Mindful Trader Commentary For August 4, 2023


Hey Guys,


The market seemed to stop its descent for the time being. The S&P 500 is around 4,515 right now. Maybe that 4,500 price level will serve as some sort of support.


I have very little available buying power in the main account, so I wasn't able to take on any new stock positions today. And no new options trades have triggered yet today so far. I did buy stock for QGEN in my double down account.


I had a bunch of options trades reach their time limits yesterday across multiple accounts. Overall there I incurred a net loss with a few full-sized losses in there (BAX and SPGI). But there were a couple of winners sprinkled in as well. And my options account in particular didn't get scathed as badly as it could have. It went down 2.8% for the week, which is much less than it could have been considering the S&P 500 dropped 100 points and I had so many positions open.


My SQ option position took a hit with the earnings announcement. Earnings season can be like putting turbo boosters on your trades, and they fire you out in whatever direction the market takes it. Back tests suggest that over time that effect might be more beneficial than not for these trades, but this week there was a net negative effect for me so far.


If you have any questions or feedback, I'd love to hear from you.


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