To The Moon

Lost $13.1k for the trading week of 4th to 8th Aug 2025, trimming the gains made from the prior week.

Let’s find out which of my trades worked and which trades didn’t.

“Mistakes are the portals of discovery” - James Joyce

Summary Read:

Lost $31.9k from stocks and made $18.8k from option trades. Overall, many of my large position trades on SMCI, HOOD, VXX, GDX, GFS and APP didn’t work.

I’ve since fully took loss on HOOD, while the rest of the counters still have exposure so they could either draw further losses, or rebound to recover some value.

S&P is up 2.43% and Nasdaq100 is up by 3.73% erasing the losses from last week with Nasdaq making new all time high again.

As the result, my short positions on HOOD, VXX, GDX, APP and PLTR suffered losses. Poor earnings on 2 major position SMCI and GFS also greatly dragged down my stock portfolio.

Silver linings are on SoFi to continue deliver continuous income through selling puts, and RCL which I hold another significant short positions and market moved in my favour for these 2 counters.

Of the 50 counters with open trades, 29 counters were profitable and 21 were unprofitable.

Slight change in my trading strategy this week. I’m focusing on trimming losing trades and large exposure to rebalance against major losses should market turn against my trades.

Since I made losses last week, I intend to cover my top 5 losing trades (SMCI, HOOD, GDX, VXX and GFS) instead and forego all analysis of profitable trades.

Readers can refer to all my other trades and comments on my actual Trade Feeds for more detailed analysis.

Hope you can subscribe and click on notifications to be informed whenever my trades is executed real time.

WW #32 Top 10 Profitable Trades

Most Profitable Trades

For the top 10 most profitable trades, profits ranged from $4095 to $209.

WW #32 Top 10 Unprofitable Trades

Most Unprofitable Trades

For the top 10 most unprofitable trades, the losses ranged from $7935 to $370 with 8 counters with >$1k losses for the week.

1. SuperMicro Computer Inc. (SMCI) $SUPER MICRO COMPUTER INC(SMCI)$

SMCI Daily Chart

Lost $7935 from SMCI being my most unprofitable trade from WW #32.

Open Positions:

• Long 1470 shares at average of $67

• 14 covered calls with strike at $50, $52, $54 and $55 expiring on 15th, 22nd and 29th Aug

• 4 short calls with strike at $54 and $55 expiring on 29th Aug and 5th Sept

What Didn’t Work:

SMCI dropped 21.26% in WW #32 and closed at $44.60 after a disastrous earning calls where SMCi missed both earnings and revenue targets when it announce on 5th Aug. The pull back in stock price caused all the losses last week.

The underlying short calls were all collecting good premiums but is not enough to offset the sharp loss on the shares.

SMCI had been rising steadily on the AI tailwind and was as high as $62.36 on 31st July, almost within reach of my breakeven cost, but alas the disappointing earnings readjust everyone back to reality. Profitability margin continue to compress even as the company gain more revenues and SMCI performance could continue to worsen in coming quarters.

Possible Trade Actions in coming Days/Weeks:

• Manage the expiring short calls, rolling downwards to adjust to new price reality, possibly with $45 to $50 strikes.

• Reduce exposure on shares through selective selling and allowing covered calls to get exercised.

• Decide to cut loss if SMCI drop below $40

2. RobinHood $Robinhood(HOOD)$

HOOD Daily Chart

Lost $5611 from HOOD being my 2nd most unprofitable trade from WW #32.

Open Positions:

• None. Took full loss on 8th Aug after closing all 4 short calls.

What Didn’t Work:

HOOD continue it’s meteoric rise and BTC is breaking out to the upside again. BTC now trades close to $122k again and HOOD is up 14.74% for the week.

Previously, I have decided that I will cut loss if HOOD hit $115 and it did, so I cut loss on the ever rising short calls and took this loss.

On hindsight, my cut loss level is too wide, so this resulted in increased losses and impacted my portfolio growth.

Possible Trade Actions in coming Days/Weeks:

• I’m out from this counter for now. Will not touch in a while in case of revenge trade due to anchoring emotions.

3. VanEck Gold Miners ETF $VanEck Gold Miners ETF(GDX)$

GDX Daily Chart

Lost $2940 from GDX being my 3rd most unprofitable trade from WW #32.

Open Positions:

• Net short 300 shares at $51.33.

• 3 short puts at $50 strike expiring on 15th, 22nd and 29th Aug to cover the short shares holding if prices comes down.

• 6 short calls at $57 and $60 expiring on 22nd, 29th Aug and 5th Sept

What Didn’t Work:

GDX was trading in a channel between $50 and $55 for 9 weeks before finally broke out to the up side and closed the week at $58.06 and up 10.70% for the week.

This resulted in my short shares position taking a paper loss, and short calls positions going into money on expiry if price stays elevated.

$58 is the next resistance level and price rejects off the level on Fri 8th Aug. Will be trading this level.

Gold is still within a wedge pattern and had not broke out to test it’s all time high of $3500/oz so all hope is not lost.

Possible Trade Actions in coming Days/Weeks:

• Add new positions selling calls at higher strikes of $58 and above.

• Roll or take assignment of in the money short calls to average up the net short positions.

• Continue to sell puts at $51 or lower strike to breakeven on stocks while collection premium to offset holding cost if price stays elevated.

4. iPath S&P VIX Short Term Futures $iPath Series B S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN(VXX)$

VXX Daily Chart

Lost $2230 from VXX being my 4th most unprofitable trade from WW #32.

Open Positions:

• Long 800 shares at average of $49

• 4 short puts with strike at $40 expiring on 15th and 22nd Aug

• 8 covered calls with strike at $50, $52 and $55 expiring on 15th, 22nd and 29th Aug

• 3 short calls with strike at $50 and $55 expiring on 29th Aug and 5th Sept

What Didn’t Work:

VXX dropped 11.11% in WW #32 and closed at $40.81 after forming a peak at $46.97 on Fri 1st Aug. This resulted further losses on the existing shares holding.

The underlying short calls were collecting some premiums but is not enough to offset the sharp loss on the shares. The short calls were sold at strikes higher than $49 so if volatility spiked, that would be an ideal situation.

VXX act as my bearish market position hedge and I was ready to accumulate up to 1000 shares before paring down my exposure so I’m nearly at full exposure with 800 shares.

Looking at volatility spike situation for me the chance to offload my holdings hopefully for profit.

Possible Trade Actions in coming Days/Weeks:

• Manage the expiring short puts, roll or sell new ones depending on market price actions.

• Maintaining full exposure limit of 1000 shares.

• Sell covered calls at holding cost of $49 or higher and if in the money, let them get exercised and recover capital.

• Sell some additional calls to replace the expiring ones and collect additional premiums to offset share price decays.

5. GlobalFoundries $GLOBALFOUNDRIES Inc.(GFS)$

GFS Daily Chart

Lost $2220 from GFS being my 5th most unprofitable trade from WW #32.

Open Positions:

• Long 600 shares at average of $54.48

• 3 short puts with strike at $35 expiring on 15th Aug

• 6 short puts with strike at $40 expiring on 15th Aug

What Didn’t Work:

GFS was trading >$40 up until 30th July and price broke down below 200 days MA and dropped everyday up until earnings on 5th Aug and currently trades at $31.62 down 25% off its recent high.

This shows some heavy selling a full week ahead of earnings and probably weak insider governance for this sell off to go this way.

Possible Trade Actions in coming Days/Weeks:

• Let the short calls to expire worthless on 15th Aug.

• Sell the remaining 600 shares if they didn’t get assigned.

• Marking down of investments, take the capital loss and move on.

Other good profitable trades not featured this week, refer to my trade feeds for details:

• $SoFi Technologies Inc.(SOFI)$

• Royal Carribean Cruises (RCL)

About the Writer:

• This journal post reflects writer’s self-analysis of his own trading performance and are meant to be read as entertainment piece.

• Writer respect differing views from readers and your opinions are welcome. He is happy to engage in constructive discussions to better his trading edge.

• Some content information and analytical tools used here are from external sources/platforms and resides within paid walls that the writer had paid subscriptions to gain access.

• The writer aspires to build his trading war chest with $1mil of trading profits and invite readers to witness and share their own journey and struggles on the path of financial freedom.