Since I've got a little positive delta building in my portfolio and I'm leaning towards the market feeling a bit overextended here, I'm adding a little negative delta in an index to help balance the risks in my portfolio a bit.

And of course, it makes the most sense to get short the weakest (in relative terms) index to express this hedge.

Say what you will about stock market action since the equities bottom was put in on March 23rd, but either way you can't not be impressed.

Do we go higher from here?

I don't know the answer (hint: neither do you), but I do know that if we do, we're going to be continually led by the leaders in this bounce so far. And one of those leaders is the stock who's company everyone uses -- in some way -- whether you realize it or not: Google.

Options premiums are still pretty elevated across the landscape and the default mode for me when looking for trades to put on is still to prefer selling premium to express any directional bets.

However, JC put some bullish metals ideas in my head last week that are starting to look interesting to me. And there's one in particular that warrants a shot with a debit spread -- where we can use the prevalence of still high options premiums to help us lower our cost of participation in a directional bet.

This is the video recording of the April 2020 Conference Call.

Just a couple weeks ago, we put on a delta neutral credit spread in the Industrials $XLI to take advantage of pumped up volatility. That trade worked out quickly and we got out of it at our price target on Monday of this week. One for the good guys.

Now, $XLI is bumping up against some formidable upside resistance. And with options premiums still elevated, we're going to use them to leverage into a bearish directional bet here.

As long as it continues to pay, being delta-neutral short in this environment feels like the right move for me. We've already had some of our May positions hit our profit targets. But there is still meat on the bone for more short premium plays into May expiration.

Next up, something shiny...

The song remains the same. Picking directions in this market is a crapshoot. The way I explained it to a non-trader friend of mine was like this:

Imagine lighting firecrackers with extremely short wicks. Fun and exhilarating when the payoff happens, but way too easy to get burned.

So for me, the safest way to navigate this market profitably is to continue seeking out ETFs to put delta-neutral credit spreads on.

Next up?

With $VIX still holding above 50 and picking a direction is a crapshoot here, I'm still on the hunt for delta-neutral premium selling opportunities.

The way I do it is I scan the most liquid ETFs out there and rank them by volatility. And then I look for evidence of sideways action forming, or at least some very clear risk management levels to lean against.

Options premiums remain elevated in this market. This continues to put me on the hunt for premium selling strategies in the most liquid ETFs.

One of the ETFs showing the highest volatility appears to be starting to settle into a range. And we can sell options very far away from current prices which gives us a lot of wiggle room. 

As markets start to (relatively) calm down, trading opportunities with clearly defined risk management levels are once again starting to reveal themselves.

One such opportunity is presenting right now in the semi-conductors space.

A Bullish Trade? Is Sean crazy?

Believe it or not, there are stocks holding up "well" in this tape. "Well" is obviously a relative term.

JC published a bullish piece on Docusign $DOCU this week that speaks to me and I'm going to leverage this insane volatility into an options trade.

If you're worried, scared, uncertain, unhappy, on tilt --- or all of the above, depending on the hour -- it's ok to do nothing.

Cash is a position.

Cash is comfort. Cash is control. Cash is Safety.