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Friday, October 10th
“The wise remind themselves that ‘This too shall pass’ even when things are good;
the foolish, only when things are bad.”
– Mokokoma Mokhonoana
Markets Today
🌏 Asia-Pacific: Down
🇪🇺 Europe: Down
🇺🇸 United States: Down
🛢️ Oil: Down
⚡ Crypto: Down
Major Market Events
- Trade shock hits stocks — Markets sell off after a threat of sharply higher China tariffs
- Shutdown fallout begins — White House says government layoffs have started, adding policy and growth uncertainty
- Consumer strain in focus — Auto-loan delinquencies rise and sentiment stays weak, a headwind for spending
🤔 My Thoughts
Don’t Be a Hero on Red Tape Days
My “steady, not flashy” checklist when markets lurch
Today is what I call a “red-tape day” — big headlines hit, futures lurch, and it feels like you’re supposed to do something.
My approach is the opposite: I do less, and I do it clean.
If you’ve been following along, you know I like simple, late-week (usually Wednesday) credit spreads because time decay helps into Friday. On shock days like this one, I don’t reinvent the wheel, but I do adjust how I use it. Here are the three levers I touch:
1) Position size. I scale down first. Smaller positions keep my head clear. If the worst case happened, could I shrug and move on? If not, it’s too big.
2) Distance from price. For new ideas, I push the short strike further away (a safer delta range) and let the credit be “good enough.” I don’t need to squeeze the last dime out of a scary tape. If I can’t get paid a fair amount at safer distances, I skip it.
3) Exits on existing winners. You don’t have to hold a spread into expiration to be “right.” If I can buy it back for a decent chunk of the credit I collected, I often just ring the register and move on. It’s amazing how much stress disappears the moment you take the easy win.
A few plain-English reminders that help on days like this:
- Use GTC profit targets. Let the platform do the babysitting.
- Avoid market orders when the tape is jumpy… use sensible limit orders.
- Respect the daily close. If my “line in the sand” breaks on a close, I reduce or exit. No “hope trades.”
Most importantly, it’s okay to do nothing. Cash is a position.
My process is built to survive headline clusters by being steady, not heroic: size modestly, sell defined risk, manage by the clock, and take profits when they’re there. That’s how I’ve kept my sanity through plenty of wild Fridays before this one.
We’re back at it today on this red tape day. See how we’re handling it:
👉 Click here to watch the LIVE on-demand replay!
To Better Trading,
Alex Reid
