Great start, uncertain finish

The beginning of the month was great. I had broken the short legs on some put debit spreads (e.g. $Apple (AAPL.US)$ 185/175) for pennies on the dollar and had some nice gains, along with a couple of stocks in the financial sector making up for most of the losses in July. The nuclear energy sector heated up more than expected and stayed hotter for longer, so while sell targets were reached early, the degree of pullback in the third week made re-entry rather difficult to determine. All new short positions were entered as spreads expiring after the Sept. FOMC meeting, and various short legs have been broken, depending mostly on seasonality, given that the market direction and timing has largely been consistent with an "average(d)" pre-election year. 2023 has been a strong year for the seasonal averaged trade, so while many short positions opened during August are red on paper at the moment, nuclear energy long options are all appreciating as seasonality would expect, and both financial and broad market indexes picked up to close the month neutral/green, which should result in a harsh drop toward the back end of September.