Hey Guys,
It's been a relatively quiet morning so far. The S&P 500 has been hovering around the 4200 mark for more than a week. The market is so calm at this point. The volatility is clearly in the rearview mirror for now.
One thing that's nice is that even though the market has been relatively flat for a week, all my positions are showing a profit at the time I'm writing this. It can be satisfying to realize that we've successfully identified trades in the market that are generating positive returns despite the market as a whole being flat.
I haven't made any new trades yet today. Since I'm so committed to my trading rules, it means that there are some days where no trades get made because they just don't set up the way that's required for me to make an entry. Even though making trades is typically exciting for me, I never force trades. I would much rather be patient (and perhaps wise) and wait for the trades that have a back-tested edge to set up.
In particular, I was hoping for more options trades for this week. Today is the last day for me to make options trades that will have an expiration of this week. The holiday took one day out of the equation, and there have been limited setups otherwise. Some weeks are quiet like this, and it's just part of the trading journey we're on with these pullback trades. I'll keep monitoring to see if any trades set up later today.
I closed out UPS and K today since they hit their time limit. Both squeezed out a small profit. I included the dividend for K ($0.58 per share) in my profit calculation, although the dividend will show up in my account as a separate transaction later. Tomorrow ADM and BAC will hit their time limits.