49-1 for February, grade A

The stock market was down about 3% in January, and up about 5% for February. This was a just right, a Goldilocks scenario for strangle sellers with a bullish bias. Some winners with multiple layers of strangles include IWM and UNH. The lone losing leg was part of a SPY put backratio, so really isn't a loss. I count each leg separately, just because it gets difficult to figure when I layer positions.

It wasn't a perfect month, but with so many winners, only one loser, the grade is A. I initiated profitable new positions in some big name stocks such as AAPL BABA PANW. 

Even in an A month there is room for improvement. I tried to do more Boeing trades, but never got filled, as BA kept moving higher. Another runaway train to the upside was VRX Valeant Pharma. TLT the bond etf saw a parabola kind of chart. It is unrealistic to think that I could have shorted the exact top. Gold has been in the doldrums. I am still at a slight profit on my GLD trades for the year.


I forgot the position summary in the Friday post, so I'll put it here:

Position Summary:
long: AMGN APC ASH BRKB DIS GDX LUV JWN MMM UNP WHR
nlong: GLD HON XOM
nneutral: AAPL FDX ILMN IWM PANW
nshort: SPY UNH
expired: BA VRX WFC