July Results...

Results for July expiration were mixed, making them kinda stinky in my view. It was a choppy month which made it tough for me to trade for some reason. Not because it was hard to read... I don't "read" the market... I just follow my rules... or NOT!!! Check out the Calendar trade.

Condors: +1.3%

Directional Trades: +7.5%

Calendars: -38.4%

Overall ROIC: -.7%

This was one of those months where I had to do some serious self-assessment. What happened with the Calendar? The choppiness and plummeting volatility were not good for it, and after replaying the trade with a backtester I would not have profited even if I had exited correctly. What I did wrong was not honoring my max loss of 25%. If I had only lost 25% (did I say "only"), I would have had a gain for the month. it wasn't a big position so the other trades swallow it up, but it was enough to turn my tiny loss into a tiny gain. Another lesson from the school of hard knocks.

Good Trading...