Hey Guys,
The market is showing a ton of strength. The S&P 500 is now hanging out above the 4,500 mark.
I took on some new positions today. In the main account, I bought stock for GPC and options for GLW. I also bought options for GLW in the options account, and I bought some GLW stock in the double down account.
I had a couple more positions ring up profits today. My SNY and GSK double down stock positions reached their time limits today and profited.
Yesterday I had a mixed bag with my closed options trades, but for the most part took a hit. Those Verizon options took just about a full loss.
I was asked by a number of people whether to cut the cord on the VZ options earlier in the week after it had already gone down substantially. My response was that I always stick to my trading plan. I only get out if either the time limit, profit target, or stop loss has been reached (and my options trades don't have a stop loss).
In the case of Verizon, it ended up creating a bigger loss by holding on to the position all the way until the time limit. But GSK gives an example of the opposite. My GSK options started out the week way down in the dumps, but then ended up making a great comeback that wiped out a lot of the losses. It paid off to hold GSK all the way until the time limit.
Those two trades show that you just never know what's going to happen next with any given position. That's why I like to lean on a backtested approach. It allows me to use a trading strategy with very clear rules, and then I just stick to the rules. It takes all the guesswork out and makes it easier to accept that trade outcomes will vary.
If you have any questions or feedback, I'd love to hear from you.