People laughed at me

Depending what stocks you were in or traded today was a make or break kind of day

Many, many moons ago, in a time that is very “way back when”
When I first started swing trading and then short term day trading, I didn’t have a monitor “tree” with 6 screens… I didn’t have a high speed computer…. Didn’t even have an office
What I did own was a old, beat up DELL that seemed like dial up speed of negative 9, a 15 inch monitor, that worked well, sometimes…. And they were parked on top of my thrift shop kitchen table
Then I took a 45 degree construction square, and I put it up next to the screen
The effect I was after was what we call “Steady Eddy”… Those are slow growing, 30 degree angles “preferred”, up trends from the bottom left to the top right ( Think SFM the past 10 months )
Nothing going straight Vertical, no “F-14’s” as I called them back then
After a while I no longer needed that framing square, I could tell you the exact angle measurement simply by looking at it…
There’s a 45, a 42, then a 36, maybe even a 27 degree angle, but I didn’t stop until I could see a 30 degree angle in my sleep.. I’d take those over “F-14’s” any day
People who had been in the markets far longer than me, with much more active knowledge and training, then began to lose money while I was creating gains
Those were the same people that laughed at me….

A selection of stocks were in full blown “F-14” 2 months ago before this downturn
TSLA being the biggest name of all, it started out good from its base then around Mid December is shot straight north
Today TSLA closed down well over 8%, it breached below the $300.00 mark which it hadn’t seen since NOV 2024, and is now 57% under its ATH

If it feels like stocks are on standby here it’s because they are
Those that took the Straddles from this past Sunday and Monday should be very happy with their gains.
Especially with META, that one was a huuuuge winner for anyone that took the Straddles Again, we could car less about up or down, only that the stock does not stop in place and moves

As far as any new trades we are simply managing existing positions as we await NVDA’s earnings report tomorrow afternoon. My mention of it being today was inaccurate, it’s tomorrow
Entering any new Straddles right now may not prove to be in our interest yet, stocks have already moved and we may look at them again should the market appear to show more volatility

It was actor Morgan Freeman that said::
“When people laugh at you, don’t react, don’t feel down
Wake up the lion inside of you, work hard in silence
Let your success make the noise”

The Options Coach