HankPym's Trading Journal

[HankPym]

Not the kind of day I was hoping for, but it’s nice to get my feet wet again.

I watched and waited this morning, but not long enough. I saw a support and hold, but it was just consolidating on it’s way down. I think the first important lesson for me today was to wait until I’m sure about the plan for the day. I didn’t wait for confirmation, and then once I started playing, I stopped looking at the overall setup and just started focusing in on what I was already doing. Big mistake! With what Conq was saying about research, I definitely didn’t do enough for today, and it showed in my trading. I need to get back to having contingencies upon contingencies about what the days action might mean and how it will translate going forward. That was probably the unsung hero during my best days of trading.

Secondly, I am not going to be able to be one of you patient people. I know me by now. I play scalping momentum and am constantly setting up the play for the next big candle and that’s it. I use overall daily setups with those supports and resistances to help predict which direction that candle will go and when, but I only really care about the jump/drop. If I end up holding through those candles for bigger plays like I tried to do today, I am reading the charts wrong for that kind of play, and had quite a few wins that became losses today because of that. Gonna have to go back to (the more stressful) constant averaging I was doing before. Maybe I’ll try to incorporate some restraint into my initial entries, which should cut down on the total volume of trades. I’ll have to play with this more.

Lastly, I missed you guys and the group think we have. It’s really impressive to see the fantastic minds we have all working together to try and figure this market out. I’m looking forward to hopefully being able to contribute in a positive way again.

Ended today about 2% down. Got an evening of reflection and research to do.

[HankPym]

Lots of life stuff got in the way of me actively trading when I got back from vacation… until today. Was actually alright with the extra reprieve, as this last week I got to watch the markets do their thing from a better vantage, and I think it helped me formulate my plans better going into this week.

I don’t see the doom and gloom anymore. I feel that markets have turned a corner and are going to be licking their wounds for a good while, especially with interest rates pushing on them while inflation is still nagging, but I think everyone did a decent enough job of getting out in front of the problems that we should have that soft landing people hoped for. There will be bad earnings, and sour sentiment for a while, so I’m not expecting a rocket back up. But higher lows and higher highs on the way back up.

How does that translate for me on day trading? I’ll be looking for range days a lot. Occasional bigger days like today when major news hits or larger resistances/supports fail, but mostly will be looking to buy the dips in either direction.

Today, I thought we’d found one such dip at that 402 marker, but was mistaken. I wasn’t super convicted, and was definitely still feeling rusty, so I went SPY instead of SPX and didn’t play fds until later in the day, when I saw things better.

I will try to keep calling out important inflections I see, but try to steer clear of posting all my little averages because it’s too much. That said, if you’re going to do what I’m doing, you HAVE to average a lot! I got my bad calls to be almost green early in the day mostly from averaging out on the green candles, and then going back in on better strikes at lower averages when the opportunity presented itself. I had one bad loss that I was stopped out of, but more than made up for it on the smaller wins. Then, later in the day, I had a few big wins which really put me over the top for the day.

At this point, I’m just going to say that my days are either green or red, as I don’t want to focus on the money. It’s about finding a method of trading that is consistently successful. It’ll never always be, but hopefully more often than not.

Today was quite green. Hoping you all were able to work out some gains as well. Looking forward to more of those the rest of the week (when I can get away from all of the other stuff going on…).

[HankPym]

Wasn’t able to trade early and I’ve gotta get back to my other work, so very short trading day for me. Finished trading after FOMC drop lost steam, but made only green today.

Confirming what I said yesterday, it appears that markets have priced all of the bad news of the last year in and we’re just bouncing within channels while it waits for something bigger/new to happen. That’s fine by me, as it makes for easy day trade scalping. If I were swing trading, I’d probably just buy near the lows of down days and sell near the highs of green days and make out like a bandit while I let the macro environment settle into whatever it’s going to settle into. But that’s for my retirement accounts . Here, I’m just wanting to keep my finger on the trigger and continue making green scalps.

Regarding a discord conversation about specific expiries, I am only sharing my thoughts with regards to what I’ve seen work for me. Not everyone has the risk tolerance I do, nor should they. But the key point of matching your positions expiration with your conviction on timing for a move holds true. If you are expecting a move in a month, then have the expiration as close to that as your tolerance allows. Don’t buy 2yr out options unless you just are gambling, because that’s what it’ll end up being anyway.

I am hoping that we can come to understand the mechanisms that are driving the market at any given time better. I feel like we’ve started to get there, but it still feels like we could do more. I’ll keep doing my homework in the evenings and hopefully can contribute to the conversation.

Even on a super short trade day, because of FOMC minutes, I ended up greener than most of my normal days. Looking forward to more good things for all of us as we continue to grow as a community and keep chiseling away at our flaws, both individually and collectively.

[HankPym]

Welp, Valhalla always early, right?

I was apparently correct in my read of what would happen today (range day), just not the levels it would go to, and therefore my timing was about an hour off. Everyone else was correct to sit on their hands and post non-market related stuff on tf, because it was time to wait. I misread it, felt like everyone was ignoring opportunity, and took a big hit because of it, despite my averaging out and back in. If I’d waited 45mins to an hour later, I’d have been in the kind of position that I couldn’t have screwed up even if I tried. Lesson learned.

Too much work to really try and recover after that, so I didn’t trade anymore and just took the red day today. I’ll hopefully be more appropriately patient tomorrow and make today a less painful teaching moment. Good luck for the rest of the days trading!

[HankPym]

Haven’t posted on my journal in a hot minute, and probably need to get back to doing it regularly, even if I’m not trading much and don’t have much to say.

Today was interesting for a number of reasons. Made some great gains playing off the early flux with Powell’s speech and then got incredibly busy so I avoided trading for a while and just watched. JPow said basically what he’s been saying regularly for a while now, and the market went super bearish on it. As I had mentioned in tf, I can’t help but feel we’re very near the bottom of this round. The bearish talk from our group needs to be at least tempered by regularly checking on WHY we’re being bearish. Yes, 50bps is bearish, but is it bearish enough to send the markets into a downward spiral when it’s almost completely priced in now? Nah. And we need to be ready for the bottom to hit soon (if not already) so we’re not caught throwing out those 360p like they are cookies and then getting caught with our hands in the same cookie jar.

I will add that the one thing that has me hesitant about thinking we’ve bottomed is the bond rates. Other than Kevin (sorry if someone else has been vocal and I missed ya), I’m not seeing a lot of attention given to them, and they really should be factored in. If short term bond rates continue to rise, that puts a helluva lot of downward pressure on the market (pulling more and more money out of equities) and can’t just be forgotten. If rates stabilize or lower, then it becomes a nonfactor again, but while they are climbing, we need to pay attention.

As far as my trading goes, I’ve been limited in my time to trade of late, and it’s actually been good for me. I’ve stayed on top of the markets but haven’t had to tread water myself, which has let me see clearer entries and exits. I’m not making as much as I was when it was frenetic in December and early January, but it’s not so much less that I’d have a problem if this was all I was doing, and it’s incredibly relaxing. If I didn’t have all of my other business stuff, I’d feel like I was still on vacation! I am hopeful I can keep doing it this way for a while and hopefully it translates to better callouts and signal reading.

[HankPym]

Alright, lemme see if I can collect my thoughts on today, as it was all over the place…

Early morning, played calls for some great gains on lots of pops off support tests. Taking profit regularly, I made out well and eventually was stopped out of the remainder of my position. Grabbed some puts after being stopped out on calls, and rode them down. Went to lunch (put in a trailing stop that never actually popped til 395…yay me) and SPY eventually settled all the way down on the historical support of 394 (after heading all the way up near 402), and I just had to bite. Grabbed some longer dated calls, as tomorrow is a big day and I didn’t want to get hurt more than I had already profited. Well, it kept dropping below support, so I ended up averaging down as much as I felt comfortable on the potential overnight hold, which I ended up choosing to do as it never really recovered. Down about 10% at close due to it being a month out, which is so much more palatable than if I’d just done a week or two…

We’ll see what tomorrow looks like in the end, I just didn’t want to be on the sidelines for a potential big moving day like tomorrow could be. If the numbers push the fed towards 25bps, I expect a rocketship. If not, it’s likely going to wallow. There isn’t a lot of downside available here, so I’ll mostly be losing to theta if it doesn’t go my way. Either way, I’ll be out tomorrow.

I appreciated most of the discussions we were having today, I just wish people could be less entrenched with their theories being completely tied to their own positions. Positions should always be a result of their theories, not the other way around. If the theory fails, get out of the position (I’ll have to make sure I live by this tomorrow…)! It also seems like the longer out people’s positions are, the more entrenched they become. We really need to work on being more open to being wrong, more willing to adjust our thesis to new information and understanding. Hope everyone takes profit and keeps being able to stay in the game.

[HankPym]

Another great day of trading what was presented. Found myself (again) running alongside @brummel during the morning, and it was nice confirmation on the buys/sells that we were basically mimicking. In the end, made way more than I expected and didn’t feel pressed to trade again once SPY started it’s slow slide for the most of the afternoon.

It was also nice to keep my total trades down again. Still under 40 trades and making great gains in a much shorter period of time. Probably due to better entries and exits, but that’s mostly been better patience. I also have been doing a lot less averaging, and some of the discussion on the floor about averaging being a crutch (my words to summarize what was said) people use to stay in a trade long after they should exit has some merit. Just because I CAN average down, doesn’t mean I should. I think I need to look at this and possibly find a balance that incorporates my thesis for a trade and whether or not averaging fits in or is broken and needs to be thrown out.

Regarding the overall market, I still see this as a short term drop into a recovery. There is no spreading contagion. None of the big banks are overleveraged and these bond rate shenanigans don’t really hurt them in the end. In addition, this fear induced panic puts significant pressure on the fed to back off from the 50bps and stick with 25bps and puts inflation in the backseat while market health takes center stage. I don’t know if that helps or hurts businesses in the short term, but long-term, it definitely should help as it removes some shock from the system.

Anyway, it was a fun week of trading. Hopefully CPI next week clears up some of the cloudiness surrounding our impending direction and we can all make some more money. Have a great weekend!

[HankPym]

Didn’t really get to actively trade today, but I tried my best to stay involved and on top of the action.

The early test of premarket lows were done quickly and from then on, it was a battle between going green and VWAP until the last 5mins of the day. SPY testing 390 and then a lower high when we finally came back (breaking the bullish wedge that had formed) were a good indication we were not going to stay green. It appears that people were much happier to take risk off the table going into CPI. There were tons of opportunities to make good money off supports and resistances, if you took them.

I will keep doing these non-trade days for myself when it’s obvious that I can’t stay on top of my positions. It’s not fair to you guys if I call out an entry and then my stop sells and I’m not around to share that important info.

I want to say that I really love this community, and am a tad protective of all of it and the learning environment that it fosters. I don’t appreciate people that are willing to hurt others in order to make themselves feel or appear better. I’m all for extra chances being given to those that want to actually learn and grow from the community interactions, but not at the expense of others. I appreciate you all

[HankPym]

Today was mostly boomer account time with CPI coming in bullish. Again, too busy to active trade, but got in on the action a little with a week out SPY call that was too early (always ). Averaged down a couple times and then got super busy again and just left it. Ended up in meetings until 10mins from close and saw it was green, so I closed it for a nice (and slightly undeserved) profit. I need to just not play these when I’m this busy or buy shares instead .

Anyway, it was a great day for bulls (and retirement accounts). We still have a lot of data coming out that can still make things tough going forward, but the path does seem to be getting easier with each new data drop.

For those playing from their retirement accounts, I actually sold off a good amount of TSLA/AAPL/MSFT shares at the SPY tap of the 200ma (just above 393) earlier in the day. Felt like we were already stretched and with PPI tomorrow, I wanted to be sitting with a lot more cash ready in case things soured. I’m fine buying back in higher if it shows out well, but the potential opportunity to get more shares was worth it.

I hope people were able to use that drone crash to get in better positions. Sorry I wasn’t around more. Things are moving forward and I’m looking forward to get free more soon. Have a great day all.

[HankPym]

Wife decided we needed a long weekend away at the beach (see most of the week…), so I was gone until today and missed a lot of this last weeks action. Had a fantastic time and from what I can tell, it was probably not a horrible thing I was gone, as the market just doesn’t want to take a strong position going into FOMC. Today seemed more of the same, although MSFT didn’t want to join the party with the rest of the kids. That made for interesting range trade opportunities.

Only really made 3 trades today: Took a MSFT call off it’s support bounce (once confirmed) and sold near the top. About an hour later went with an SPX call and quickly took profit as it immediately ran up. Was again very busy with work and let the rest run on a trailing stop but that didn’t do anything as it quickly knifed, so just lost some extra gains on that but no biggie. Last play was the beginning of ph with another SPX call off bullish chart and had to average down before I got the pop I was looking for. Took good profits from that and set my stop, only for it to get tagged super quick. Wasn’t happy about that, and saw a much better new entry, so I went back in only to get all the way out after the next 4 1min green candles

Today was 3 for 3 (4 for 4 counting the angry reentry), and on minimal risk with a very tight range, so I feel like it was a great day. Played smart and patient and it paid off well. Will continue to look for support setups like these on days like today when it’s overly quiet. There were other opportunities for sure, but I’m happy with the ones I took.

This week should be very interesting. I’m reluctant to be in anything longer than an hour, just because of how much news can/will affect things right now. Will continue to use AAPL/MSFT/VIX/DXY/HYG/NVDA heavily to see what we’re doing going forward, but news trumps all right now, so I’ll step lightly on chart conviction.

Have a great evening and we’ll get after it again tomorrow!

[HankPym]

So we’re at the gates of FOMC and there is a lot of unknowns this go around. The market has been scrambling to price in a 25bps rate increase while keeping a wary eye on the bank situation. That uncertainty brings with it opportunity.

Started the day with a friday SPX call position on a quick confirmation of a daily bottom on SPY and AAPL holding VWAP. Was hopeful that it’d increase in IV as we got closer to the meeting’s finality, but the fact that it was the daily bottom ended up mattering more, and it became profitable fairly quickly, so I took profit within 30mins and then eventually closed the position an hour later very green. This was a very calm, enjoyable ride up, as it never really tested my position value and I had very little to do other than watch the market.

If the first play was my Dr. Jekyll, the second was my Mr. Hyde. I grabbed a bunch of 0dte SPX calls on a backtest of 3978 during the hour before ph. As I noted in tf, that hour seems to be great for some 0dte shenanigans if you pick the correct direction (and if you’re so inclined). I did, and it quickly became very green. I didn’t show my averaging in and averaging out in callouts (I try not to clutter the position callouts with these quick scalps) but it was a great winner several times over before I finally closed the position on seeing AAPL languish for a while.

It looks like I definitely could have held longer for greater gains, but I’m super happy with what I got out of it. I am not very patient in general when it comes to my positions, and I have to play things my way or I’ll screw it up. I hope some of you more patient people are reaping the rewards of holding through.

Overall, a fairly calm range day that I was able to see my picks work according to what I saw. I’ll keep tabs on the IV for tomorrow and see what we end up looking like going into the meeting’s close tomorrow afternoon.

[HankPym]

Well, today was the day. And it definitely didn’t disappoint!

Lot’s of great dd from the group to go through post-play on this, as we tried to work out IV plays leading into JPow’s speech. I was bullish going in, and played some SPX calls early, and then collected IV most of the morning. I rolled to a further position when IV was cracking 100%, and sold about 15mins later (about 45mins before JPow started to speak) for a really big win. I may try the straddle next time, as many saw it working for them well. This felt almost too easy, and should be one of those events that we try to bring new people along with because it’s hard to screw up if you get in at the right time.

Then we got to the speech and the volatility that accompanies it. About 5mins before he started talking, I grabbed a call position and sold on the first candle after he started speaking for really good gains (may be a thing to look for in the future…). I planned to immediately roll them over to a further out position, but it dropped right away, so I waited a hot minute and then got back in at a much better price. Only took about another 5mins or so and I was out with another big winner.

I then made my one bad play on the failed support hold and got stopped out of it pretty quick. But here’s the thing… I was ready for it this time and immediately jumped in puts on the fail and made a chunk (not all) of the losses right back. I’ve tried this a few times and almost every time it’s been a win. If support fails, usually a bigger drop follows. I sold right when it looked like he was done talking. Anyway, glad this one wasn’t all bad and that I can say I’m still learning new tricks.

And likewise, when I sold the put at JPow’s end of talking, I bought into a call position. This was interesting because the increase in SPX was nowhere near the increase in IV after the speech ended, and people realized we were going back up. I made out with huge gains on this quick scalp due to the combined interest + price increases. Very curious if this can be a big play in the future (end of speech move).

Overall, one of my best days ever. Hard to really compare, as we don’t get these events often, but I still feel like I was well prepared for the days action and played things accordingly. I truly hope you all made out well and that we can all discuss what we learned today on tf and these forums so that we can all continue to become better traders.

[HankPym]

Just had some bad news that my godkids mom died suddenly. Gonna be out for a while. Take care of each other please…

[Kevin]

Sorry to hear that Hank. Take care.

[HankPym]

So today was the perfect example of DON’T PLAY IF YOU CAN’T FOCUS, DUMMY!

I’ve been barely able to trade the last few weeks and I could tell, with the Fed stuff today, I had a very itchy trigger finger and was not taking care of my headspace properly. I was constantly pulled away from my desk, and when I was back, I’d take quick snapshots and make determinations based on much less data than I should have. This is completely on me. The data was there, I just didn’t take the time to review everything well enough. Also, there were multiple opportunities to get out of positions green or very lightly red that I didn’t take because I was gone. I definitely shot myself in the foot, but that’s how it goes. I’ll hopefully be more aware of my work requirements now and not trade if I shouldn’t.

I don’t like not trading, but I like losing money even less. Something to work on until I can spend my time more regularly with you guys again.

[HankPym]

I really enjoyed this discussion last night, and mentioned that I wish I’d had more availability to discuss some things that have been on my mind. Since I didn’t get to start that conversation there, I’ll start it here. This may get a little wordy, so hopefully you stick with me and have additional insights to lend.

So, I’m a bull with bearish tendencies. I find the current ranged market situation (ironically, not what today is doing at all) fascinating and have been profiting off it quite a bit since my positions are either extremely short term scalps playing what the day shows, or very long term shares/leaps that have been purchased at the end of days that have moved in the opposite direction the whole day(s) from what I’m purchasing/expecting long term.

What is of most interest to me though, is something I’ve mentioned in passing multiple times over the past few months that seems to still be true, and possibly more obvious now than ever: people WANT TO HOPE. They want to believe that things will get better. Just give them a reason to believe and they will. And when they believe en masse, usually that belief finds enough people that then act on that belief to make it become a reality.

The macro data shows that we “should” be in a bear market heading for deep recession, but we keep finding ways to hang on. The markets keep finding HOPE. This doesn’t necessarily mean we won’t be having an ugly recessionary period coming (data is rarely wrong). But maybe the context and weight of the data isn’t exactly correct, or inclusive. Maybe the value of hope isn’t as quantifiable as debt and inflation numbers. If so, we should be able to account for it more than just a fear/greed scale. And not just account for it, but figure out where the hope is being applied, and find ways to profit on it.

So how do I see hope manifested in the market outside the typical (and short sighted) fear/greed scale? Hyped innovation. It’s great that there is battery tech on the horizon that can reduce our need to use rare earth metals, and the potential to mine asteroids will always be intriguing, and who can forget META trying to force us all into The Matrix or AMC’s popcorn deliveries! But these don’t move the needle because they can’t be hyped by the layman around the watercooler (or discord channel…). Either they aren’t cool enough, aren’t translatable to neanderthal level discussion (or at least shown to a neanderthal with your phone so they can click buttons and see it work ), or are too far away as not to be any more real than science fiction.

What kind of innovation am I talking about then? Currently, AI. Before that it was EV tech changing how we moved around via TSLA. Before that, Bitcoin/Blockchain dominated many recession discussions, Amazon changed the way everyone shopped, and we had the Iphone. You can keep going back to find innovation that changed the overall market narrative from a bearish tone to a bullish one just by being present. Why these? Because they:

1. Were available to a majority of people
2. Were easily hyped
3. Were perceived (at the time) as being able to lift human existence to a better way of being
4. Had the 3 previous criteria met at a time when a large enough group of people were searching for a new hope

Looking at the current hyped hope (AI), I find it incredibly interesting how it’s been around for so very long, but it wasn’t until Microsoft put it in everyone’s hands, in the form of ChatGPT, that it dominated the conversation. EV’s have been around since the 1890s, but didn’t really scratch the itch until Elon started marketing them while fuel prices started rocketing. For an innovation to truly be able to become the hope people need in order to look beyond the pessimistic world around us, it has to be prepackaged and marketable NOW.

Now, markets don’t just move because main street gets excited about something either. But they do move when that excitement becomes infectious. News cycles, streaming channels, and water cooler conversations soon move to board meetings discussing how to incorporate these things into their business model (or how to manage the disruption it might cause).

So how do we, as day traders, capitalize on this? Well, in my trading, I went heavy in MSFT and AI at the beginning of January because I saw this starting to manifest itself. I felt that the paradigm was shifting and people were ready to be hyped up about something. I didn’t really discuss this in depth then because, to be honest, I wasn’t sure if I was right. I wasn’t sure if this hope theory of mine was just the bull in me trying to make it true, and I wasn’t sure if the ChatGPT fervor was going to be the next TSLA or the next META.

I’ve sat on this and discussed it with rl mentors for months who seemed to agree with my thoughts, but I think last night, seeing how most of the conversation seemed to get caught up in the data points showing us that markets “should” be doing the opposite of what they’re doing, I felt like I needed to put this in writing and let us all discuss it. I believe this is correct, but am open to being wrong. I just want to understand these mechanisms in a way that allows me (and all of you) to be able to make more informed trades and capitalize when we see opportunities.

Anyway, feel free to discuss your thoughts on this with me here, in tf, or save it for the next DD night. I just want there to be a discussion.

[HankPym]

Oof, what a loser that @HankPym guy is!

Seriously though, today was probably my worst day of trading results in a long long time (with an asterisk that I’ll explain at the end), so I figured I should make some notes about it and try to see what lessons can be learned.

So, first the primer - I’ve been intentionally not trading SPY/SPX since @Conqueror called us out for overtrading it, and it definitely takes some adjusting back to using the broad market movement as a catalyst/indicator instead of the played ticker. That said, I’ve had almost no bad plays, until today. I’ve given myself time, I’ve been able to use broader sentiment to create narrow trading options that have really paid off well. It’s not as sexy, and definitely not as degenerate (or exciting), but feels so much better and stable. I’m still seeing SPY levels to play intraday, but I’m using them to push through on more focused plays with a higher chance of success. But with the combination of what our fearless leader has been saying, and my own availability to trade being limited at this time, I think figuring this out is incredibly important for me.

This has brought up a new level of problem though: because I’m holding longer and am more relaxed about my position timing, it’s much easier to hold waaaay too long. Today was a bearish day, and the vast majority of my positions are bullish (I have my hedges too of course, just call me the bizarro @TheHouse). It doesn’t make sense to pull the plug on these plays just because of a single red day, and I’ve got plenty of time for the plays to right themselves, but this does expose me to a much higher amount of risk that I’ve been comfortable with for the last 6-7 months. I haven’t been swing trading as much over this time period, and the ones I had been were very tight timewise (earnings play overnight, etc).

So the question seems to be… without overcomplicating my trading methods, how do I lower my risk while allowing for myself to run with 20-30 swings vs a single intraday scalp play? I think the best way to do that is to decrease my position sizes for overnight holds and hedge a bit more on those where I’m exposed across many companies (like the overall AI play, or the bank plays).

I’m going to need to figure out a time of day where I need to start looking to take profits harder and get down to a position size that I’m comfortable carrying days/weeks/months if necessary. Setting up an alarm to trigger, like my others I’ve set in the past, should help me get into the habit. This requires more discipline than my wild west quick trigger trading I’ve grown accustomed and comfortable with, but I’m glad to get a bit uncomfortable as long as I’m learning and growing.

So the asterisk I mentioned at the beginning was regarding the fact that all of the positions I’m down in are calls with significantly far out dates and plenty of time to recapture what was lost today. Even with the NVDA calls meant for an earnings play tomorrow; I had closed my near term stuff early on during the drop and am just holding June or later now.

While on paper today may look pretty bad, it’ll probably end up being fine (possibly by tomorrow). If today was the start of a new trend, then I’m late with this fix and will take the hit, but I won’t get caught that exposed again.

[Navi]

Welcome to the dilemma I’ve been trying to solve for sometime now myself! And burned at the stake for overplaying when it’s really just swing trading

[HankPym]

It’s definitely a different game entirely! We definitely aren’t doing justice to our regular swing traders with how we address these things. What else can we do better to help people become less degen and more responsible with their plays?

I’m not sure the position system works as well for these either; both because the timing of the original plays don’t show up anymore by the time you are averaging in/out or closing the position, and because they are easily forgotten. I really like the new discord threads for managing this stuff, as it keeps things fresh and updated, but there has to be a way of making the callouts be more clearly separated as scalps vs swings, right?

[TheHouse]

How I’ve been thinking about positioning swings is short/long 90+dte, you can then change your net bear or bull exposure with daily, weekly, or monthly rebalancing. I personally have been trying to allow plays to form so rebalancing once a week if needed, but keeping an eye on them daily. If I’m net short and the market is going against me ill almost overtrade the upside move in SPX 0dte scalps (small positions), or look for the winners of the run like our most recent bullish winner PLTR. It doesn’t take a lot of dollars to hedge those longer contracts. My long/short swings are 100% spreads as they are more forgiving to hold during range bound or choppy environments. The goal is to have both your long and short side go in range and create a nice convex positions. I have really like managing my port this way, it has cut down on relying on scalping too much and forces you to look at things from a bit of a longer point of view which I think is healthy. Eventually Id like to have exposure in a few more sectors, but I think we need a leading narrative to confirm what sectors money will flow in and out of. This is absolutely still a work in progress and always will be but I hope the conversation helps.