Start of week: $21,658
End of week: $20,285 (-6.3%)
YTD: +$285 (+1.3%)
All my calls obviously expired worthless this month. I picked up something like roughly $1,000 in call premiums this month and still took an absolute beating.
I am now facing this issue mentally where I am unable to segregate past events with current events. What I mean by that is in the past the market has been dropping and my stocks are now below my cost basis. If I want to continue writing calls they will be under my cost basis and I will basically be accepting a loss at best on the position. On the otherside, each transaction should be treated independently. If I think selling a call at a certain price is favorable, I should do it without thinking about what has happened. Here is an example:
I opened my position in NKE at 92.28. Through selling my calls I've been able to bring my effective cost basis down to 88.11 Today NKE was at 80.60 at one point and I saw a trade I wanted to do. Buy back my NKE 82.50 Aug 20 call for $0.10 and sell an NKE 82.50 Sep 17 call for $2.90. In normal market conditions I would have done this in an instant. However, I hesitated and hoped NKE would continue to rally and I could get a better price, as we know the market tanked towards the end of the day, NKE is now 78.58 and the NKE 82.50 Sep 17 call is now for $1.90. And on top of that with my strategy I don't usually sell multiple strikes out, so I should now theoretically do the NKE 80 Sep 17 for $2.93.
I technically haven't gone out of my business plan yet. The rules I have set for myself is I must sell a new call every month on every holding for this portion of my portfolio on the monday after option expiration by noon EST. I can close and roll out an option during the option month based on discretion, but can never have a position without an option. IE if I buy it back, I have to roll it out to another strike immediately.
With that said, I would have still normally sold the 82.50 at the time I could have received $2.90. These markets can really wear on you mentally and make you question yourself. I need to remind myself to never question myself.
SUMMARY: I didn't close an option today, I let them all expire worthless and I will have to sell to open a call on M, MSFT, and NKE on Monday by noon EST and will make an update here shortly after once I execute.