JP: "Ongoing increases will be necessary...". This might put a pin in whether or not there's only one more 25 bps hike remaining.
Well that was a swingy day. +$15k at one point, -$15k an hour later. End the day slightly in the red. ES moving +15 points after-hours with Meta's earnings release--wow, big move up for Meta. Winners: GC and the yield curve Losers: ES/SPX At the lows of the day, I actually had orders to close my calendars but just didn't get filled. In hindsight, I should have chased the order down. 100% out of the ES short puts but remain long 4 contracts. I have a straggler long put that somehow got in there! At first, the yield curve flattened but the spread pretty much ended the day even. Overall yields went down, so my 3:1 ratio worked. Now the question is, how will the rest of the week play out?
Did you bail on your GC long & Calls close to the top or thereabouts? Made a daily reversal bar today, which I'm sure you of course noticed.
I sure did. I closed all my GC positions overnight. (Pat on the back) Unfortunately, I can’t say the same for my short ES. I just added and added. It was ugly. I’m away from my computer so will make a combined update post for today and tomorrow. I gave up a good chunk of January’s gains today. I kept my short ES until I finally bailed at 4205–nailed it! I actually went long at one point. If you look closely at the 2-min chart, you can see a picture of me in the doji.
It's been an eventful past few days. It's been awfully busy on the personal front but I feel that being away from the screen and not constantly looking at the market is better for my well-being. I was glued to my phone on Friday. I was shorter than I should have been and was pissed that the strong NFP didn't tank the SPX like it did to gold and treasuries. I couldn't believe SPX was up for the day at one point, but was bailed by the late day drop. I'm marginally short ES/SPX with short ES vol slightly offset by long SPX vol. I closed the SPX put diagonal today @$44.00 for a nice profit ($38.40 entry). I'm still long a 4000 put calendar. I had an initial short leg expire worthless last Friday and I sold a February 17 leg yesterday to re-initiate a calendar. I've re-entered GC and am straight up long with no option coverage. Yield curve has really kicked my ass the past few days. The front-end of the curve has shot up like a rocket and I'd like it to come back down to reality. My current positions will allow me to do 'other stuff' which I need to do (in more ways than one!). Currently +$50k YTD. The end of last week was ugly and I feel fortunate that I'm still up what I am up YTD.
Definitely could have been a much worse day. Rolled up some ES puts but more importantly, I unloaded the SPX 4000 put calendar (ES = 4115; VIX = 19.64). I bought a 4100 put calendar an hour later (ES = 4155; VIX = 18.75). I was actually long ES/SPX @ES = 4100 but quickly lost those deltas 30 handles higher. ZT continues to kill me despite the initial move up at the start of JP's interview. It decoupled from equities the rest of the day. Quite a bit of trades for having to do other stuff today!
I closed my put calendar yesterday for a tidy profit, so my only ES/SPX position is short ES and short puts. I got long at 4120 and am still long at the close. I legged into a short-term (February) NQ strangle at the close. Despite the negative P/L in GC, I thought I traded it well. I identified some long scalping opportunities that made/saved some money. The first scalp went well, while the second scalp was a small winner. Still (stubbornly) holding on to my ZT/ZN position. AFRM was a small earnings trade that I closed first thing in the morning.
Decent day in ES and NQ. Scalped around some NQ positions (strangle and futures). Cleaned up my positions a bit. Closed GC (scalped a couple times overnight) and the NFLX diagonal. Bond position is straight long now--both the 2s and the 10s. Of course the yield curve continues to go up and steepened (to add insult to injury). It looks like I want a light CPI next week! $44k YTD