Okay so it's been a while...

I haven't posted in this thing a while, but now it's time to start again. i've been slackin this thing because i'm getting comfortable. Been relying only on iron condors. Can't do that anymore. Like anything else I can't get comfortable because that's when you stop improving. Anyways, let me talk about october expiration cycle.

Essentially, it was a very volatile market. A week before options expirations there was a drop in the S&P and Russell indexes of about 5% or so. The markets are very mixed now with oil, fear of inflation, hurricanes, and the uncertainty a new fed chairman will bring. I was heavily weighted in the S&P 100 options, and the Russell 2000 index options. I bought butterflies and condors to adjust the put side of my iron condors and fortunately i didn't end up in the money. I'm sure that you've heard that getting exercised isn't bad, which it isn't, but there are still exercise fees.

I've learned an important aspect of money management during this cycle. Here is my new rule: Do not have more than 70% of cash tied up in trades. During this cycle i pretty much had all of my capital in trades. Unfortunately, the market did what it does...moves unexpectedly without warning. I had no extra capital to adjust or buy out of my positions. Also, i missed getting into positions for the next cycle. So now with 25 days to go in the current cycle i am unable to get into any iron condor postions with any decent credits or probability of profit.

I've missed the nov options cycle, which is okay because it's time to start a new trading strategy. I'm excited because at the end of this week the CBOE will start trading Weekly Options. Every friday, except for when the regular options expire in a week, there will be options on the SPX and OEX expiring in a week. There's only going to be 5 strikes; two in and out the money and one at the money. It's a great way to take advantage of economic or business news that can move the markets fast(like the 1.6% rise in markets today after the announcement of the new Fed Chief). I have ideas on creating a strategy on day trading these weeklys and adding a new dynamic to my portfolio. We'll see what happens.