Another hell of a week. Only saw one opportunity on Monday on the Dow, so nabbed a little bit. Continuing from trade #33 That was it. LOL! Was waiting for the CPI print Thursday and was hoping it would be good for longs, as the up-action this week didn't seem it would be sustainable until that came out for bullish confirmation. Well, it didn't, and Bullard and Putin are not helping either. Zzzzz...
Because I don't have an account large enough to be able to trade something like the QQQ and make any decent profit on 1% move, say. The QQQ is at what, 360ish? So it if moves 1% that's a whopping 3.6 per share. So $36,000 required to make 360 bux on the 1% move on 100 shares. I ain't rich. The account I am trading with currently has less than 6 figures. I trade futures only, and have stocks and ETFs in a long-term hold pattern as investments. In order to trade QQQ and SPY? I'd need a lot more.
How about the triple bull and bear ETFs. It's been a while but years ago I was day trading futures and somehow figured that trading etfs like tqqq and sqqq for a short worked out to close to the same dollar amount. How big an account do you need to maintain the positions you have? And if they drop again next week?
Yeah, I asked questions about the leveraged ETFs on ET a few weeks ago and the answers I received led me to believe they would not be good for me. As for the positions I currently have? I estimate I can survive another 15% drop from here before I have to sweat the margin-call deal. I do have an extreme option if it gets to that point, which would be offsetting positions to get the performance bonds down to a minimum, but I think I would get to loggerheads with AMP were that to occur. Not sure yet.
Why not sell covered calls and wheel your futures positions while you wait? You can sell options on micros now.
Because options are beyond me. If you have not noticed, I have zero ability to wrap my brain around options. That's why peeps like Bluewater and destriero are my favorite friends I love to not understand, because they are crazy, as is the field they study. Plus, I do not have the capital to do that. If I had a few hundred grand, I could try that. Alas.
Covered calls are as dumb as it gets. Even I understand it. Say you buy at 4480 and your target is 4580. As soon as you buy a ES micro, you sell a ES call with a strike price of 4580 for 2-4 weeks out. Maybe you'll get 2 points for selling the call. There are two outcomes: 1. Option expires in the money 2. Option expires out of the money In case 1, you have hit your target, your broker sells your micro and you made an extra couple of points on the trade due to the option premium. In case 2, you decide whether you are still aiming for that same target, and sell the strike again. Or you adjust. Or you exit your long trade. It's a way of getting paid while you wait, and limits your upside but people are too obsessed with getting every tick, rather than consistently taking $$$ out of the market, IMO.
I understand. What you're doing here doesn't seem to be trading of futures, though. It seems like you usually buy near a high and simply hold. Often through larger drawdowns and then get out when you're back in the green. That's not what I would consider trading. More like buy and hold. I understand the profit potential is smaller with unleveraged SPY/QQQ, but at least you can hold forever without a margin call as it seems is possible can happen this time... Best of luck regardless.