Engineering options - Options trading $50K account

[engineeringoptions]

Week 2 Update - $50K Options JourneyAccount: $52,671 (+5.3% total return)
Made some moves this week - closed 5, opened 5.
Big Win: FCX diagonal closed for +$1,080
Big Lesson: Almost blew it by not rolling my short calls early enoughHere's what happened:Had 55 calls expiring Friday. FCX rallied past them. Should have rolled earlier but I waited thinking I'd save $200.
Short dated options have high gamma and theta quickly exploded.
New rule: <7 DTE + near ITM = roll immediately, no exceptions.
Also This Week:
- Exited GME covered strangle (+$219) - IV died
- BAC stopped out (-$440) - weak earnings
- LW stopped out (-$152) - rally killed bearish thesis
- LCID closed (+$204) - time-based exit (less than 45DTE on my long puts)

New Positions:

• HIMS bearish diagonal (only 1:1 ratio due to account size)
• NU, FXI short puts
• JD, USO strangles

Current Portfolio:12 open positions (6 strangles, 3 short puts, 3 diagonals), 47% buying power used
Next Week:Rolling EEM and HIMS short options, re-establishing box spreadsAny questions on the positions or strategies, happy to discuss

 

[engineeringoptions]

Monthly Update – January


Starting balance: $51,405
Ending balance: $53,044
Net P&L: +$1,639
Return: ~+3.2%


Performance by strategy:

• Directional trades: ~+$1,500
• Short puts / semi-directional: positive, in line with expectations
• Strangles: –$1,290 YTD

Strangles underperformed mainly due to poor product selection (commodities: UNG, SLV, USO). I was trying to trade commodities like stocks and their behaviour was very different. Need to re-evaluate there


Current positioning:

• Volatility - mostly IWM and DAL
• Increasing allocation to short puts and directional trades