My Options Trading Unlocked – Newsletter 16 Sep 23

Newsletter – My Options Trading Unlocked : Insights for Tomorrow’s Profits

16 Sep 2023

Trading is a numbers game… ! Do you genuinely know your trading numbers?

Read on, maybe I can help you better track your portfolio numbers ! Look for ➡️ ➡️ ➡️

My goal is to share my journey and help you make a profit from options trading. I also write about my thoughts related to options trading and finance in general. And everything I think you may be useful to share about the stock market for the week ahead as an option trader. Every week I report about the status of my portfolio.

This week I will get my newsletter out on Friday evening. Reason : I will be out and away from trading to celebrate my wife’s anniversary ! Having my priorities straight 🙂

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1. Overall Market Overview

When I prepare for trading or following the market and my positions, I focus on two aspects : the general trend of the market with the indexes, mainly the SPX and the volatility of the stocks with the VIX. The reason why is clear in my mind : the general trend of the market and stock volatility are essential for options traders because they directly impact options pricing, influence trading strategies, and offer opportunities for risk management and profit generation in the dynamic world of options trading.

And then again, I don’t want to over-analyse too: so SPX trend and VIX levels are not far away.

SPX Chart – SPX 4450 $

After a nice move up this week, SPX gave all back on an ugly Friday close.

Market outlook for next week : Nobody knows anything so I am not trading direction. So let’s hoover a bit around this spot.

VIX Chart – VIX USD 14.00

I was actually hoping to get a rising VIX slowly back up to around 20. Higher VIX means higher options prices and gives us option sellers the possibility to have a bigger return. But it is clear that it wasn’t going to happen again this week. Maybe next week??

2. TOCF Portfolio Weekly Recap & Trading Plan

a. My actions last week (11 Sep – 15 Sep 23):

The market has been good for me all week, except today, on Friday, with $AMD dropping almost 5%.

I will continue playing the AMD wheel strategy that I have started. My cost basis is now $101.91

Here is the Options Wheel Strategy Dashboard for my AMD Wheel at 15/9/23 :

Furthermore, I must admit I have a rather hard time to find really good new trades with descent IVR and avoiding earnings lately. I daily scan the stock lists for good IVR. It is quite difficult at the moment.

Closing Positions :

• 11 Sep 23 : Closed 110 Covered Call $AMD for a 13 day 233% return :
  • BTC 1 CC for $0,35 resulting in a net P/L of $126,00 with a ROC of 8,4% and an Ann ROC 233%
  • I am still long 100 shares, with cost basis at $104,04. I will sell a new CC to continue lowering cost basis.

Opening & Adjusting Positions :

• Opening AMD – 11 Sep 23
  • Opening a new position in $AMD: STO 1 Covered call 110, ExpDate 29/09/23, BP $1700, IVR 10, SpyB_Delta -14,63 with PoP 75% for a net credit of $1,94
  • New CC on my 100 shares of AMD lowering the cost basis
• Opening MARA – 11 Sep 23
  • Opening a new position in $MARA: STO 1 Naked Short Put 9, ExpDate 20/10/23, BP $567, IVR 5,6, SpyB_Delta 2,95 with PoP 70% for a net credit of $0,70
  • Trying to profit of the move down of today.
• Opening ORCL – 12 Sep 23
  • Post earnings trade, trying to take profit of elevated IV:
  • Opening a new position in $ORCL: STO 1 Short Strangle 100P/120C, ExpDate 17/11/23, BP $1300, IVR 33, SpyB_Delta 0,62 with PoP 69% for a net credit of $2,95
  • Adding $5.3 theta to portfolio.
• Adjusting AAPL – 13 Sep 23
  • Rolling my $AAPL Short Strangle 170P/195C position:
  • Rolled the untested side 195C down to 185C for a $1.01 credit, total credit received now $4.21
• Adjusting AAPL – 14 Sep 23
  • Rolling my $AAPL Short Strangle 155P/190C position: Rolled up 155 P to 170 P for $2.15 credit.
  • Keeping trade a bit longer although at 50% Max Profit, aiming to profit of a move up of $AAPL.
  • I now have total credit received $4.55. for the 170P/190C strangle with Exp 20 Oct.
• Opening UNG – 15 Sep 23
  • Opening a new position in $UNH:
  • STO 1 Iron Condor 450/460 510/520, ExpDate 20/10/23, BP $677, IVR 22, SpyB_Delta -2,32 with PoP 60% for a net credit of $3,24
  • Adding a nice $5.8 daily theta
• Opening SMCI – 15 Sep 23
  • Opening a new position in $SMCI:
  • STO 1 Iron Condor 210/220 310/320, ExpDate 20/10/23, BP $702, IVR 24,5, SpyB_Delta 1,26 with PoP 66% for a net credit of $2,95
  • Adding another nice $5.7 daily theta
• Adjusting AMD – 15 Sep 23
  • Rolling my $AMD Covered call 110 position:
  • Rolled call down to 106C for $0.90 credit, total credit received now for CC strike $106 is $2.84

b. Results week (11 Sep – 15 Sep 23) & currently open positions:

Here is an overview for all accounts of the results of last week:

With just 2 weeks in September, I have already reached my $800 goal this month. This week I could close one position for $126 profit.

The trading goal for October has already been set and revised to the upside : $1350

Completely in accordance with my strategy. In case you missed it or you hadn’t had the time yet, herer is the link again to “Developing my strategy and profit goals guide”. Any thoughts or comments you may have on this trading strategy document, please don’t hesitate to email me or write them in the comments of the page.

c. My Trading Plan for upcoming week:

At portfolio level :

• The MX account is in euro en the TT accounts in USD. Sum of the values of the 3 accounts = 71,634.00 USD (or 66,928.00 Euro)
• I have been working on reaching a descent theta level, while keeping a descent delta/theta ratio.
• All my delta’s are in range. I have almost a 1:2 ratio with long delta/theta. It is at 0,62 at the moment. I will look to keep this ratio intact, and even improve it by pulling back up my theta via new positions and try to adjust when necessary.

Most of my open positions are still in the red but with my positive portfolio delta, have recovered nicely in most of the positions this week : the unrealised P/L is back down a bit to to $(1226).

At individual stock level :

• I will continue to keep both PYPL, keep selling cc on AMD and LYFT.
• Keep an eye on IWM
• The other positions seem in relatively good shape at the moment.

3. Weekly Watchlist

My special attention remains for the coming week : AAPL, SOFI, AMD, MARA, LYFT, ORCL,UNG, SMCI

4. Other stuff & info

I have had a very busy and productive week:

• I tweeked the Trade Results Page a bit with a historic graph of my trading results of the last 3 years.

• I tweeked the My Approach to a methodic Options Trading Strategy and Profit Goals. I am really hoping to exchange some thoughts with you all on this topic, so leave me your thoughts in the comments of that page!

• And I have added 2 new HOW TO detailed demo videos about this spreadsheet on my Youtube channel, about the “All In Options Trading Journal Spreadsheet” – Available in our TOCF shop for less than the price of one winning option trade (!) and with a 30 day money back guarantee.

• I will pick a date soon to do a Live Q&A session for all the users, with those interested, so if you are let me know in the comments below or shoot me an email, so I can set a date.

➡️ ➡️ ➡️ this newsletter with the message : “Trading is a numbers game… ! Do you genuinely know your trading numbers?”

I know that I do not need to convince you that in the world of options trading, meticulous record-keeping is probably one of the most important and crucial steps for every trader to become a highly profitable.

For those who ARE NOT yet tracking their option trades I have a question : How can you increase your trading profits when you don’t even know what your portfolio delta, strategy distribution, rolling rate, theta ratio, max trade allocation % are … to name a few important parameters of your options positions.
How can you improve your trading strategy based on relevant trading statistics, parameter goals and profit targets?

🛎 I have developed my own dedicated spreadsheet for my own daily options trading journal, and I am sharing it with all who is looking for a journal worldwide. Especially this weekend I will keep a 20% off for the FIRST 25 of my newsletter readers with the discount code : WEEKEND16SEP in my webshop : https://www.tradingoptionscashflow.com/product/all-in-trading-options-journal-spreadsheet/ – available FOR LESS than the price of one winning option trade (!) 💰

Remember, this is more than just a fancy tool or spreadsheet. Knowing your numbers can save your options trading career. It sure helps me.

Whenever you’re ready, here are 3 ways I can help you to improve your option trading:

1. For the option traders still looking for a Trading Options Spreadsheet to track their results and improve their trading, check out the EASY “All In Trading Options Journal Spreadsheet”: the ONLY option trading journal designed to focus on parameter-based options trading and account management, as probabilistic-minded options traders like me like it. Checkout this article about the spreasdsheet, the multiple tutorials about the spreadsheet on my Youtube or read about the spreadsheet directly available in our webshop

2. If you are not a Free member of our discord yet : In our discord channels, we team-up with other like-minded option traders, with the aim to support each other and share valuable insights and ideas. I provide live comments, trade alerts, educational info and tools via our discord room. Join anytime ! here: http://discord.gg/cGW6xH4RNT
3. In case you haven’t found me on social media: I suggest to follow me on X @L2TradeOptions and on Youtube @TradingOptionsCashflow to pick up my latest content.

I hope that providing some insights in my trading and my thoughts, will trigger some thoughts and maybe ideas that will help you with your trading and helps to become an even more profitable options trader. Don’t hesitate to contact me to talk options.

Thanks for reading the TOCF Newsletter, a great weekend and happy trading!

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Let’s generate cash flow together !

P&K