Hey Guys,
Yesterday I talked about how the S&P 500 was down 40 points to start the morning. Well that turned into a 108-point drop by the end of the day. And now this morning, it's rebounding and is back up 40 points from yesterday's close. The market is clearly experiencing some volatility.
I closed both my stock and option positions on ABT. The interesting and weird thing is that they both had completely different outcomes. My option position ended up with a loss, while my stock position ended up with an oversized gain.
The reason is that ABT gapped up really nicely overnight. I closed the option position yesterday before the end of the trading session, as per my trading rules, and it resulted in a loss. But my stock position was still open, and it enjoyed the ride on the gap up that flew past the profit target and earned it an oversized profit.
It's nice that at least one of my positions was able to benefit. There is a temptation to feel bummed about the option position missing out on the gap up, but 1) there is no way I could have predicted that would have happened, and 2) this sort of thing happens all the time, in both directions, and it's just not worth my emotional energy to get worked up about it each time. So I just go with the flow and stick to the plan.
I ended up with a profitable week in both accounts, despite the market itself being down 1.3% over the last week. My options account went up 2.6% and my stocks account went up 1.4%.
There were no new trades today. I have buy limit orders in for the tickers at the top of the watch list for both stocks and options.
If you have any questions or feedback, I'd love to hear from you.