 What's up navigation traders today is Friday, July 20th. Hope everybody had a great week of trading We had we had a decent number of alerts quite a few more alerts This week than we've had in the in the recent weeks Part of that is due to it was expiration week. We had to make some rolls and But we also had a significant number of closing and opening trades, which is which is good as well anytime we're Closing trades that typically means we're booking winners So let's jump into the alerts for the week starting off with one of those closing trades Which was a straddle in Microsoft a pre earnings long straddle So as you know from our course in anticipation of expansion of implied volatility So we put this on looking for a price move in that expansion At least got the move and booked a booked a quick profit of 20% in just six days And so if we take a look at the chart of Microsoft just to kind of give you an idea of What happened there miss FT oops miss FT? We put that on right here and just got a quick move up boom boom And we're out of that on on this day here And so you know we didn't get much of an expansion implied volatility like we did the next day However, the price move was enough for us to get that 20% profit and be out of the trade Obviously you can see what happened after the fact you get the implied volatility crush after the inert earnings announcement, which was after the market yesterday and Even though it was a big move with that implied volatility crush. It's really tough to make money buying options So we always want to be out of those trades Before the earnings announcement. So good trade there Next trade was a rolling adjusting trade in IWM So we rolled one of our short call verticals from July to August and so let's take a look at IWM Everything is out of July and we are into August and September So we've got two sets of short call verticals that were previously from iron condors Holding on to these extending duration to keep that short Delta in our portfolio You can see prices right here and this is both sets, you know So this is two sets down here We keep them separated by just one strike just for tracking purposes. So we keep them separate However, you can kind of look at this as one trade and we've got price right here We're just looking for some downside to benefit that and we'll continue to keep that on for that short Delta Until we get a significant down move Next trade was Rolling adjusting trade in the Q's so very similar thing just right or just rolling the short call verticals from July to August and We have three sets of short call verticals in QQQ, which again were from previous iron condors Here's one of them Again, same thing price right here. Just looking for some downside to benefit that Another one with three contracts is right here and this one has moved significantly against us So we will we'll be you know, probably rolling this one early to take away some of that negative theta decay That you get when it's when it's that far out of your range You can see in August we've still got 28 days But next week we may even roll that one out to September to just get some positive theta decay working for us on That piece of the trade and then we've got the other one with four contracts right here Which you can see that's still within our range just did that one So just looking for some downside to benefit that Again, just to repeat myself. I know I say this probably every week But the reason we keep this short bias these short directional positions in our portfolio is because the downside Velocity of a move is much greater than an up move And so when we're selling these range bound positions like iron condors strangles butterflies calendars all these different range bound type core positions that we trade You've got to keep short delta in your portfolio to help hedge against that that downside move that can come Very very quickly. And so it's it's done. Well first, you know We've we've got some of these short positions that are that are down But guess what we've been booking winners all over the place Which which makes up for it. So, you know, our P&L continues to grow overall Even though we have some losing positions that are long biased or excuse me short bias But that's the name of the game and that's how you have to play it if you're doing the type of strategies that we teach So hopefully I haven't beaten that dead horse too much even though I mentioned it every week That's right. It's always good to hear things more than once, right? Next trade was an opening trade in Adobe So we did a long call in Adobe part of the reason was because It was a bullish directional trade and we needed to add some some bullishness into our portfolio So we're getting a little bit too short in this case, which I don't do very often But they're liquid enough we use the weekly options with 18 days because we were really looking to be in this trade For only a short period of time So I didn't want to go all the way out to August with with you know, 30 plus days I wanted to keep it more short get pay less for the options and and give us give ourselves a chance to To book a book a quick winner. So what happened in Adobe if we go to the chart we already closed out of this so We got that up move that we're looking for in fact, let me let me just go to the Let me go to the alert because it just happened a couple days later If I can scroll up here and find it It was Right here. Okay, so on so just two days later on the 18th We booked this one booked over booked a profit of over 40% in just two days and And so that's that's where we're at. So that was that was a good quick winner So in on the 16th out on the 18th. So the 16th was right here Moved against us a little bit the next day. Actually, some of our members I heard got in down here, which is awesome And then it ripped higher and we got out on the 18th booked a nice profit of 40% In just those two days. So nice trade there and that wasn't really a that wasn't really a pre earnings That was more to help balance out our portfolio and the fact that implied volatility is so low And earnings are coming in the next month So we expected to potentially get a some help from an increase implied volatility, which we didn't really But we got the move we were looking for so book that nice winner All right back to the order Let's see. We were right here. So next trade was a closing adjusting trade in FXI So we had both a July and a an August FXI butterfly on closed out our July one Took a loss on that piece of the trade and then we're still holding our August which is which is doing nicely pretty centered got a nice profit there Looking for a little bit more and to potentially add another one Because we're down after the July closing. We're down on the trade overall But would like to get get some more profit back in this piece before I before I exit that one So we'll continue to watch that maybe add to If implied volatility stays high or just close it out when we when we get to a point of Thinking it makes sense Next trade rolling adjusting trade in Apple So we had a long put vertical that we initially put on for some short Delta a few months ago in Apple We've rolled that a couple times And that's what we did here rolled from July to August and kept the same strikes We're able to roll for a credit which is always preferable And so we're just extending duration here. So if we take a look at that Apple trade You can see it's still let me get rid of these theoretical ones You can see it's it's you know, just just outside of a range so looking for some downside to benefit that piece Next trade was a closing trade in EWZ. So we closed out a short strangle Took a small loss on that piece of the trade But we had with with different roles and adjustments that we'd been making with that We're able to book a really nice winner and And so we were out of that at that point There's another opening trade where we re-entered in EWZ here. So but before I do that Let's just go to the closing trades Remember, you can find all the closing trades here. So if you look at EWZ You can see we had several roles and adjustments and things end up booking a nice winner of $225 That's just that's just the power of this strategy staying mechanical if a trade goes against you Just extend duration continue to collect credits and you'll end up booking a winner most of the time So that's just a good example of again staying mechanical See going back to our order sorry, I'm kind of jumping around today, but just There is closing. Okay. Next trade was rolling adjusting trade in Ford slash ES So this was a long put vertical that we also had on for some short bias in our portfolio rolled that from July to August adjusted the strikes as necessary and You know at that point our our short Delta to theta ratio is about two and a half to one Which is great We like to be anywhere from one to one to five to one with our short Delta versus our theta ratio And so getting our getting ourselves back to about two and a half to one was a good good position there So if we go to ES We've got three different pieces on here with two separate trades. So let's start with the long put vertical And actually we'll just stay with that for now So here's that that we rolled to August you can see prices still in our range Just looking for some downside to benefit that piece I'll come back to the iron condor piece because we did have an alert regarding that this week Next trade was an opening trade in LMT. So this was a pre-earnings long call in LMT Looking for at least 20% of profit And this was we found this one through the option strategy back tester We did a webinar with Ophir Gottlieb from CML last week talking about How we use the option strategy back tester and this was one that I frankly just straight out found straight from the back tester And this was a long call leading up to earnings Plus the the chart was looking nice for a long position And I'll tell you what I mean by that and and this isn't something that I You know, there's nothing magic about this But it just helps keep me on the right side of the market and that is You know a lot of times when the when price comes up above the moving average and it just kind of consolidates Or or comes down a bit for a day or two I like to look at that as a good entry point And so that's what we did here Not only was it leading up to earnings where we were hoping for an implied volatility expansion, which we didn't really get But but even just this little move up higher That gave us the opportunity to book a really nice winner in LMT, which we ended up getting out of today It was the last trade we made today this morning And uh booked over 35% in just a few days. Okay, and that's just with that tiny little move You know just from getting in right here and just that tiny move right there. So Nice trade in LMT. I was actually hoping for a quick move up to 325 Which would have given us a significant profit But still booked 35% in just a few days. You can't you can't be mad at that Um, you know the the reason I got out, you know, they they announced on tuesday morning So we'd have to be out monday anyway I don't like to hold these long theta positions. Excuse me these long uh these These positions that have a theta decay these negative theta positions I don't like to hold them for that long. So the quicker we can be out the better I didn't want to hold all the way over the weekend in case, you know, implied volatility continued to decrease and and price didn't Keep moving our way. So we went ahead and booked that and made 35. So nice trade there Going back to our order here That was the opening trade in LMT. Next trade was another closing trade in IYR the real estate ETF So we had an iron con over there booked over 45 of max profit I got a nice contraction in implied volatility If you would look at IYR right now, you can see the implied volatility is contracted significantly Down to the 28 percentile 15 percent rank. So just that steady decline of implied volatility And decent steady price movement gave us a chance to book that nice winner Next trade was an opening trade in forward slash gc So this is a forward slash gc is the gold future So I was looking at we we've got a spike up in implied volatility over that 50 level In fact, it climbed even higher after I put this trade on up into the 70 plus range But I decided to put this on in the futures as opposed to the etf, which is gld However, I did state as an alternate trade. You can do short strangle or iron condor in gc or gld We just chose gc because of the efficient use of capital that you get with the futures And so if we take a look at that and I I don't trade the futures in gold that much It is a big contract. So for smaller accounts, you may have opted for gld But you can see here with one contract. We've got a max profit potential of $1040. So A lot of profit potential for just one contract and it took us less than $2,000 of capital Initial capital to put this on. So that's why we chose gc in this case So it's still very centered not much to do there except for weight And then a closing adjusting trade in forward slash cl This is the short strangle we had in cl booked a nice profit over 40% of max on this piece of the trade But we're still holding our other adjusted strangle if we take a look at that here And prices come back down. We've got a nice profit in this piece since we've rolled it But just holding it for some more if price moves higher or starts to test one of our break evens or even maybe even sooner We'll probably add another piece to this because the implied volatility in oil Is still very nice. So we'd love to get another piece on to this trade Still at the 58 in the percentile has contracted significantly this week But still good enough to add on another piece if needed, but we'll just continue to hold for now On on that piece there is still 27 days to expiration. So if we added another piece It would be out in the next expiration cycle in October wow, I can't believe we're already starting to look at october positions With 59 days to expiration. So we'll just see what happens next week if if price Comes back down and we continue to get that implied volatility implied volatility contraction We may just take this off and book a really nice winner If not, we'll continue to manage as needed Next trade it was a closing trade in adobe. I already mentioned that that's where we've booked a nice profit of 40% in just two days Next was an opening adjusting trade an es. Okay. So this is the iron condor piece of the es. So What happened was let's take a look here Scooch this up a little so you can see a little bit better So we've got so let's click off the long put vertical because that's a totally separate trade Let me reset this so I can check the correct boxes So let's check off of that And then we've got two different iron condors on here This is the so let's check off this one here So this is the other the old iron condor that we have that's that's in august You see price has just been hanging out on the upper end of the range need some downside Before we can book a profit there But what I ended up doing is because implied we got that a little bit of a down move On I think it was wednesday when we put this trade on We got a spike up in implied volatility So I just added another iron condor So if we take a look here and just check on the boxes for that new iron condor You can see here. It's very centered. Got a tiny bit of profit not enough to do anything with yet So now we just got those two iron condors on In es one in august and one in september And I know it kind of gets a little bit confusing when you have these multiple multiple trades on in one symbol But that's why I like to vary the number of contracts and then obviously you're if you're in different Cycles, it's easy to you know decipher which is which so That's what we're doing in es Next trade opening trade in ewz. So we had booked A profit got out of ewz earlier in the week implied volatility spiked back up to the 83 level So we re-entered And in this case as I stated here, we entered in the september cycle which at the time had 64 days to expiration now as you know from my courses I typically like to stay in that 30 to 60 days to expiration But sometimes you get into a situation of no man's land where august only had 29 And uh in september had 64. So neither of those fall between 30 and 60, right? I always in that case, I typically like to opt for the longer duration And so that's what we did here instead of doing august with 29 We opted to collect more credit get wider a little bit more time The trade-off is this If you're in august with 29 days to expiration Uh, the the theta is going to decay quicker. Okay, so you're going to see profits come quicker if you get a A decline or a contraction in implied volatility The trade-off is you don't collect enough credit. You don't collect as much credit up front And you have higher gamma risk exposure Meaning the risk as you get closer and closer to expiration gets greater and greater that slope of your profit curve gets greater and greater The slope of it meaning the smaller the price move the more You know the more risk you have the quicker you can You know get out of profit or into profit and so it just moves much more wild And that's why when we get down to 21 days to expiration We'd like to roll it an x cycle anyway And so if I entered with 29 days within eight days, I'd be having to roll out to september Anyway, which is going to cost me more transaction costs And so it just made more sense to go to that 64 days to expiration Hopefully that all makes sense So if we look at ewz, you can see we put this on yesterday and today ewz is up over four percent So still well within our range, but we're already down slightly on that from the p&l You see it's still well within our range. So if we take a look at the implied volatility still nice and high at the 74 So, you know if price starts Moving moving over towards our upper end I'm going to go ahead and add another piece to that collect some more credit and just keep that keep our break evens wider So we'll see what happens in ewz Next trade was an opening trade in j and j So this is one where we put on a new short put vertical in j and j now in this case I entered in august with 29 days and here's the reason this is more of a directional play And I hope to be out of this sooner as opposed to the other one Which was more of a delta neutral an income type trade Which we could potentially be in longer and roll if we needed to and that kind of stuff So with j and j We're looking for a price move higher And and the reason we did this was because our overall portfolio was starting to get a bit too short So we added this bullish trade in to help balance that got us back to about that three to one ratio Didn't want to be much over that at this point So if we take a look at j and j You'll see here You know, it's just it's just a directional place looking for some up move to benefit that piece And it gave us a little bit more balance to our portfolio So if you'll notice that what what I do a lot of times when I'm trying to balance the portfolio I'm using individual stocks for those directional trades Whereas we typically like to use ETFs and futures for our core Delta neutral income Uh, you know premium selling type strategies. So hopefully that makes sense because that that's kind of A little nuance of what we try to do use directional trades to help balance out the portfolio Enter our core positions as delta neutral premium selling in high implied volatility type situations And then the last trade was LMT, which I already mentioned booked that nice winner in just 35 in just a few days 35 percent And that's all they alert. So let's take a look at some of our other positions I mentioned oil mentioned es mentioned gold corn so we've still got a couple pieces in corn we've got a Short put vertical which we're waiting for a move up to benefit that piece However, we are starting to get close to expiration seven days So early next week we'll be out of that position regardless of where it is. We'll just close that out Uh, and then the other piece is we have another full iron condor Which if we take a look at that you'll see We could use a little bit more up movement to benefit that piece as well So if we get an up movement in corn, we'll probably book both of these and be out of it Next week if not, we'll just continue to manage as needed But this one the iron condor is in september. So we got plenty of time there to manage that Wheat we've got an iron condor on here. We've had a decent move up in wheat And unfortunately I had a a short put vertical on right here that I took off Because it was running out of time and Uh, you know, it was way way against us. And so I just went ahead and closed it out. Unfortunately Price reversed and We would have done pretty well on that had we kept it However, we still got an iron condor on here and making some money not enough to take off yet But we'll just continue to watch and manage that as needed I mentioned apple DIA we've got some short Call verticals one you can see is is out of our range here And then the other one Is uh is in our range. So just looking for some downside to benefit those Those are both originally part of iron condor. So we've just continued to keep those on for that short delta bias Uh, eww did I mention this one? No, I didn't um, so we've got two pieces on here We've got this short strangle, which we've got some profit in could use a little bit of upside a little bit more theta decay before we Book that one And then we've got this other adjusted strangle Which you can see price is out of our range So we're just holding this one now. Remember after you adjust this and we adjusted this up to a 48 Straddle, so we have a short 48 calls short 48 puts But we're in august still have 28 days so plenty of time here But we need a little bit of a downside movement to benefit this But remember once it if it moves outside the break even after we adjust We don't automatically adjust again. What we really need to do is take a look at that untested side So if we just check on the puts You can see we've got some profit on the puts, but Definitely more room to go right? We've got more profit that we can make So if it was up here and we had very little profit left to make we would be rolling these puts up But we're fine here So we're just playing the waiting game and if we get a down move, you know We'll come back down to range and then we'll potentially roll that once we get down to Um Down to the point where we are Uh closer to expiration when we get to about 21 days to expiration. We may roll that But we'll just see what happens nothing to do there at this point I mentioned ewz. I mentioned fxi. I mentioned iwm. I mentioned j and j. I mentioned the cues xlk We've got this long put vertical which has gone against us, but we're in august So hoping for some more downside Before we roll that but if we get as we get closer to expiration We don't like these negative theta decay pieces So we we may look to roll that to get more back into a positive theta decay And just extend duration on that, but we'll deal with that depending on what price does next week And then xlu we've got a short strangle here This is when we put on as a pretty tight strangle almost a straddle Got some profit here, but not quite enough to take off yet If we take a look implied volatility still decent at the 56 percentile So just continuing to manage that one as needed. So that's all the alerts. That's all the trades That's all the positions that we have on Hope everybody has a great weekend. Look for some more good trading next week. Everybody. Have a good one. Talk to you soon