Today, I entered the first live campaign of my A14 Strategy.
This is also the first trade in the public journal I announced earlier. Every campaign will have an opening post like this one, followed by a separate closing article when the position is complete.
The objective is not to present a perfect sequence of trades. It is to document what actually happens: the entries, fills, commissions, reviews, adjustments, mistakes, and final results.
This Week’s Trade
Opened: Friday, August 28, 2026, at 10:34 a.m. ET
Underlying: SPX
Expiration: Friday, September 11, 2026
Structure: Put Broken Wing Butterfly
Quantity: 2 contracts
Buy: 2 × 7,730 PUT @ 56.20
Sell: 4 × 7,690 PUT @ 41.80
Buy: 2 × 7,630 PUT @ 27.80
Net debit: $80
Commission: $10.24
Modeled starting risk: $4,080
Target net profit: $204
The campaign’s target is 5% of the modeled starting risk—not 5% of the opening debit and not 5% of the account. The $204 target is measured after commissions.
👉 View the actual position on OptionStrat
A Small but Important Execution Note
The system recommended 7,635 as the lower long-put strike.
When entering the order in IBKR, I selected 7,630 instead. This was not an intentional adjustment to the strategy—it was simply my own inattention while entering the first trade.
I decided to leave the position exactly as filled rather than rewrite the trade after the fact. The live journal therefore records the actual 7,630 contract, and all risk calculations and future management decisions will be based on the position that truly exists in IBKR.
That is part of the purpose of this project: to document the real process, including execution mistakes, rather than publish a cleaned-up version afterward.
Management Plan
This is not a butterfly that I plan to open and simply hold until expiration.
The campaign will be reviewed once per trading day, normally around 3:30 p.m. New York time. Each review will consider the current SPX level, the value of the complete position, its management levels, and the net result after commissions.
Any adjustment resulting from these daily reviews will be documented by me in the comments under this article. I will post each actual action, fill, and commission from my own account so readers can follow the campaign as it develops. I will not publish a separate article for every adjustment—the next full article will be published after the campaign is closed.
If the $204 net profit target is reached, I will close the campaign.
If SPX moves far enough above or below the opening structure, the A14 rules may call for a put-calendar adjustment or another predefined defensive action. Any actual adjustment will be documented with its fills and commissions.
The position will also be closed before expiration if the mandatory exit condition is reached or if another adjustment no longer makes economic sense.
Follow the Campaign
The complete factual state of this trade—including the actual contracts, executions, reviews, commissions, and eventual result—is available on the public dashboard:
When the campaign ends, I will publish a separate closing article with the complete result and a review of how the position developed.
This is the first campaign. The record starts here.
Disclaimer
All content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. This is a personal trading journal, not a trade-alert service. Options involve substantial risk, and SPX contracts can produce large and rapid changes in value. Any strategy should be tested in a simulated environment before real capital is used. All trading decisions remain the sole responsibility of the reader.