A win is a win is a win! :P I'm happy I got out today with a small win.. at least it covers my fees, so I call it a step in the right direction.
Let's start by showing the final glorious result..
the p/l is kinda covered by the watermark, but it says '10.00'
My fees per contract are $4-5 dollars, so it's a win! I was up at $20 open p/l at one point, but u can't predict exactly where it will get to, nor should u cheat yourself out of profit by always closing when u see some small gains.
I had a feeling it was gonna be a slow day when I looked at marketwatch..
It looked about flat.. direction would have to be decided by looking at the charts only.
Here on the hourly, we see that the market has been very bearish and chances are it would keep heading DOWN.
The 15-minute chart also showed bear, although I wouldn't call it a very big bear..
Still, all 3 charts I look at were in agreement.. all bear.. time to trade DOWN. I sold a ccs. (call credit spread)
I always open my orders on the option chain. One thing I learned the hard way, by selling THE WRONG day option, is to always double check u are trading the correct DTE (days to expiration).. for me that is '0'.
Another thing I did to try and get a bit more action on this slow day, was to increase my wingsize.. that is, I had 10 points between my strike prices, not 5 which is the default size. I like to think this is like adjusting the size of the kite u are flying, or the size of the sails on your boat. The fluctuations in market price are the wind, so the bigger your sail, the more it moves. Had I gone just 5 wide, I would probably have won just $5, instead of $10.
*In this last snap I took after my trade ended, had I given it another 30 minutes, I could've won maybe $20 or so more. But at the time I prefer to exit (after 1 hour) price was rising and p/l was going a little up and down.. negative, then positive. I didn't want to risk my winner turning into a loser. I for sure also want to get out of the market BEFORE power hour. (the last trading hour of the day.. when lots of traders are closing positions and the market can get WiLD)