Sunday 10 July 2022

Boredom trading

I've had the 'flu for a week and didn't feel like doing much CPD study, my Kaplan assignment on SMSFs, or anything else of much purpose, so I've been watching some youtube miscellany. One of the channels I've quite enjoyed was Jack Broe, was has an interesting background (ESL teacher in S Korea, then USAF missile silo operator, and more recently left the USAF to pursue other interests. He does a bit of trading on the US stock market and recently bought put options on the Nasdaq in the expectation that the current market downtrend would continue for a while. Of course as soon as he had opened his short position the markets recovered a bit, so he's down a bit atm but hopeful he will end up 'in the black' before his options expire in a few months.

I thought I might similarly short the Nasdaq with a tiny bit of 'play money' so I transferred A$100 into my superhero trading app, converted into about USD$68 and placed a market order for about $68 worth of SQQQ (ProShares UltraPro Short QQQ ETF). The US market is currently closed, but latest bid/ask price was around $49.90. I'm not sure if there is fractional trading on this ticker, but I should end up with either 1 SQQQ share for around $50, or else whatever fractional amount of SQQQ my $68 buys.

Of course it won't matter much whether I make or lose money of this A$100 trade, but it is nice to have a bit of a 'flutter' (my version of gambling I suppose) now and then. The only other holding in my Superhero trading account is the 3.17305 units of iShares US Aerospace and Defence ETF (ITA.US) I had bought in early January. After initially rising for a few months it then dropped and recently recovered slightly, so overall I'm down by about -6.5% on that trade. If I make a small profit on the SQQQ position over the next 6-12 months I'll probably close out the SQQQ position and add the funds to my ITA holding for the long term. I'd probably dollar cost average more into my ITA investment via a regular savings plan, but I won't really have much 'spare' cashflow to invest once I settle the purchase of my off-the-plan investment apartment at the end of this year and need to fund mortgage repayments.

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1 comment:

Steveark said...

I feel your pain. I had a couple of surgical repairs last week of injuries I suffered playing tennis a couple of months ago. As an active retired guy who loves tennis, running, pickle ball, fishing, hiking and off roading every single one of my favorite hobbies has been blacklisted by the doctor for at least a month as my internal repairs heal. I haven't done any boredom trading because I'm just not familiar enough with how to do it but I have been consuming copious amounts of YouTube like you. I think it's a credit to your inner drive and intentional focus on life that you are making trades and learning in your down time. I'm going to try to be a little more that way myself! Enjoyed your post.