We kicked off Q2 trading today for the first trades of the quarter and for the month of April. The live trades today for the 250K Portfolio were up $400 on the day with a $2K gain in the One Million MNS 110 with the 250K Portfolio trading a 20% allocation of the One Million MNS 110. We started live around 12 noon after the portfolio was in a 1% hypothetical loss for the day.
Turning on automation for 110 charts is a long process!
The Nasdaq continues to be a wild card and we may continue to reduce exposure by moving to the One Million MNS 85, which only includes 12 Nasdaq strategies instead of 32.
The CPI was hotter than expected and the stock indexes had a rapid drop pre-market followed by a very narrow choppy range all day, representative of the liquidity propping up the market. Often times when we don't see follow through during the day, we see the follow through at night. VSD Long Short could catch the short move if it happens and could also capture the long side. It was interesting that the market didn't bounce more and could be a sign of further weakness. The market is stubborn to generate a normal distribution or pullback and prefers to do a time correction.
30 Year Bond prices trended lower, yields higher, while the VIX made its high of the day at 1:45 pm EST.
The metals took a break today and the SR CounterTrend metals were down on the day, getting stopped out during CPI as we anticipated and why we waited to turn on automation.
We sent out a drawdown alert in yesterday's report for the Stock Index Portfolio 18. The portfolio was down -$5k today. Skipping CPI for this portfolio would also have been beneficial.