Week of Oct 5–Oct 11, 2026
This was a rebound week, the first full one after the $915.76 loss on September 30. It had two halves. Monday morning the 3-lot /ESZ6 strangle that had been open since September 17 was bought back for a real +$552.18, and Monday afternoon two SPX spreads lost $509.16 and $254.16 within 42 minutes of each other. Then Tuesday through Friday were four green SPX days in a row. The account finished the week up $486.10 in realized trading.
Week net, realized
+$486.10
Strangle +$552.18, sixteen SPX spreads -$66.08. Fifteen winners and two losers.
Mon Oct 5, SPX
-$624.36
Two spreads bought back at losses of -$509.16 and -$254.16, three others positive
Back from Sep 30
$879.86 of $915.76
The realized total peaked at $5,818.25 on Sep 29 and is now $5,782.35, $35.90 below that high
Account value, Sun Oct 11
$26,010.95
From the account's one-week value chart. It fell to roughly $25,100 after Monday and climbed back by Friday.
The comeback
This week was about rebounding. On September 30 I took the biggest loss this account has had, $915.76 in one day. I was scared to come back to it on Monday. By the end of the week I had my confidence back, and I am working in a smarter, more cautious way. I will still lose money, and Monday was proof of that. But I am climbing back to where I started, and it is a process.
The numbers say the same thing. The realized total peaked at $5,818.25 on September 29, fell to $4,902.49 after September 30, and stands at $5,782.35 now. That is $879.86 of the $915.76 back, and $35.90 short of the old high. The account is not at its peak yet, but it is close.
The five trading days
| Date | SPX spreads | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Mon Oct 5 | Call 7785/7805 (0.65), call 7795/7815 (0.60), put 7685/7705 (0.60), put 7745/7765 (0.50), put 7770/7780 (0.50) | Call 7785/7805 bought back at 5.70, -$509.16. Put 7770/7780 bought back at 3.00 by a stop-limit order, -$254.16. Put 7745/7765 bought back at 0.20, +$25.84. Two expired worthless, +$56.56 each. -$624.36 |
| Tue Oct 6 | Call 7875/7895 (0.45), put 7775/7795 (0.40) | Both bought back early, at 0.10 and 0.05. +$30.84 each. +$61.68 |
| Wed Oct 7 | Call 7815/7835 (0.50), put 7705/7725 (0.50) | Both expired worthless, +$46.56 each. +$93.12 |
| Thu Oct 8 | Call 7825/7845 (0.70, rolled to 7805/7845), put 7720/7740 (0.60), put 7710/7730 (0.45) | All three expired worthless. +$114.12, +$56.56, +$41.56. +$212.24 |
| Fri Oct 9 | Put 7715/7735 (0.60), put 7730/7750 (0.55), call 7830/7850 (0.45), call 7835/7855 (0.45) | All four expired worthless. +$56.56, +$51.56, +$41.56, +$41.56. +$191.24 |
Every spread was a single contract. Credits are in points, so 0.65 is $65 before fees. All figures are net of commissions and fees. The /ESZ6 strangle is covered below.
Monday: a loss on each side
Three of Monday’s five spreads went on before 10:30 AM ET and two more in the afternoon. The first, a 7785/7805 call spread sold at 10:15 AM for 0.65, had its short leg bought back at 3:04 PM at 5.70, a loss of $509.16. At 3:19 PM a 10-point-wide 7770/7780 put spread went on for 0.50. At 3:46 PM, 27 minutes later, a stop-limit order at 3.00 bought back its short leg, a loss of $254.16. A third spread, a 7745/7765 put spread opened at 2:34 PM, was bought back at 0.20 at 3:51 PM for a $25.84 profit.
All three buybacks came between 3:04 and 3:51 PM ET, 47 minutes in total, and the two losses landed on opposite sides of the market. With the three other spreads that made money, SPX finished the day at -$624.36. Taken with the strangle’s +$552.18 the same morning, the day’s combined total was -$72.18.
The strangle: nine orders over 38 minutes, then a new one
The 3-lot 5700 put and 8600 call /ESZ6 strangle sold on September 17 for 6.50 was bought back at 10:49 AM ET on Monday for a 2.65 combined debit: 0.80 for the call and 1.85 for the put. That is 3.85 of the original 6.50 kept, about 59%, for +$552.18 after fees. It was not a clean fill. The order log shows nine attempts from 10:11 to 10:49 AM: three rejected by the exchange (“could not create the spread in time”), five canceled and repriced between 2.50 and 2.65, and a last order at 2.65 that filled.
At 11:25 AM, 36 minutes after the close, a new 3-lot strangle went on for the same 6.50 credit, at different strikes. The short put moved from 5700 to 6000, 300 points closer to the market, and the short call from 8600 to 8650. The expiration moved from November 6 to November 20. At the end of the week it showed +$184.61 unrealized. That figure is a mark to market, not a result. Last week’s recap carried the same caveat about the older position’s +$526.
Thursday’s roll made one spread twice as wide
A 7825/7845 call spread went on at 10:06 AM Thursday for 0.70. At 11:37 AM, in one order, the short 7825 call was bought back for 0.27 and a new short 7805 call was sold for 0.77: a net credit of 0.50, with the long 7845 call left in place. The result was a 7805/7845 spread, 40 points wide instead of 20. Its maximum loss went from $1,930 to $3,880, and the total credit collected became 1.20. It expired worthless and made $114.12.
Nothing went wrong, and the extra credit is real. The width is the part to look at. Rolling the short leg while leaving the long leg where it was turned the spread opened that morning into a bigger bet, with twice the maximum loss on the same single contract. Position Sizing in a Small Options Account covers why the maximum loss, not the credit, is the number to size against.
Stop orders were back from Monday to Wednesday
The Sep 28 recap said the two put spreads that lost $274.44 and $784.44 had no stop. This week’s order log shows resting stop-limit orders on six of the nine spreads opened from Monday to Wednesday. One filled: Monday’s 7770/7780 put spread, at 3.00. The log shows no stop orders on Thursday’s or Friday’s spreads, all of which expired worthless. The log shows the orders, not the reasoning behind them.
Where the record stands
At this writing the record is 98 winners and 14 losers across 112 closed trades, $5,782.35 realized, an 87.5% win rate. Realized figures only: the new /ESZ6 strangle is open and sits at +$184.61 on paper, along with about $15 on the JEPI and JEPQ shares, per the year-to-date summary. Neither is counted here.
Takeaway
+$486.10 was the week the account needed after September 30, and it was made of an unusual mix: a $552.18 strangle profit that took nine orders to fill, a Monday afternoon with two losses in 47 minutes, four clean green days after it, and one roll that doubled a spread’s maximum loss. The roll is the decision from this week that is worth reading twice, because it is the one that changed the risk without changing the size.
Frequently asked questions
Is the account back to where it was before the September 30 loss?
Not quite. The realized total peaked at $5,818.25 on September 29, fell to $4,902.49 after the $915.76 loss on September 30, and stands at $5,782.35 after this week. That is $879.86 of the loss recovered and $35.90 short of the old high. The trader describes it as a process of climbing back, and says the week was a rebound from the biggest loss so far.
How did this account do the week of October 5, 2026?
Up $486.10 in realized trading, after commissions and fees. The 3-lot /ESZ6 short strangle opened September 17 was bought back for +$552.18. Sixteen 1-lot same-day SPX credit spreads netted -$66.08: fourteen winners and two losers. Both losers came on Monday afternoon, and SPX was +$61.68, +$93.12, +$212.24 and +$191.24 from Tuesday through Friday.
What happened on Monday, October 5?
SPX lost $624.36. A call spread's short leg was bought back at 5.70 at 3:04 PM ET for -$509.16, and 42 minutes later a put spread's short leg was bought back at 3.00 by a stop-limit order for -$254.16. The other three spreads that day made $56.56, $56.56 and $25.84. Earlier that morning the 3-lot /ESZ6 strangle was bought back for +$552.18, so the day's total across both was -$72.18.
What did the /ESZ6 strangle do this week?
The 3-lot 5700 put and 8600 call strangle sold September 17 for 6.50 was bought back on Monday at a 2.65 combined debit, a profit of $552.18 after fees. A new 3-lot strangle was sold 36 minutes later for the same 6.50 credit, at the 6000 put and 8650 call, expiring November 20 instead of November 6. It showed +$184.61 unrealized at the end of the week.
What did the Thursday roll change?
A 7825/7845 call spread sold for 0.70 had its short leg rolled in one order to 7805 for a net 0.50 credit, leaving a 7805/7845 spread 40 points wide instead of 20. Its maximum loss went from $1,930 to $3,880. It expired worthless and made $114.12.