Well my portfolio went from +20% (value $41k) to -30% (value $22k) during the last few weeks fiasco. I held strong and only sold to rebuy at a lower strike. Moved all of my Nov $190's to Nov $170's (half the count), Dec $190's to Dec $175's etc. I booked ca $7k losses in those moves but didn't consider it such because I was swapping N contracts at strike X with N/2 contracts at strike X-$20. With those moves I lowered my breakeven from $199 to $188. Todays hedge moved it lower to $181 region and my portfolio as a combination of good solar results and TSLA rebound is now at $34k (ca 1k above my net zero). I had invested ca $22k in TSLA (really 2/3 of my portfolio) and the rest in solars. End of last week the two components were worth the same showing how much solar had increased and tesla dropped. I for sure had committed far too much into TSLA so my strategy was try to hedge some of it before earnings and today I used trailing orders to sell the Nov $190's at various strikes on the way up averaging in the end at $5.12.
I was seriously contemplating cutting my losses, but the only reason I didn't was that I knew I had bought those options for post-ER movements and that underlying situation hadn't changed. The information had in fact gotten better over the weeks. So I held on. The worst part was when the portfolio dropped below $25k and tied my hands. Below that amount you lose day trading privileges and by default have 0 trades for 5 business days. So selling a higher strike call to buy a lower strike call will result in selling the higher strike call (as closing positions is allowed), but you're not able to pick up the lower strike one as that's opening a new position that you might close the same day and break the day trader rule. I gritted my teeth when the net liquidation was fluctuating around $25k and I had to wait to get the Dec $175's bought... Lost a couple of hundred there just by not being able to pick up the contracts where I planned.
Anyway, hedging is good. Can't get too greedy as it's better to have upside exposure, but reduce the risk somewhat. Especially if we might see $150 on Wednesday as well...
Back on track to this thread though. We finished above $175 setting us up for a very tight squeeze into earnings tomorrow. I think we'll be fluctuating around tomorrow, but will end up at the squeeze point of the two channels at the end of the day. If for what ever reason we break above the red channel we might have a run up into earnings, but I think people will hedge and we'll see a selloff at the end of the day (even though the last 30 minutes might be a rally again). In any case I sure as hell hope Tesla will provide me with a decent birthday gift as tomorrow is my birthday.
PS! I know I've got a very risky portfolio with 100% options and just a few stocks in two sectors, but I'm young (gonna turn 32 tomorrow) and I don't depend on the investment portfolio at all for my daily life so I'm trying to maximize the gain and I know that takes a lot of risk as well, am getting better at hedging my risks though
