If you look at the trades you will notice that I had a total of 9 trades in the month of August, three of which were closing trades from late July. Of the 9, only one, was an outright loser and one was break-even, but with commissions the latter trade was indeed was a loser. The loss was -64.3%, but as you can see my position-size was calculated (roughly 6%), so the loss was minimal to My Options Portfolio as I went on to gain over 15% for the month.

In my opinion, position-sizing is the most important aspect of trading. Remember, this is a marathon and not a sprint and by limiting your exposure to any given trade, you allow yourself to absorb a losing trade without devastating your portfolio. I cannot emphasize this enough and is why I always encourage a well-thought out position-size plan before you initiate your journey into trading. Of course, everyone will have different position-size plan because everyone has a different risk-tolerance. You need to figure out just how risk-averse you are as a trader/investor and, in my opinion, once you have figured that out, you should proceed to take another step that errs on the conservative side. Believe me, it pays in the long run to start out conservative and then increase your risk rather than the reverse.

As part of my newsletter I send out real-time trade alerts that include my position-size. Of course, this is not advice, it is just to show my subscribers how I use position-size in my own account. As I stated earlier, it is up to you, the individual investor to do your due diligence and figure out what is best for your given situation. You earned this money, treat it with respect.

Anyway, I once again wanted to thank all of you who have signed up for my newsletter service. I truly appreciate the loyalty and support. Hopefully, I can provide some insight through my newsletter that will help you prosper over the long-term using options. I still have a few spots remaining and will continue to take requests that will be added to a waiting list. I have decided to limit my service to 100 subscribers. Smaller is better.

Market Commentary

As for the current state of the market, well, you have to be encouraged by the gap today and the sharp push higher if you are a bear. Yes, I said it, a bear. The push moved the market closer to a short-term overbought state. Moreover, we officially closed the gap from 8/24. However, I think the 8/11 gap still might be a push to close ($11.37), at least during this latest mini-rally. I would love to see a gap tomorrow morning, because I will certainly take a position if indeed that occurs. I am not sure I would hold it into Friday as the much-anticipated August unemployment report will certainly move the market sharply and I typically do not like to get caught up in the game of guessing the report. It is typically a futile attempt, but if the technicals are already in an extreme when the market enters such a report I will sometimes take a smaller position. We shall see soon enough. The next few days should be quite interesting.

Kindest,

Andy

SPY Trade

Subscribers

To all of my wonderful and loyal subscribers I want to thank you for all of your support over the past week. The response has been overwhelming. I will be sending out all my service details in the first Weekly Newsletter Report which will come to via email Sunday. Until then, if you are a subscriber, do not forget to sign up for my subscriber-only access twitter page. Sign up for a twitter account then go here http://twitter.com/acrowder. I will allow you access. This will be a key area for my subscribers so don’t miss out. However, the key elements of my service (newsletter, real-time trade alerts) will still be sent out through email (twitter as well). I want to make my service as tech and user friendly as possible. Access to my information is key and I want it performed in a timely manner.

Again thanks to all of you – subscribers, loyal readers, etc.. I appreciate all of the wonderful feedback. Keep it coming! I hope through your participation that I can make this an incredibly unique and most important, prosperous for all of us. My performance speaks for itself.

Kindest,

Andy

You can see all of the trades here and all of the trades verified at my Thinkorswim account (scroll down the page at the aforementioned link to see all of my trades).

Over the past few months, I have had numerous requests to initiate a newsletter service that follows my trades in real-time and discusses the options strategies, technical indicators, and sentiment indicators that I incorporate in my trading. The response has been overwhelming and certainly a wonderful surprise. The kind words and encouragement regarding my options trading and the strategies I use have certainly been a positive reinforcement after 10+ years of trading options.

I hope that now I can prosper and share my trading ideas alongside of all of you who have encouraged me over the past few months. Again, the response has been overwhelming and as a result I have decided to limit my newsletter to 50-100 subscribers. I hope this will not disappoint those of you who are unable to get in. If you are unable to get in please email me and I will add you to a waiting list.

Service details below.

Newsletter Service Details

• 3-10 Options Trades Per Month – my proprietary trading system allows me to generate consistent winning trades, and as a member you will have full access to those trades the minute I post them.
• Real-time Trade alerts – get every trade update the instant I post it, sent right to your email inbox and twitter account. Trades are also updated live on my website.
• Crowder Options Strategy Guide – a concise introductory guide that gives you some insight into how I trade.
• Market commentary – I update my market outlook daily (and sometimes more) here on my blog, and only members get access to my inside perspective on twitter.
• Weekly Newsletter – includes weekly RSI overbought/oversold levels on 15-20 of the most liquid ETFs
• Access – I am available any time to answer your questions about my trades, my options strategies, and my thinking about the markets. Whether you’re new to options trading or are an inquisitive seasoned pro, I am glad to hear from you and will help in any way I can.

If you wish to subscribe, click on the Subscribe Here link below. Also, if you have any questions or comments please do not hesitate to email me at andy.crowder@gmail.com.

Subscribe Here!

SPY Trade

Stay tuned for the newsletter out today plus an end of the day post. Kindest, Andy

SPY Trade

I have also been looking at a few Iron Condor trades, but I will save my thoughts until a later date.

I hope all of you are having a wonderful start to the week and stay tuned for my newsletter tomorrow.

Until then have a wonderful night!

Kindest,

Andy

Anyway, I will have my service details out to everyone by Wednesday of this week so check your emails.

As for the market, I have spent the day going through charts and mostly sitting on hands. I am currently leaning towards a short-term decline, but I want to see a bit more to the upside before I take a position.

I hope all of you are well and thank you all for the kind words over the past week. I look forward to prospering on this long-term journey together.

Kindest,

Andy

I also want to let all of my loyal readers that have emailed me over the last week about reserving a spot that you will have no worries. As I states before, I plan on limiting my service to 50-100 subscibers so if you are interested please let me know as I have a few spots remaining.

This whole thing has come as quite the surprise as I have had an overwhelming response since I first announced that I would be providing a paid service that follows my trading and strategies. I want to personally thank all of you for your kind words and encouragement and I can’t wait to get started.

With that being said I am actually looking at a few short oppotunities tomorrow so stay tuned just in case.

Until then have a wonderful evening.

Kindest,

Andy

The following closing trades were made today:

Click to view

As you can see from the trades above (directly from my ThinkorSwim account), I closed all of my open trades after yesterday’s decline. As a result, My Options Portfolio has advanced 72.0% (commissions included) since it  was established in early May of this year with a win ratio of 81.0%. Here are the results – My Options Portfolio. As I have done in the past, I will post all of my August trades once the month has concluded.

I built quite a large short position with almost 100% of my portfolio at work. That is a rarity as I typically have at most 30% at one time and oftentimes less. Position-sizing is key! However, I stuck with my conviction as Mr. Probability was hitting extremes and when that occurs, as a high-probability, mean-reversion trader I have no choice, but to take the trade. Once again, position-size, risk management and the few technical/sentiment indicators that I follow paid off. Yes, patience, once again, pays.

I am now up roughly 20% in the month of August and will most likely finish the month higher, which will make it four straight months of gains. Again, my goal is not to try for outlandish gains, but Mr. Probability has been rather kind since I enacted My Options Portfolio. One thing is certain, I can’t complain.

I have had quite the interest over the past couple of months in offering a paid service, so I have decided to do so, but I need to decide which would be the best way to go about offering my services. I do know that I want to keep it small (50-100 subscribers), because I want to be able to answer in a timely manner any and all questions that my subscribers might have regarding My Options Portfolio or any options related questions for that matter. I learned from working at a prestigious medical device company that quality is key and that is exactly the type of service I want to offer – a quality-driven service that caters to my subscribers every whim. I will most likely offer a free trial period to work out a few of the kinks, but one thing is certain, my trading will not take a back seat. If I see that my trading is being jeopardized I will not hesitate to cancel my service. Again, I want to offer a service built on simple, quality-driven, options strategies.

Please do not hesitate to email me with any questions, feedback, or concerns that you might have.

Kindest,

Andy

I have to say that I am actually more confident in my current position then I was coming into today. I thought the Fed reaction could stop me out of my trade with a breach of the 1131 area. However, in my opinion, even thought the pop after the fed release was bullish over the next few days I expect to see some decent selling.

Overhead resistance has become extremely difficult for the bulls to overcome and we have several short-term bearish indicators appearing. Moreover, we typically see a sustained reversal after the initial reaction which would mean that the next few days should be bearish. Even more, the next two days are the two of the weakest days on a seasonal basis in August.

The futures are down 4.75 as I write this. When I started the futures were lower an encouraging 7. I am still watching the gap to fill at the $110.86 level. Once that is filled I intend to start scaling out of most of my short position.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot, today was also a Bradley Turn Date. Hmmm.

Until then have a wonderful night!

Kindest,

-A

The broad market indice, S&P 500 (SPY) has pushed near an overbought state with strong overhead resistance overhead. Since gapping up last Monday (gap has yet to close at the $110.86 level) the S&P has tested and failed to push through the June 21st high of $113.20. It came close today, but like every other time, the bulls did not have enough to get the major market index over the hump.

So, where does My Options Portfolio stand at the moment. Well, I am almost 100% short at the moment, but will exit all trades if the market is able to push and hold above the 1131 area on the S&P.  Currently I have losing positions in IWM, SPY and TZA, but a short-term move lower (holding until the gap close from last Monday) will certainly puts most of my positions back in the black.

There is no doubt that the last few weeks have been frustrating as a trader. I have been adding more and more short positions after the gap up and inability to push through resistance. There are so many short-term bearish indicators that are popping up that I can’t help as a high-probability, mean-reversion trader to take a position. Of course, even with Mr. Probability on my side, there will always be the occasion when an outlier occurs and I will certainly take a hit (some bigger than others), but as long as I am able to handle to risk-reward in a disciplined way and understand that in highly-leveraged investments such as options, volatility in My Options Portfolios performance will be high. This is an accepted fact that I am comfortable with in my trading endeavors.

So, with that being said, I hope that tomorrow is to my liking because I certainly enjoy profits rather than losses.

Have a wonderful evening!

Kindest,

Andy