Trade Log 9/29

Aloha Traders-

I hope every one had a great weekend, coming back to the market rested and relaxed. It will be a big week, for obvious reasons, but these are dangerous times for taking bad trades, being undisciplined, and not objectively executing your strategy. Feel free to email me with any questions about your trades, setups, or anything else as we move forward into this mess. The 'bailout', which is in no way, form, or fashion enough to cause a lasting turn-around, or perhaps even to stop the bleeding, will most likely pass at some point this week and from that point we can begin to evaluate risk, prices, and volume. It really is too bad that things have come to this, and not to sound ultra-bearish, but this deal could easily push the U.S. government into further financial issues in the not too distant future. A rally through 2009 and a major crash in 2010 would not surprise at all if you end seeing a spike in commodities as many are predicting in relation to the path the government has chosen. On the trading side of things, technical analysis has been, along with all other forms of analysis lately, rendered useless in this environment. That is okay. This is why I use support and resistance inflection as my main form of trade entry/exit signaling. This strategy filters out the 'noise' in regular markets, but as well all the EXTRA 'noise' in markets such as this. Support and resistance truly represent the combination of price, volume, and emotion, which can give a properly objective trader the opportunity to enter and exit trades with a high probability of success or very acceptable risk/reward. Here is today's trade log. I exited two trades today, and completed one day-trade. I closed an option spread trade that I put on in the hopes that we would have a big move, one way or another (delta leveraged to the downside on my trade), and not only did we get one, but the delta directional leverage I was looking for showed up as well. Easy does it, chug along, day by day. Every little bit adds up. Trading in the morning should give clearer and cleaner entries, try to stay away from the middle to the end of the session, although close to the end may opportunities takes place as well. Happy Trading!

Here are 9/29's trades ( the first trade was opened at the close on Friday 9/26, and exited 9/29)

Buy 3 NDX Oct 1400 Puts Executed @ $4.60
Sell 3 NDX Oct 1400 Puts Executed @ $6.30

Buy 3 NDX Oct 1925 Calls Executed @ $2.00
Sell 3 NDX Oct 1925 Calls Executed @ $1. 00

(this was a strategic spread based upon anticipation of a large move for Monday, I didn't realize HOW LARGE it would be! I definitely missed much more than I made on this one. PATIENCE)

Buy 10 NDX Oct 1375 Puts Executed @ $8.70
Sell 10 NDX Oct 1375 Puts Executed @ $9 .00
(this trade developed fairly quickly, so I cut down my profit target, only looking for a very small move. This can sometimes be a great way to make consistent profits in a volatile market, as long as your patience is SUPREME and your entries/exits are smooth. Much easier said than done, but you will know right away if you are on the correct side of the trade.) All in all a profitable day, but frustrating at times. Can't complain though, it was a very tough day for most people out there.