The trading day was positively mundane which is a nice break. Besides the exuberance around Apple (AAPL) which has sold more iPhone 17s than some analysts were expecting, the tech and semiconductor sectors were mostly sideways.

I decided to take the opportunity to try my hand at some order presets I finally got around to configuring in the workstation. My presents now enforce a default bracket order on every trade, which should make it harder for me to trip over my own feet. The preset ensures that for every BUY order I place, creates a default STP and LMT order at the high and low end of my risk profile.

For example, a BUY of SPY at 650 would create:

• STP for SPY at 640
• LMT for SPY at 660

note: these are not the risk ratios I actually use.

As practice I was executing momentum trades with SPY options. SPY options are are very liquid and on a day without much major news offered a good test bed for experimentation with the bracket orders and my risk profile.

I frequently found myself modifying the LMT order to bring its price closer to the current options price, ensuring that I could exit the position profitably and reset for another experiment. The only time I modified a STP order was when I tightened the risk range on one position, going from +/- 1 to +/- 0.5, and then letting that play.

Right now I don't plan on regularly selling SPY options but it serves as a good liquid equity to work with in the future.

Last week I bought the dip on Zion Bancorporation (ZION). Not typically one for investing in regional banks, but I agreed with some analysis that I saw about the silliness of the stock pullback. I expected a quick recovery since earnings was to be announced today after the bell. I was expecting a tick up, but earnings are always such a risky proposition. I think if you're on the fence around any given earnings announcement, it's probably better to offload the position during the frenzy ahead of earnings and save yourself some grief.

I may have missed out on 0.5% of upside after the bell, but I will rest easier with having closed that position.

Over the weekend I saw this Motley Fool interview with Jay Hatfield wherein they talked about PFFA and how they manage that fund. I was sufficiently impressed when I looked at the fundamentals that I decided to pick some up right off the open today. A consistent 9-10% dividend is a good addition to the foundation of my portfolio, more so than meme investments like BTC, USD, or gold!

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