Middle Game Review of Bullish Portfolio Positions

It looks to me that the positional stock trading has similarities to the chess games. Position entries are like the chess opening. Position management after that is like the middle game as the market battle unfolds with various types of market and stock signals. Profit or loss taking is like the end game of chess where the individual game completes. This process should continue for a long time for consistent traders.

Since market hit its intraday bottom at August 21, there were a few bullish signals shown by the SPX chart pattern. I have switched to bullish outlook as mentioned in the last blog post. In the subsequent weeks, I entered a few more bullish positions. I think that’s enough for my portfolio for now. The opening game is done. Let’s have a review of the current positions as a middle game assessment.

On the HOG trade, it’s interesting to see two bearish patterns got invalidated and the stock refused to go down. However, the stock has yet to rise beyond my original stop point of $48.27.  With 2 days to expiration, I bought back the short September 15 $46 put contracts for $0.06/each today to take a profit of $0.48 (=0.54-0.06) on the short put. I need to change my stop point to $47.85, somewhat above previous high after I entered the trade based on its resilient behavior.

On September 1, I entered March 16 $220 call on BIDU as mentioned in the last post. Since then, it was doing well as shown in the chart below.

On September 7, I entered a long call January 19 $57.5 on PYPL for $6.75 as it was breaking above a 6 day high base within an up-trending channel as I posted on StockTwits. In the last couple of days, it pulled back to touch the high base again. If it fells tomorrow, it will trigger my signal to sell a short call.

On September 11, I entered a December 15 $57 call on XLK at a cost of $2.90 for a near term trade as it bounced back from support level as shown in the chart below. It looked like a bull pull-back trade on top of an ascending triangle breakout. My plan is to trade the larger ascending triangle pattern. I also entered longer term trade with June 15, 2018 $56 at the cost of $4.95 in a different account.

Yesterday, I bought EPI Jan 19 $26 call for $1.50 after it broke out of a 6-day high base within an upper trending channel as shown in the chart below.

Overall, the market has been bullish for the last 3 weeks. However, it should be noted that the market rose for about 3 to 4 weeks then pulled back in the last 6 months. It happened 3 times in this time frame signaling some fatigues of the long bull market since the up run could not last longer. We’ll have to see what market signals tell us next as the middle game continues.