I started the day looking to cover the rest of a 3-day swing trade (short UA) that wasn't looking so great in light of Friday's after-hour shenanigans on the stock. I should have held. Gun shy, I did another small short (WYNN), covering despite my initial strong conviction on the trade. I was left on the sidelines during the selloff, not eager to get buried while shorting into crazy dip-buyers. Up $215 on the day (realized P/L -$75).
+44 net I was thinking I was going to make a lot more than this today, but my positions flat-lined and faded into the close.
Decent day. Bearish on tomorrow far as S&P, but VIX futures are high enough that I saw no reason to add to my hedges there. They're much higher than they should be with VIX at this level, according to my calculations, FWIW. What's supposed to happen is that the front of the VIX curve will go up a lot more than the back, and that will help me out. We'll see if that really does happen. TGT I'm beginning to think is like the canary in the coal mine: people bought it on the bad news even BEFORE the dip. Crazy. Indicative of a super-bullish state of mind.
I struggled with good entries and terrible exits today. I made 2 trades. Despite well calculated entries, especially on IRBT short, I ended up taking piddly profits and not sticking to the exit plan. Once again, back to the drawing board as I try to deal with and overcome these frustrating psychological hurdles. Up $113
+54 net It was a bit of an annoying day with my positions chopping back and forth, but I came out positive, so I'm happy.
Muttah, muttah, muttah.... VIX curve is very steep and got a bit steeper today, and futures remain overvalued by my calculation, for as much as that's worth. I'm getting creamed on that, although I did manage to sell some more in the back months for decent premium while buying back in the front on the relative cheap, so there's that. Should help me in the long run, assuming I'm not dead before I see the benefit. Should say that results are being artificially depressed by some high yielders going ex-dividend that haven't paid yet, which will have the opposite effect once the money comes in. Jan's a big dividend month, probably to avoid EOY tax liability.
+79 net It was looking pretty bad when I started the day with four straight losses. I thought I might have a max loss day about to happen, but I was able to catch a good winner that brought me back positive.