have guessed that when all pundits were forecasting a strong year after a +30%  2013. Well, not so far. We're almost 1 full third into the year, and the markets are pretty much flat to slightly down.

June 2014 SPX Iron Condor

I opened an SPX Iron Condor yesterday using June 2014 options:

June Iron Condor $SPX 1710/1715/1965/1970 0.80 credit.
— The Lazy Trader (@lazytrading) April 25, 2014

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Weekend Portfolio Analysis (2014-04-18)

We reached a short term oversold extreme last week that was ideal for selling out of the money Puts. Even if you were wrong with your timing, you still had the chance to place your strike prices far out of the money due to the high implied volatility of the options. Those who entered Credit Put spread positions in the major indices saw the reward this week as the market rebounded with decent strength. SPX went from 1818.18 to 1864.85, for a 2.57% gain in just 4 days. And for me it was a pretty quiet week where I did nothing.

Weekend Portfolio Analysis (April 12, 2014)

SPX from 1863.92 to 1815.69 for a 2.59% loss this week. That's a more serious number. SPX is now down -1.6% for the year, Dow Jones is down -3.2% for the year and Russell -4.6%.

This was a tough week for me, where I adjusted my RUT 1080/1090 Credit Put spread down to 1055/1060 guaranteeing a negative result for April and I also entered a brand new position: a June RUT 920/930 Credit Put Spread. 

June 2014, RUT Credit Put Spread

Stimulated by the blood bath in RUT the last 9 days, I opened the first June position of the year. Normally I don't go that far in time (69 days to exp.) But in this case I didn't want to miss what seems to be a good opportunity and because I already have a May 1000/1010 RUT Credit Put spread, I wanted to diversify the exposure using a different month.

Here goes the trade:

April RUT Iron Condor - Second adjustment

It really really sucks to have both sides of an Iron Condor threatened in the same expiration cycle. And that's exactly what happened to me with the April RUT 1020/1030/1245/1255 Iron Condor. I opened that trade back in February 24. RUT closed at 1174 that day. By March 5 RUT had rallied up to a high of 1212 and looked unstoppable. Still not close to my 1245 short Call, but because there was so much time to expiration, the 1245 short Call was showing a 30% probability of being in the money (roughly 30 deltas) and I adjusted the whole position further up to 1080/1090/1280/1290. What really sucks is that I adjusted right at the top,....RUT started to definitely go south after my adjustment. If only I had a CNBC Guru's crystal ball, I wouldn't have rolled.

Weekend Portfolio Analysis (April 5, 2014)

It is that time of the month again where things at the office get pretty crazy and I don't even have time to scratch my balls. Oh well,....life.

Mmmm....looks like it was a pretty fun Friday in the American markets. Solid bear candle closing near the low of the day, and specially RUT getting killed. But let me tell you something. Despite all the bearishness seen on Friday, it was still a positive week! SPX went from 1859.16 to 1865.09 for a 0.3% gain.