Recap: Trade log for the week of April 13
Best week of the year and we barely had to do anything. Sunday night started rough with Trump announcing a Strait of Hormuz blockade after failed Iran talks, but the tape reversed by Monday and never looked back. Bank earnings rolled in strong all week, oil cratered from above $105 to around $85, and the S&P 500 climbed from 6,817 to 7,104 while VIX cooled from 19.2 to 17.4. The Nasdaq went from 22,903 to 24,068 and the Russell 2000 from 2,631 to 2,748.
We took two small scale-in plays. Tuesday we opened the AAPL 4/24 $242.50 cash-secured put, then bought to close it Wednesday at over 50% of max profit. No reason to hold it another nine days for the remaining few cents. Wednesday we also filled the HAL 4/17 $36.50 short put x2 and it expired worthless Friday. Two trades, $62 in premium. The NVDA 5/1 $190 covered call from last week is still working.
For full transparency, we withdrew $9,808 from Account 1 this week to cover 2025 tax obligations. That reduces the account balance but does not affect any open positions or premium calculations.
The bigger story was what the portfolio did without us touching it. Our holdings recovered with the market and we are now sitting at -0.31% YTD with a -7.3% max drawdown. That is the best positioning we have had in weeks and we are finally in a spot to start compounding. Things look a little extended after a 4%+ week on the S&P but the worst seems to be behind us. We will continue to proceed with caution, stay bullish for the most part, and stay boring.
This week’s BORING PUTS watchlists flagged GOOG, AAPL, and DAL on Monday, HAL on Tuesday, and NVDA and MSFT on Wednesday. Every single one of those names rallied hard with the broader market. Here is how they scored when they were posted:
| Ticker | Contract | Setup Score | Contract Score | mIQ | Move |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GOOG | 4/24 $300 PUT | 67.5 | 59 | Strong | $315 → $339 (+7.6%) |
| AAPL | 4/24 $245 PUT | 62 | 60 | Strong | $260 → $270 (+4.0%) |
| DAL | 5/15 $60 PUT | 65.8 | 49 | Strong | $67 → $72 (+7.2%) |
| HAL | 4/17 $36.5 PUT | 63.3 | 44 | Risky | $38 → $37 (-3.0%) |
| NVDA | 4/22 $190 PUT | 72.4 | 61 | Acceptable | $197 → $202 (+2.6%) |
| MSFT | 4/20 $400 PUT | 57 | 44 | Acceptable | $398 → $423 (+6.2%) |
If you sold cash-secured puts on any of those names after they showed up on the watchlist, congratulations. The puts moved further out of the money fast and the premium was yours to keep. That is how boring is supposed to work. Full setup and contract scores are available to subscribers on every watchlist post.
| Type | OpnOpen | Exp | ClsClose | TicTicker | StkStrike | Qty | Fill | ExtExit | Fee | Cap | P/L$ | ROC |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CSP | 4/14 | 4/24 | 4/15 | AAPL | 242.5 | 1 | 0.63 | 0.30 | 2.10 | 24.25k | 30.90 | 0.13% |
| CSP | 4/15 | 4/17 | 4/17 | HAL | 36.5 | 2 | 0.16 | 0.00 | 1.40 | 7.3k | 30.60 | 0.42% |
📥 Download Full YTD Trade Log (PDF)
Open positions from previous weeks that are counted towards deployed capital. These positions did not generate premiums this week.
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.
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