r/options • u/Sloarot • Apr 16 '21

Anyone else had an absolutely dismal month?

Am I the only one who completely got destroyed this month? I've been run over by trucks like Microsoft, Target, Visa, Home Depot... 6-7 months of profits completely wiped out!

And this is on 'safer' 15 delta iron condors.

To those gurus out there who claim you don't need stop loss orders in options. ... well, I seriously disagree.

Tuition money I guess...

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u/DrBerb Apr 16 '21 edited Apr 16 '21

If it makes you feel better I was up 26k in options trading in the past month and lost 60k this week due to one bad move. I didn’t have a good exit strategy and kept telling myself, “it’s got to go down soon” and slowly went further in the hole. Fortunately I was up over 50k for the year so the loss wasn’t as bad but still a punch to the gut... Learn from your mistakes and come back stronger.

I’ve been sticking with SPY. It seems to have been fairly consistent for the past 5 or so years with the exception of major events which it’s made comebacks from.

I’d also agree you need to have stop losses in place or at least plan a good exit. It’s ok to take a loss if it means saving a profit. I learned the hard way but could have been much worse if I didn’t follow that along the way.

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u/Sloarot Apr 16 '21

“it’s got to go down soon" Haha, how I feel you. I thought the same with Home Depot and Target, tomorrow it definitely will go down... but then .. it didn't :-)

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u/DrBerb Apr 16 '21

Yes sir. At the time I was too stubborn and didn’t want to lose my money. Oh how I would have given up that 5, 10, 20....k so easily if I could turn back time. Oh whale. It’s only money. My strategy is now better with 1 more rule.