Day 39 - End of Week 8

Market Recap

The market moved up today.

• SPY gained ~2%.
• QQQ gained ~2.3%.

Trading Update

tl;dr

• Rolled AAPL Long Put: Closed 4/17 $210 Put, opened 5/16 $200 Put.
• Opened MSFT Poor Man's Covered Call (PMCC): Sold a 3/21 (7 DTE) $400 Call.

Just yesterday, I wrote:

It continues to be tempting to take profits on the AAPL put (now up ~+746%), but at this point, I likely want the put to maybe double from here on.

And... I gave in. Less than 12 hours later, I rolled my AAPL put down and out by a month, netting a small credit. I made the trade thinking AAPL might drop further, and since I'm using the put as crash protection (which this pullback isn’t), an additional 4% downside hedge while collecting a credit seemed reasonable.

Later in the day, as AAPL and the broader market rallied, I second-guessed the move. But I’ll give it a week before deciding whether to close the new put for an effectively higher profit across both trades.

I also sold a MSFT call, effectively opening a PMCC since I already hold a $380 MSFT LEAP expiring 3/2026.

Portfolio Status

My portfolio moved up today by 5.48%.

📉 Year to Date: -0.93%
📉 All Time: -16.56%

Once again, for YTD comparison: SPY is down -4.63%, while my portfolio is down -0.93%—so relatively, I’m ahead.

Here is the portfolio status.

Trade History

Here are my last 20 trades:

Plan for Next Week

... still just to survive!

If I can hold my cash reserves, I expect to outperform SPY next week. Beating SPY remains my benchmark and motivation.

The market was mostly down this week before a strong Friday rally, which threw off some of my trades. Next week, I need to monitor if the rally continues—I may need to close my MSFT PMCC and adjust my AAPL protective put.

It’s tax season, so I also need to assess if I need to free up cash to cover my tax bill.

Last week’s volatility had me thinking: What if I had more cash to deploy? I’ve seen some influencers suggest adjusting market exposure based on VIX levels. I might research that and see if it aligns with my strategy. Until then, the goal remains simple:

Don’t lose money.

See you next week!

📌 Disclaimer: Nothing on this site is financial advice—I’m just here to entertain! Here’s my introduction, my trading philosophy, and some ground rules.