Monthly: back to black, 63 – 8 grade C+

I count 63 winners, 8 losers for the March option cycle. I am back to positive for the year. So happy St. Patrick’s Day to celebrate my poke into green territory for 2018. SPY is up more than I am, but gains are better than losses.

One slight adjustment I decided upon was to go further out in time for rebalancing adjustments. This helps during see-saw markets. Shorter term adjustments can be better during trending markets, because I would make more of them. Grade is C+, because I have a lot of room for improvement.

Here are a few etfs I track (best to worst):
EEM +4.4% Emerging markets equity
IWM +3.5% US small cap Russell 2000

SPY +3.1% US large cap SP500
GLD +0.8% gold

SLV -3.8% silver
TLT -5.6% US 20 year Treasury bonds

My trading account up a few dollars, 0.0% percent when using the formula. So I am lagging buy and hold for 2018, but it is a lot better than behind the 8-ball and being down 5% or 10% for the year. The year is full of woulda coulda shoulda moments. Trading is so easy in hindsight, but few do so well in real time. Yes, there are a handful of unicorns with remarkable talent and/or luck. For average folks, average returns, average losses are what most of us experience.

One story to share is that the wild market swings of February led to insomnia. During one sleepless night, someone on the radio was extolling the benefits of meditation. Since that time, I have been meditating maybe five minutes a day. It seems to be helping. I use a fitness watch to track my sleep. Since I started meditating I’ve had more deep sleep, higher quality sleep. As always YMMV, but so far my experience with meditation has been a positive one. Like so many people, I had difficulty doing it, but like so many things in life, a little effort goes a long way.