Hey Guys,
The market is in about the same spot as it was yesterday when I emailed, but it's moved all over the place in between. It dropped a lot to end the day yesterday, and then bounced back up this morning. The market is volatile right now.
The timing of that drop to end the day yesterday wasn't great for me because I had a slate of option trades that I needed to close at the end of the day. I had a few big losses in there, including my option trades for SBUX, NKE, and XLP.
As unpleasant as it was to take those losses, I would take those trades again if I saw them. They all met the criteria of my trading strategy and looked good to me, and I would take those trades again if I saw them today. The big challenge in trading is no one knows what's coming next in the market. Even right now, today, no one can say for sure if the market overall will go up or down over the next month. It's already dropped a lot, so does that mean it's due for a rebound? No one can say with certainty.
What I've trained myself to do is to stick to the plan. Research and live trading experience have made it clear to me that there will be tough weeks like this along the way, even when longer-term results are solid and profitable. So my task is to honor the approach, through thick and thin. It's challenging because there is real risk involved and no guarantees.
In took on a couple new trades today. In the stocks account, I bought shares of BMRN and MDLZ. I also added an option position for MDLZ to my options accounts midday yesterday.
If you have any questions or feedback, I'd love to hear from you.