It took me 1 second..

to know today was NOT a day to trade. See, I told myslef enough of slowly (and not so slowly) giving back the profits I made while trading earlier this year.. I am waiting until conditions are good. According to my own trade results, that's when VIX is again ABOVE 15. It took me a sec (more like 0.1 secs) to see that it still has a way to go yet.. maybe tomorrow or friday.. or next week..

But what fun would it be to skip trading altogether today? After all, it's not a silly holiday today, the markets are open and trading, and I have a paper money account all ready to go! :)

Before even switching to my paper money account, I took snaps of the SPX (S&P 500) on the three different timeframes (the 3 ducks) I use to decide when/if to trade..

Duck 1, the hourly chart, didn't offer any help..

pretty flat with random seeming moves UP and DOWN.

Duck 2, the 15-minute chart, looked wild..

at least I could see that price was moving UNDER the average all day, which means it's bearish overall.

Duck 3, the 5-minute chart, looked more reasonable, but kinda reminded me of a roller coaster..

I decided to wait till AFTER power hour had started. Perhaps a shark would help me decide what to do. 🦈

Fast forward to into power hour (the last trading hour of day) and take a look at what some big trader or two or ten had started..

*at least 3 bars/candles of BIG BEAR.. RED, RED, red.. but it looked to be running out of steam.. I thought price should go UP now, or at least the bulls and bears would fight and keep price around this level.

I got in by selling a PCS (put credit spread). As long as price ended ABOVE my strike price I sold, at 4495, then I could keep the entire credit I received for selling the opiton.

I was partly correct and price did turn and head UP.. but then it turned DOWN again and went to within less that 1 point of my strike!! 😮🙄🤨😉🤪 (market is crazy!)

but btw, this the delta of my strike right before the end..

Here's the final result..