XLE Overall Contract/Trade Review

Quick recap before diving in: I've been traveling so I haven't been writing every day. Which means I have 6 posts in queue to get back on track. This is the first one.

As a fresh reminder, below is an overview of my call contracts:

From the above table, the stop loss price changes, and that's because I moved it the closer I got to my goal. Now, something I said I'd do was only be willing to lose 25% of initial contract. However, as I moved further from the initial contract price, I decided to move it to maximize profit and minimize losses.

I sat down to decide what determines a "successful trade" and it's a subjective answer for the most part. Generally speaking, I think most people would argue that a successful trade – option, swing, or day trade – is when one follows their plan. If we go with the latter, then I can deem my options contracts as successful. I say this because sure, I may not have sold when I hit the break-even price of $55.67+, but looking at the table above, it is evident that I did take some profit since we see the contract price increase in the two selling days.

I entered this contract after creating analysis for three days and observing the resistance being tested while maintaining a healthy RSI (not overbought). Of course, if I were to look at the chart from February 4 - 5, we know that RSI was marked as oversold the day before I entered. The key here was that I entered during the pull-back session day. At the same time, I was looking for an uptrend, where both, the lower lows and higher highs got higher. Reference chart below:

As mentioned, I sold half on February 20, the reason I did this was because I wanted to protect my initial investment. I personally liked this move because it allowed me to see the contract run its course without losing money. There were two external factors that had impact on XLE while I had the contracts open:

1. Personal Consumption Expenditure (PCE) Report – On February 13, PCE was reported indicating that it was slightly higher than expected. Part of this contributed to the drop observed on February 17, 2026, although we know it recovered back the next day.
2. State of the Union (SOTU) – February 24, 2026. This is the same day I sold the remainder of my contracts. During the SOTU, the president expressed the low gas prices and was adamant about the focus amongst other sectors, more specifically – Artificial Intelligence. This is why on February 25, 2026 (not shown in the chart above) XLE took a beat down to $54.44 low price. There was a lot of panic sold contracts or strategic, really, but the point is a lot of sellers took profit instead.

As I mentioned when I sold everything, I felt like I panic sold, but in all reality, it was a strategic move for me as we saw that February 25 went below the strike price.

Now, let's fast forward to the past weekend February 28, 2026. The geopolitical issues taking place, the US striking Iran forced the XLE sector to boom to $58 price. At the time when I saw this happening, I felt a lot of FOMO for not staying longer. However, I got myself out pretty quick because it was an unpredictable move. Had this event not take place, we could've potentially continue to see a side trend. On top of that, the theta decay was starting to become more aggressive each passing day. So yes, I did briefly experience FOMO again, it's hard not to – but acknowledging that I would've been gambling if I didn't get out when I did helps.

Overall thoughts

I think this was a good trade. It felt informed and strategic from the beginning. While I didn't amount an insane amount of money, I didn't lose any this time and gained a little bit instead. It was a great learning experience overall. It allowed me to learn about sectors, economy reports like PCE, and how to shift my stop losses day by day. XLE also opened up my taste for ETFs overall, which is something I now will be trading and also adding to my Schwab's account. I feel satisfied with this.