The market finally got the relief rally it had been looking for, but it still did not feel clean enough to press fresh put risk. CNBC was reporting early in the week that Treasury yields were holding firm after a much stronger than expected March jobs report, while traders were still watching Trump’s Iran deadline and the Strait of Hormuz. Then Tuesday night’s pause on planned strikes and the conditional ceasefire deal flipped the tape hard the other way. By Friday, the S&P 500 had climbed from 6,583 last week to 6,817, the Nasdaq from 21,879 to 22,903, and the Russell 2000 from 2,530 to 2,631, while VIX cooled from 23.9 to 19.2. Oil eased, but it still finished above $105, so this looked more like a risk reset than a clean all clear.

That setup meant almost no put selling. Monday was mostly cleanup. We bought back both QCOM 4/10 $140 covered calls for basically nothing at $0.02 and $0.01, let the DG 4/10 $135 covered call keep working, and closed the two Barrick 4/17 $41 cash-secured puts rather than keep open risk on a name sitting close to the money in a volatile tape. The one position that still needed active management was NVDA. The 4/10 $182.5 covered call from last week got squeezed as the stock ripped with the broader market, so we closed it Wednesday at $2.15 and immediately sold the 4/17 $185 covered call for $2.57.

That new NVDA call only bought us a little time. By Friday we took the 4/17 $185 off at $4.55 and moved the position out again to the 5/1 $190 covered call for $4.70. So the whole week was really just call management into a sharp bounce. No new cash-secured puts, no reason to force anything, and no reason to pretend one ceasefire headline suddenly fixed the tape. QCOM got cleaned up, DG expired cleanly, and Barrick was taken off to eliminate open risk rather than keep pressing a close-to-the-money put through more volatility.

Premium still came in at $270, which is fine for a week that was more about defense than offense. The move was strong enough that even CNBC’s Friday wrap was warning that the market looked a little too comfortable again after its best week since November. With oil still elevated and bank earnings starting next week, the posture stays the same here: keep duration manageable, keep strikes realistic, and let the market prove this rally has more than one headline behind it.

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This Week’s Totals

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This Week’s Opening Trades

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This Week’s Assignments

• None

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Open Carryover Positions

Open positions from previous weeks that are counted towards deployed capital. These positions did not generate premiums this week.

• None

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Closed Carryover Positions

Closed positions from previous weeks that are counted towards deployed capital. These positions did not generate premiums this week and may have reduced premiums earned from previous weeks.

• 2 x B 4/17 CSP @ $41
• 1 x DG 4/10 CC @ $135
• 1 x NVDA 4/10 CC @ $182.5
• 2 x QCOM 4/10 CC @ $140

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