Closing Winners On A Down Day
How we had more winning than losing trades in a brutal tape.
Closing Winners on a Rough Market Day
Earlier this month, I wrote about how market sentiment had shifted away from complacency.
Today was a vivid reminder of that shift.
November 13th was one of the roughest sessions of the month.
Indexes were deep red, high-beta names got hammered, and momentum cracked.
It was the kind of tape where most traders were just trying to limit damage.
And yet, we closed more profitable trades than losing ones today.
That isn’t luck. It’s the result of how these trades are structured.
We also used the spike in fear to open a new bullish trade on a nuclear-energy name, and did so for a generous net credit. Days like today are when those opportunities appear.
Why We Closed Winners on a Brutal Tape
Most traders try to predict direction day-to-day. Portfolio Armor doesn’t.
Our approach uses asymmetric, defined-risk option structures built to take advantage of:
rich implied volatility
steep put skew
time decay
the emotional overshoots that follow selloffs
These trades are often entered after a meaningful drop, when downside insurance is overpriced and upside is relatively cheap. By the time we exit, theta and IV decay have already done much of the work. A red tape doesn’t automatically hurt us — sometimes it helps push the put floors we sold down into our GTC levels.
Today was a textbook example.
Trades We Closed Today (11/13/2025)
As usual, we post our losing trades at the top.
Options
Put spread on CoreWeave (CRWV). Entered at a $1.85 credit as part of a 4-leg combo on 11/4/2025; effectively exited at a $7.05 debit on 11/13/2025 via assignment of the $118 put, sale of the assigned shares at $81.40, and sale of the $113 put at $27.70. Loss: 141% of max risk *(~381% of premium collected).
Put spread on Clearpoint Neuro (CLPT). Entered at a $0.98 credit as part of a 4-leg combo on 10/3/2025; effectively exited at a $4.43 debit on 11/13/2025 via assignment of the $30 put, sale of the assigned shares at $16.22, and sale of the $25 put at $9.35. Loss: 86% of max risk (~352% of premium collected).
Put spread on ZIM Integrated Shipping (ZIM).
Entered at a net credit of $0.53 as part of a 3-leg combo on 09/22/2025; exited at a net debit of $0.20 on 11/13/2025. Profit: 62% on premium collected (~22% on max risk).Put spread on Argan (AGX). Entered at a $1.87 net credit as part of a 4-leg combo on 9/11/2025; exited at a $0.20 net debit on 11/13/2025. Profit: 89% on premium collected (~53% of max risk).
Put spread on Halozyme Therapeutics (HALO). Entered at a $6.40 credit on 5/13/2025; exited at a $0.30 debit on 11/13/2025. Profit: 95% on premium collected (~169% of max risk).
We had several other trade exits earlier this week and may have more on Friday; we’ll post all our exits for the week after Friday’s close.
¹ Footnote on CRWV
This loss exceeds 100% of max risk because I legged out of the position the wrong way: I sold the $113 put first while CRWV was trading above $84, and then, a few minutes later, sold the assigned shares after the stock had dropped by about $3. A better approach, if you’re already assigned, is to sell the stock first, then the long put shortly after, so you’re never naked long the shares. That should keep the loss within the original max-risk of the spread.
Why This Matters
These trades aren’t reckless directional bets. They’re volatility-harvesting, skew-exploiting, defined-risk structures engineered to withstand turbulence, exploit fear, and monetize time.
Two trades closed at losses today—barring an execution mistake on my part, these were the bounded, known-in-advance losses we accepted at entry. The other three closed at solid profits, even as the tape was falling apart.
And we didn’t just harvest gains. We used the fear to open a new bullish position on a nuclear name, and did so at extremely favorable pricing.
Market panic doesn’t have to be something to hide from. Sometimes it’s where the best asymmetry appears.
Let’s see what shows up in Portfolio Armor’s top names tonight, and see if we can take advantage of new opportunities on Friday.