Trade Alert: Portfolio 1 — Rebuilding the Income Ladder
Three /MES short puts. Staggered expirations. Small, deliberate adds on the first downtick in two weeks. Date: April 20, 2026
TonyR Commentary
“First Downtick in Two Weeks — Put Capital to Work, Small”
Today is the first real downtick we’ve had in two weeks. After a sharp rally and a long climb, the portfolio is sitting on a pile of free capital — BP usage at 3.5%, the lowest it’s ever been. Idle capital earns nothing. But over-committing capital after a huge rally is the fastest way to give back a quarter’s worth of gains.
So today I put some capital to work — small. Three /MES short puts, staggered across three expirations: May 29, June 18, July 17. Nothing big. No SPY, no /ES, no SPX. Those require a meaningfully larger move down before I’d sell size. /MES lets me start rebuilding the income ladder one rung at a time, without changing the risk profile of the portfolio.
Here’s the game plan from here:
If the market keeps going down (which I’d welcome) — I’ll keep adding short premium, stepping up in size as vol and distance improve.
If the market doesn’t go down — I’ll keep adding very small /MES positions to extract premium without tying up meaningful capital.
For me to sell SPY, /ES, or SPX — we’d need a bit of a larger move down first. Not there yet.
This is how you rebuild an income stream after de-risking. You don’t go from 3.5% BP to 20% BP in a single day chasing a pullback. You ladder in. You scale. You keep your powder dry for the bigger opportunity that may (or may not) come.
Remember — trade your portfolio, not individual trades. Every new position has to fit within your capital, your direction assumption, your risk tolerance. A portfolio is a team. Each new player you add must contribute to the success of the team as a whole.
