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Hi guys,
Im quite new in options trading (started in jan), but not new in trading futures (7years as a future spreads trader).
I think that im a good strategist but I am unable to focus for long periods thats why i decided to look for other methods of trading than just trading futures.
My first few months was rather terrible I made traditional rookie mistakes - buy a lot of puts/calls without care of theta, or too much directional position.
Fortunately I understand the options better now, as a way to improve myself i want to start this journal.
Im not starting the month flat, so i will publish my current positions.
My current trading plan assume that bund will go down to ~150 to close the gaps and it will happen rather quickly.
Therefore I sold some puts @155-156 (covered ), also bought some bear put spread for the same reason. Im gonna cover if bund reach 153.
Today I also made some DT which you can see in attachment.
Feel free to ask questions. Thank you for any comments.
Can you help answer these questions from other members on NexusFi?
I made some changes to my position. Altough i know that i could do better. I was expecting that after payroll data bund will touch 150 and fill the gap, instead numbers were worse and it went up.
Before data i closed -146.5 with intention to get better price for 145.5 after data, that didnt happen so now I have extra put, for now im gonna leave it. Also I closed 151/149,5 pair altough it happend with bund @151.10, so also it could be much better. I also closed -156/-157 calls and exchange them for 1 -154.5. Thats greatly reduced my risk to upside, sacrificing just a little theta.
Now I am expecting bund to go up towards 152.
I didnt trade on friday so i didnt post.
Bund opened with larga gap today (152->153,5). Unfortunately I couldnt trade for the first few hours of session.
I have made some diagonal spreads Call Sep154/aug154,5 and Put Sep 152/aug 150. Somehow i like the idea of shorts which expire much faster than longs. Delta is the problem but in such case im gonna move the strike price of shorts.
I got a feeling that bund might want to move towards 155, so i will try to add some calls tommorow, and maybe move a litttle shorts @ 154,5/155/155,5.
Todays trading range -almost 200ticks!
The plan for today was to make my position less sensitive to upside move in bund.
At the beginning I took profit from -P146.5, then I bought C154/-P155 and reduce it price by selling C157.5 (sep) the last one could have been a mistake because there was completly no reversal in upside movement. Then i also closed 2 -C155.5 and at this point my position was almost delta neutral.
At the later part of the session I started picking highs and I have failed consequently.
Definately thats my problem, I have no patience...
Anyway my position is quite balanced from 152-154.
One good thing is that bund closed @153.15, 75 ticks off the highs, yet still above fib level (38ret from 160->148).
Im really not sure what to happen next, so im gonna try to focus on taking small profits, and not to increase my exposure too much.
Another day, another openning with a gap.
Still trading within a wide slightly upside channel. Bulls are in charge but rallies are being sold, so no clear winners.
Best scenario for me is to wait till the test of the lower band of the channel which is now @151.30. That could be an occasion to close some puts.
Today I onlyo exchanged -C156 for a 4 C158/159.5.
Dotted line in risk navigator window is showing profit @expiry of AUG contracts.
Today session was easy. Bund opened with a gap lower and after that was just a slow ride to the bottom.
I closed some short puts to increase my profit potential. I think that test of the lower band (~151.4) might happend tommorow or within few days.
I think that I will have to do something with 154Calls tommorrow, perhaps I should have been today, but my general plan for this month is to trade defensively and see how this will work out.
Great session for bears. I started positioning to the rebound, but to early. Also im going for holiday next week and I will have limited access to computer so I made my position almost delta neutral.
Few days has passed without any trades from my side. Thanks to slightly positive delta i made some profit from 300tick bund move. JUL options are going to expire @24-7 so its just for days left. My portfolio theta is -70 so im losing every day from time decay. Fortunately most of it comes from long options which are already worth 1tick so I choose to didnt care about it much.
Trades from today :
-closed some jul shorts
-OCT 156,5+(0.43) /2*-157,5(0.27) - purpose of it is to have cheap long if market moves down, in other way i will want to buy 158,5 as a protection.
IV comes down a little 6.5 (was 8 week ago) so it doesnt seems to be the best moment to open IC.
We can say - another lazy day. Just few trades, protection @+158.5 for yesterdays shorts @157, and additional -155.5C to compensate delta of sep154C. I dont think that anything big can happen this month, so Ill just wait.
I made traditional rookie mistakes - buy a lot of puts/calls without care of 