Taking RUT Profits

I started taking profits on my RUT position yesterday as the down move began. The RUT position was comprised of 4 separate overlapping butterflies. As per the pic below, I had taken 3 of them off. At that point, I had realised a profit of about $1,100 or 2.6% .  That left the position with a $2,300 profit in it as you can see from the stats at the bottom of the pic below. This is over 5% on my max theoretical margin. My actual margin is less due to Portfolio margining, but I calculate my returns on the Reg-T margin as I allocate those funds to the trade.

The position left was 800/750/700 July PUT Butterfly. I placed a SELL order in the market for this butterfly at a higher price than current. The position was within the tent and any move against this would mean a new adjustment, either buying a call or call spread or adding another butterfly. It would have depended on when and how the move took place. I had a smell of a possible RUT rally as we had poked our heads through support, so taking profits like I did was prudent. The "first rule of fight club" as the movie said, is PRESERVE CAPITAL.

In fact, the market continued the down move and allowed me to harvest some nice profit. I exited the last RUT butterfly as the market fell to about 766.75.

I earned over 7% on the trade overall. It is important to note that the position was against me by over 12% during the trade but that was within my trading plan. My goal was to scale into the position and then scale out to take profits.

I have other trades on at the moment in GLD and FXE and will be looking to put on a new trade today, probably in the RUT. Not sure whether it will be a flavour of Butterfly or an Iron Condor.