Side bets on my way to the mountain top

Trading Journals
1

This is going to serve as my trade journal for my current ToS main account. I’m currently balls deep in an outsized position with PARA (600 shares, sub $30 avg cost with some Jan 23 $35c and 50c). I believe in PARA as a major player in the streaming space and plan on holding this for awhile. Outside of that position, I have a few thousand that I throw around trying to learn how to scalp SPY options or entering some of the plays I read about here. For my journey moving forward, I’m going to be focused on the following:

Limiting myself to 1-2 trades per day, with a 5% gain target.
Watching for opportunities to put cash in long positions I believe in (e.g. buying 5 shares of AMZN if it touches $2K before the split)
Playing SPY movements based on the wealth of genius that exists in TF
Reinvesting gains in companies that will be part of the “cyclical economy” such as EV battery reconditioning, heavy metal recycling & drones

I’m also reserving a fair amount of cash to throw at some dividend paying stocks once we get the predicted 5-10% drop from current levels that I believe will be the clearest sign of “bottom” that I can comprehend. Here’s to compounding gains and early retirement.

2

Side bet #1:

Buy 10 SPY 5/25 385p @2.30
Sell 10 SPY 5/25 385p @2.45

Time in trade: 18mins
Gain %: 6.52%

3

Side bet #2

Buy 5 SPY 5/31 410p @.20
Sell 5 SPY 5/31 410p @.25

Time in trade 8mins
Gain %: 25%

4

Side bet #3

SPY 6/1 408p
Buy 10 @.90
Sell 10 @1.21

Time in trade 3mins
Gain: 34%

5

Side bet #4

SPY 6/1 408p
Buy 10 @.55
Sell 10 @.80

Time in trade 8mins
Gain: 45%

6

Long Position updates:

I cut 100 PARA shares yesterday at $34. According to my order history, my most expensive entry into PARA shares was $32.21. Based on first in first out setup with my brokerage, these shares were the ones sold, so I was able to cash out some gains, improve my average price, and free up some capital.

With that increase to capital, I felt comfortable going in on 5 shares of AMZN at 2388.72. Not the entry point I wanted at all, but the fact that AMZN stayed green during today’s chop makes me confident the buy side momentum will continue leading up to the 20:1 split. I have conviction that AMZN will benefit from the psychological impact to share price becoming extremely attractive to retail. I’ll start writing a single CC against these shares to collect some sweet, sweet theta gang premium. If the price drops significantly, I’m prepared to go in on another hundred shares at defined price points.

TLDR:

Sold 100 PARA@$34.00
Time in trade: 6ish months
Gain: 5.5%

Buy 5 AMZN@$2388.72

7

Side bet #5

SPY 6/10 400p
Buy 10 @.50
Sell 8 @2.25

Time in trade: 5hrs,4mins
Gain: 350%

Sell 2 @7.00
Time in trade: 1 day, 4hrs
Gain: 1,400%

Some thoughts as I review this trade:
Should have held more going into Friday. All the data was there to have conviction that anything other than a substantial drop in CPI would lead to sell off. Should have pulled cost basis and left the rest. That being said, I got greedy on Friday and settled for a fill at $7 so I could close the app and enjoy my camping trip, but I held longer than I should have because I was hoping to recoup the “missed gains”.

Long position update: sold 100 AMZN shares at 121.1 because I was confident SPY would shit the bed on Friday. Will renter if AMZN sees sub-100 prices (targeting low 90’s for entry as pre-covid value).

8

Side bet #6

SPY 6/13 372p
Buy 10 @.58
Sell 10 @.80

Time in trade: 31mins
Gain: 37.9%

9

Long Position Update:

I’ve booked some solid gains lately playing the trend on SPY movement. Many thanks to Valhalla for teaching me how to get in and get out with meaningful gains instead of waiting for the lottos to print.

With some of my newfound gains, I plan on increasing my long position in PARA. Today, I scooped an additional 200 shares at 26.05 to bring my total position to 700 shares with cost basis of $28.06. My goal here is to continue building this position to somewhere between 1000-2000 shares. With these shares I will begin creating some option premium income. Despite recent price movement, I believe PARA holds a unique position in the streaming space with its content library and I really like what I’m seeing in terms of new content. Still holding some long dated calls at the $35c &50c levels for Jan 23. If markets remain flat tomorrow I may start to slowly average down on both these positions. If we see drastic movement down on Wed after FOMC, I will most likely go pretty deep on averaging down on the 35c in particular.

Cheers Valhalla

1 Like
10

Side bet #7

MSTR 6/17 150p
Buy 1 @12.00
Sell 1 @14.00

Time in trade: 17mins
Gain: 16.7%

11

Thanks to my SPY puts leading into CPI data, and the addition of some cash capital that I’ve been saving up, I’m above the $25K equity requirement and now carrying a $0 margin balance. I plan to keep it this way. That being said, I continued my SPY scalps today and found solid success (albeit by chance on at least 1 occasion).

SPY 6/17 368p
Buy 5 @ 4.75
Sell 5 @ 5.05

Time in trade: 26mins
Gain: 12.6%

SPY 6/17 366p
Buy 10 @ 3.45
Sell 10 @ 3.60

Time in trade: 1hr, 1min
Gain: 4.3%

SPY 6/17 366c
Buy 10 @ 2.67
Sell 10 @ 2.75

Time in trade: 25mins
Gain: 2.9%

SPY 6/17 365p
Buy 10 @ 3.55
Sell 10 @ 3.80

Time in trade: 15mins
Gain: 7%

SPY 6/17 366p
Buy 10 @ 3.95
Sell 10 @ 4.30

Time in trade: 2mins
Gain: 8.8%

SPY 6/17 366p
Buy 10 @ 3.88
Sell 10 @ 4.00

Time in trade: 10mins
Gain: 3.1%

Total realized gains: $1,100

Thoughts on the day include: I strayed from my rule of only making 1-2 trades per day. Not proud of that but the volatility I was watching looked too tempting not to play. The last trade of the day was absolutely retarded and a result of not cancelling an order before walking into a meeting. I got soooooo lucky that it didn’t eat up my gains for the day; this won’t be forgotten moving forward.

My long PARA position is absolutely butt-fucking me right now and I’ve decided to wait a bit longer before averaging down. The market capitulation discussion this afternoon led me to zoom out on the chart for PARA and realize there is a very likely additional 50-60% of downside left before the market deems PARA fairly priced. I’ve adjusted buy targets to sub $20 until I believe the overall market has hit bottom.

12

Two word for today: over-confident & overtraded (I know, technically that’s three words, butt fuck it). Just gonna post a screen shot of my SPY trades today cause I don’t have the mental energy to write it all up. TLDR is: I’ve been finding some success, was successful this morning, was distracted and revenge trading this afternoon, I lost money. Live and learn.

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