The Simple Trader

The Simple Trader pinned «The last Sensex expiry was a warning bell for expiry traders. When things go bad, they can turn very crazy. Straddle premium tripling in the middle of the day without any reason was no joke. Cannot imagine the craziness that could have happened if it was a…»

The last Sensex expiry was a warning bell for expiry traders. When things go bad, they can turn very crazy. Straddle premium tripling in the middle of the day without any reason was no joke. Cannot imagine the craziness that could have happened if it was a news driven move. I had to make a few tough calls and change a lot of things in my trading style! The market has changed a lot and we must adapt to the current volatility.

Last few weeks I spent sleepless nights to analyse charts of my loss-making days. I had to modify and make some changes before I scaled my trading account. While my core trading style will remain non directional, I have also started taking small directional trades when the risk reward is good. Also, all my positions are now fully hedged all the time. 90% of the time the VAR of my positions will be 5-10% of account value and never more than 20%.

Also, I would not be selling penny/far OTM options. My position size has also become very dynamic and I increase my position size when the risk reward is good. I will also be skipping many trading days whenever I am not comfortable with the risk.

I am fine not making money than losing money on bad risk reward trades. Like today, on most days I will not be using more than 50% of the account margin. This keeps the MTM more stable and my decisions more rational. The idea is to peacefully make money and not fight with the market. Losses and profit both will be small. Hedges automatically increases the qty of sold options.

Apart from trading strategy there are few other changes. 2nd feb , the Last Sensex expiry was last trading day for my Intraday trades in family HUF account. I will most like to use that account for overnight BTST trades and deploy some algo for intraday trades. I have also decluttered my life quite a lot and am spending very little time on social media. Priority is to improve health. I will not be able to reply much on twitter or any other social media. Instead, I will be using that same time to write some quality content that will be useful to many people.

Today is the last day for posting my MTM on this telegram. Have some other plans to create value here. I will be taking a complete break from sharing order books till my trading strategy is completely back on track. I will update my trading journal by tomorrow and keep sharing my daily PNL on twitter whenever I trade. Will keep the telegram channel very clean and only to share important updates and learning posts.

Thank you everyone for trust and support

Good day! First day of trading in the new trading account. Have made a lot of changes in my trading style which worked out well today. MTM was stable for the entire day. 0.66% for the day, 66k profit

No trades in expiry today!

Twitter space tomorrow at 4!

Started trading only after 12 pm once the budget was over! Turned out to be a non-event.

Played super safe. I was expecting some directional move which never came. In hindsight, it could have been a very good day

Peacefully made 0.34%, 34k for the day

Played very safe! Couldn't risk trading aggressive

0.15% for the day, 15k profit

After scaring in morning it turned out to be a very smooth day. Did not take much risk and played very safe

0.33% for the day, 33k profit

After a difficult morning, the market was very smooth. Played very safely and kept MTM stable. Increased qty during averaging. Option prices are incorrect in MTM

0.33% for the day, 33k profit

Max SL hit in morning itself with some additional dent while exit! Went from straddle to inverted strangle at one point. Even had good directional bias yet could not manage the IV spike and got stopped out. Premiums were very good but did not risk any more even with far OTM option. Sold penny options post 3 pm and reduced loss by 4k. 1.71% loss for the day, 1.71L loss

Not worth trading! Facing issues and delays in order book fetching with multiple brokers. Faced crazy slippages in this extremely volatile morning in Midcap expiry. Bad decision by NSE to open the exchange on Saturday. Had exited complete trade around 10.15 am

Today was a very difficult day. Volatility was extreme in the first few hours. I completely risked off when I lost all my morning profits. Later I played very safe. The only good part about today was that MTM never went more than 5k negative. I am happy how I managed the day. 33k for the day, 0.33% profit