IWM
iShares Russell 2000 ETF
stock NYSE ETF

I'm tempted to sell the 3dte ~~IWM~~ 225/215 put spread but its probably a bad idea
edit: oops i meant IBM

Pre-market watch: $SPY, $IWM, $PLTR. Focus on earnings reactions and volume spikes.

Bought an /M2K Russell micro futures contract, and I'm going to add on an IWM beer call spread to hedge it.
And I know my voice dictation just said "beer" call spread but maybe that's what it'll buy me in the end?!

yeah, plus you look at a day like today, SPY/QQQ/IWM etc are down \~1%, that's manageable when im doing 30-45DTE. then i get stuff like MSFT the last month or two, or just today look at AXP down 7% in one day. i go from sitting pretty to entire spread completely underwater in one day

If the images scale horribly in new reddit, replace www with old in the URL. So domain is old.reddit.com
My last 2 new swaps tracking posts:
* 2/22/2026 - [A look at January 2026 insider buys, IJH abnormal fails to deliver, related GME and XRT swap activity, and delayed settlement into March and April 2026. XRT, GME and 14 other new swaps tracking - 2/22/2026 update](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/1rcvonf/a_look_at_january_2026_insider_buys_ijh_abnormal/)
* [2/15/2026](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/1r6kwcj/xrt_gme_and_14_other_new_swaps_tracking_2152026/)
Last 2 swaps activity breakdown posts:
* 9/27/2025 - [GME, XRT, and 25 other swaps activity breakdown. Added 4 stocks.](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/1nsypy2/gme_xrt_and_25_other_swaps_activity_breakdown/)
* [9/20/2025](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/1nn3re9/gme_xrt_and_21_other_swaps_activity_breakdown/)
What are swaps, big picture on ETFs, FTDs, settlement can kicking, ETF and FTD juggling, etc:
* VariousScenes [12/23/2025 post](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/1pu38lr/cycles_theory_revisiting_the_puzzle/)
* Counterspell_This [12/9/2025 post](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/1pileus/total_return_swaps_trs_deep_dive_dd_and_rceos/)
* samgungraven describing [swaps](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/1cy1xv4/great_explanation_on_how_swaps_work_and_current/)
* Arcanis_Ender 12/8/2025 comment: Swaps allow the parties to effectively hide their positions from the public. Bullet swaps were famously used by Bill Hwang to blow up his family office Archegos Capital via margin call as well as the counterparty involved--Credit Suisse. Those bags passed on to UBS who was forced by their government to absorb them and their toxic liabilities. The swiss government opted to HIDE (seal) the swap data regarding Credit Suisse collapse for 50 years as well. Swaps are very hard to trace by their nature, but they allow parties to have hidden short positions from their structure without actively impacting the Short Interest % of a stock. This keeps the cost to borrow low, just like when a market maker abuses their creation/redemption privileges on an ETF to artificially inflate supply of a stock that would otherwise have low liquidity.
* HashtagYoMamma [11/14/2025 post](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/1owqv0b/reminder_youre_being_gaslit_the_price_makes_no/)
* Long-Setting [11/1/2025 post](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/1olv8ox/memorandum_for_the_record_due_diligence_report_on/) - Snippet: A total return swap (TRS) is a derivative contract where one party (e.g., a hedge fund) receives the total economic performance (gains/losses, dividends) of a reference asset (e.g., $GME shares) from a counterparty (e.g., a bank), in exchange for periodic payments based on a fixed/variable rate. Unlike direct short sales, TRS allow synthetic exposure without borrowing shares, evading "locate" requirements and enabling indefinite position recycling.
* LoPiano 9/23/2025 discussion on Newton's yellow/pink/red swap theory, see 15:50 mark: [youtube video](https://youtu.be/Ak-Xz8WpJ-A)
Swaps data source:
* From the DTCC website. Example (change the date portion to retrieve other dates going back up to 2 years): [https://pddata.dtcc.com/ppd/api/report/cumulative/sec/SEC\_CUMULATIVE\_EQUITIES\_2025\_08\_30.zip](https://pddata.dtcc.com/ppd/api/report/cumulative/sec/SEC_CUMULATIVE_EQUITIES_2025_08_30.zip)
* Alternatively via Amazon domain, example: [https://kgc0418-tdw-data-0.s3.amazonaws.com/sec/eod/SEC\_CUMULATIVE\_EQUITIES\_2025\_08\_31.zip](https://kgc0418-tdw-data-0.s3.amazonaws.com/sec/eod/SEC_CUMULATIVE_EQUITIES_2025_08_31.zip)
* XRT's ISIN and RIC: US78464A7147 and XRT.P
* GME: US36467W1099 and GME.N
* For brevity, tracking: CHWY, GEF, IEP, MSTR, NTRS, PSKY, RCL, SIRI, U, VSCO, WBD, IBIT, IJH, ITOT, IWB, IWD, IWM, IWR, IWS, MDY, VB, VBR, VXF
Credit to many others wading through the swaps data. View their profile's posts and comments for helpful information!
* WhoLovesAvacados - see their profile's posts
* GMEPieMan via F-uPayMe - [8/20/2025 The Gamestop Saga Is Weird. The Data Is Even Stranger.](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/1nt385a/another_glitch_in_the_system/)
* TheUltimator5 - [2/21/2025 GME Bottom Finder and GME Swapinator](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/1iv5kbp/the_gme_bottom_finder_has_been_reuploaded_to_tv/)
* WhatCanIMakeToday - [3/13/2025 GME Swaps Expirations By Date](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/1jaimi8/gme_swaps_expirations_by_date/)
* alwayssadbuttruthful - [1/19/2025 4x posts](https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/1i516sl/gamestopswapdd_part_4201_cfd_summations/)
* theorico
* IullotronBudC1_3

Any ya'll paying attention to the private credit issues? Under the hood for now, but starting to crack.. Got a feeling contributed to IWM selling off more than other indexes today

All this kerfuffle, and IWM still trading above the 50d ma.

Lower low on IWM please sir Bogdanoff.

So.... IWM calls anyone?

Haha I've actually been there but circumstances were a bit different. I went to market sell a long call on IWM during a Powell speech at the exact moment the spread went from like 2.18/2.20 to some shit like 0.80/2.10 on relatively pathetic price action. Guess where I got filled? Was absolutely fuming the whole afternoon but learned my lesson: even ETF options are not immune to market order shenanigans.

I work a decent job so I was able to grind up to 180k liquid under my name at 28 years old. My whole life, I have been a rational and risk-averse investor. I would only deposit my money in diversified ETF's. But recently I needed money quickly for a new house and my car. I tried pennystocks but quickly lost some money. I tried to recoup through options trading, specifically scalping index (SPY, QQQ, IWM) 0DTE.
My goal in life is similar to many. I wanted to retire early, work only a couple hours a day, retire my parents, achieve financial freedom and not adhere to a strict 9-5 schedule.
I started small by trying with only a couple hundred bucks. It went well so I kept going. Early stage I was copying some traders on Discord who had high win rates. I then started getting cocky and trade by myself after learning a couple of strategies. Everything was going smoothly so I started sizing up to win more money, from $100 to $1000 to $10,000 and eventually $100,000 allocations. Sure, I would have some bad trades but my wins far outweighed my losses. I would always end the day green.
Over the past two weeks, I turned 200k to 600k. On some days I would make 50k or 100k alone. I felt invincible and on top of the world. "Wow, I really just made someone's yearly salary within a day". Then last Thursday I blew up everything on one wrong trade. Before I even came back to my senses, I saw 600k collapse into just 10k before my eyes. Of course, I didn't bet the whole 600k right off the bat, just 40k, but the price kept going down so I was averaging down in hopes of a rebound and before I knew it 590k was gone. I could have cut my losses, I could have not average down, and none of this would have happened. I would still have minimum 550k. Now I am down to my last 10k.
This is a strict warning to anyone that you win UNTIL you don't. Let it be gambling, daytrading, or any form of risky investment, please only use the money you are COMFORTABLE with losing. Also, make sure to quit while you're AHEAD. Profit is profit; don't be greedy. You doubled your port? Congrats! Remove at least 80% and start again. LOCK IN your gains.
I WILL NOT be chasing my losses from this. But I just wanted to share my story to strangers because I am too ashamed to tell my friends and family.
I could have not worried about money anymore for the rest of my life. I was set for a path of financial freedom. But now I am back into the rat race with no profit to show and down -170k on my principal. For a good while, I lost connection with money during my euphoric stage. 600k looked like just a number on the screen that I could win or lose; that is until I realized 600k was real and concrete dollars that was able to change my life. Do NOT disrespect money, or it will disrespect you back. Even $1 is still a $1. It is easy to forget the value of money when it's just a digital number floating on the screen. Will you rip a $5 bill? No? Then why would you oversize and risk $1000 on an unsure trade?
Do I still think daytrading is a viable career? Yes, I do. However, it's not for nothing 99% of people don't make it long term; not because their strategies don't work, but because we are humans. As long as you are emotionally tied to a position, you WILL hold your losses and average down because you refuse to be wrong. Traders who make it are machines who follow their rules to the dot (no exceptions). Don't bet on luck and pray for a miracle reversal - it will work until it doesn't.
At this point, I've accepted that I'm too emotional and undisciplined to follow the own rules I set. Daytrading is not for me. If you THINK it is for you then please, for the love of god, size small and consistently. Never think you're invincible after a series of wins, because you can easily lose months of discipline over one single day of revenge trades.

Detection algorithms with little modification should work across disparate tickers. A good lineup is QQQ, SPY, IWM. If you can find signals consistently in that mess your functioning from raw data and overfit is unlikely.
Some hand tuning to a specific investment is expected. Mostly to deal with the influence of human traders.
When I was building a backtesting engine and I was using hyper parallelized vectorized learning for regime detection I intentionally granulated the data by using 5 minute tickers and used a hunt and seek algorithm to find best fit them loosened it up 20% to avoid overfit.

EWY will outperform SPY, QQQ, IWM come year end

My portfolio is about 65/35 US/international, and SWTSX makes up the vast majority of the U.S. holdings. I supplement it with about 5% in AVUV, small cap value. You could do something similar and use AVUV, SCHM, SCHA, IWM, or anything like that to get a moderate tilt away from megacaps