A little background: I've been trading S&P 500 related products for 7 years, SPY, spy options, ES, ES options, MES. In the first few years, I traded big accounts (usually started with $25K) and lost a lot, two years ago I started to trade very small accounts (1~2K), I only trade one or two MES contracts. I'm still a struggling trader but I think I know enough to become profitable, sometimes my emotions made me lose big, with the small accounts the room for errors is very small. Two months ago, my family gave me a big account (140K) to trade, told me to trade safe, big loss is unacceptable. they believe that I can grow the account however slowly. At first I was very confident, I mainly trade the wheel strategy (sell cash-secured puts, and covered calls if assigned), shouldn't be hard to make small profits. The market in the past two months is not very friendly to option sellers, my account got a big hit in the first week, at May 20 net liquidity dropped to 120K, fortunately I recovered all losses and became profitable in June, then 500 points decline, my account dropped to almost 120K again. With the recent rally I'm now 3K in red, I almost liquidated everything on Friday, it's been very stressful for 3 weeks. Anyway, I definitely don't want to be in the same situation ever again, 20K loss for two times, this is my worst trading ever. If I lose $1k per day, 20K would take me a month to lose that much. In the meantime, I also day trade MES, I can hold 500 SPY but I can only handle a few MES contracts mentally. My P/L is usually less than $200, but most days are green. So, I mainly trade options (only selling), also day trade MES as complement. After this two months experience, I want to switch my trading - mainly day trade MES, and only trade options when a big chance presents, e.g. after a few days decline. But it seems to be a waste of fund, if I only trade a few MES contracts, a 10K or 20K account at most should be enough. I will deposit another 50K, so it's a 190K account, how do you trade this account? Safely, and maybe fund-efficiently. I want to hear all kinds of opinions to open my mind. Thanks!
Honestly... Quit while ahead or only small red...this is not an edge, you are just selling insurance making some money on it and it's part of this strategy that you will occasionally hit bigger losses. Expected return (which is not high) is not worth the stress imo, especially given the fact it's family money and a big drawdown is not acceptable.
Based on your bottom line results.... you are not trading, nor have any skill, edge or understanding. You, like so many others, are just purely gambling, hoping, praying....while your account yoyo's up and down, ultimately finishing in the red. Before you are stage 4 and terminal. It doesn't matter what you trade. Trading is trading; the underlying principles and fundamentals are the same. It's all about your understanding, observation, process, and approach. If you don't have any of those, or are lacking, your end results will be disastrous. I wish I had some magical potion, antidote, that would remedy you overnight, but trading....trading truly successfully....is a lonesome, adventure, journey of self-discovery. Similar to Moses. In the meantime, you are nothing more than a deluded, problematic, gambler. And stay off the social media, all of those clowns are just enablers. Eat fish instead of McDonald's. Stare at the fish, think about the fish, process the fish, respect the fish.
Give the 140K back to your family! Operating under family constraints and scrutiny only worsens your problems! Fund YOUR account(s) with no more than half of the PERSONAL 50k you have. Now, get to work and hone your plans and skills. You will know when,if handling family money is a smart move.
"I think I know enough to become profitable" "my family gave me a big account (140K) to trade" Reduce risk as much as possible, try to get to BE & return the funds until you KNOW you're profitable. Return most of the funds NOW. Keep just enough for small risk trades. Options ... LONG ONLY. Opinion only. YOUR family. How would they take a loss? How much do they need the money?
So, in another word, you've never been in a bear market. I suggest you stay on the side line until we turn the corner or diversify in different index ETFs (both long and short to hedge your risk). If you're also versed in options, you can trade the spreads, eg. bull or bear vertical spreads.
If you are a struggling trader what on earth are you doing trading 140K of family money? Why would they give you money and why would you accept it? Hopefully this is just a troll post, otherwise it's pretty scary.
Give the money back, asap! Before it's all gone. You are not ready to trade so big, let alone with someone else's money ...
I cannot imagine the stress that you are going through, but I don't understand why you posted about this problem here, when you know you must do the right thing. If you have been trading for seven years, you are still struggling, and you trade based on emotion, then you do not have the temperament of a successful trader, especially if dealing with other people's money. I'll bet that you have been bragging to your family about all the money you are making with trading, otherwise why would they have given you the money to trade with. You should never have accepted the money, or you should have put it into a mutual fund, or told them to put it into a fund. Now you have to take responsibility and admit to your family that you don't know what you are doing, give them back what you have left, and tell them to put that money into some sort of a fund. They will probably be miffed and disown you, but they will eventually get over it.