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Posted by Martin November 19, 2023

September – October 2023 SPX put credit spreads trading review

I was busy with many things last two months to report our SPX trading and today I am going to report both months I missed – our SPX trading in September and October 2023. Many things happened during these two months. I switched trading strategy once again as the previous ones didn’t work well to Continue reading →

Posted by Martin November 17, 2023

Indexes flat after a strong rally helped our trades

After the October CPI report, the markets saw a strong rally, which helped our struggling puts but hurt our calls. We opened a few Iron Condors a few weeks ago, and when the market rallied, we rolled those calls into puts. But soon after we did that, the markets sold off again, and the puts Continue reading →

Posted by Martin November 13, 2023

Options Portfolio Management

When buying stocks in a cash account, you can go all in and be fully invested. But when you are buying stocks on margin and, on top of that, trading unsecured options, proper options portfolio management is a must. I learned my lesson the hard way when, during the raging bull market, I invested everything Continue reading →

Posted by Martin November 12, 2023

Apply force on the market and it will distort

When you try to force on the market any agenda you may have, the market will react. And usually not the way you want. We have seen this in 2020 when politicians decided to shut the markets and the entire economies down. They distorted not only the markets but the entire economies. People get this Continue reading →

Posted by Martin November 07, 2023

Expanding the Crumbs strategy to regular stocks

Two months ago I started trading the Crumbs strategy against SPX spreads. The strategy is to move short strikes so low that the trade will be very safe and a likelihood of getting busted is lowered to a very minimum. This type of trading has 97% to 98% probability of profit. Only a black swan Continue reading →

Posted by Martin November 05, 2023

Is the market rally sustainable?

Last week we experienced an incredible market rally. The S&P 500 rallied from a several weeks long bearish craziness to a bullish madness by 5.86%. What is crazier is that this, almost, 6% rally took just 5 days to happen. On average, this rally consisted of a 1% a day move. And now, the question Continue reading →

Posted by Martin November 02, 2023

Technical view: 3M Company (MMM)

  MMM is in stage #4 but attempting to create a new base (forming to stage #1). Lately the stock went from an all-time high of $250 a share to last week’s close at $87.52 a share (over 65% decline since 2017). I bought this stock for $202 a share when it first dipped thinking Continue reading →

Posted by Martin October 26, 2023

Correction

The market lost 9.94% since the end of July this year. It was a brutal decline. Selling had only a few bounces but new sellers came in and pushed the markets lower pushing it into a correction territory. It is perfectly normal and to be expected correction. Too soon after a recovery from the not Continue reading →

Posted by Martin October 22, 2023

Market action and economic data not aligned.

The market was declining last week but none of the selling was aligned with economic data. Economy is clearly strong. Labor market is strong. And the consumer’s sentiment is improving. Unfortunately, in today’s market, this is negative. Good news is bad news. Investors simply ignore that the inflation as transitory after all and it will Continue reading →

Posted by Martin October 19, 2023

Rate hikes yes, rate hikes no, stocks up, stocks down… circus continues.

Powel is speaking and as he does, he provides “hints to the FED’s rate hikes pause” then says the economy is still too strong and so he may raise the rates up and seesaw continues. And the stock market is on the FED’s swing.     As long as the market stays flat overall (we Continue reading →