Recent content by 767trader

Some of the guys on here strike me as "I'm not as successful as some of you, so I'm going to call everyone else a liar." Of course, some of the people posting excellent returns may be lying, but there are plenty of people on the daily P/L threads doing very well for themselves. I personally...

I think you could have gotten out of the August mini-crash alive with an IC. I was in cash at the time (thankfully), so the following is hypothetical. I think in order to have survived (and I say "survived," not "profited") you had to have paid attention to implied volatility leading up to...

I had a look at SPX weeklies and decided the weekly series, at least for SPX, did not seem appropriate for my uses. As a premium seller, it seemed to me that the IV of both puts and calls was far too low for the risk I'd be assuming. For example, when SPX volatility was especially high in...

Beyond the possible datafeed issues, the commissions TDA offers are downright cost prohibitive if you're scalping or day trading. No worries; there are better platforms for that. For options trading though, I couldn't ask for better. I dumped OptionsHouse to stay with TDA, even though OH's...

I wasn't responding for him; he's welcome to answer your question directly if he wishes.

I've gotten instantaneous fills while buying in complex spreads at the mid. I don't have a well-educated reason for why that is, but it doesn't happen terribly often. I typically start at the mid and adjust $0.05 at a time until I get a fill. I'd say it's pretty common for me to get filled...

Interest rates. With higher interest rates, the cash-secured put is more valuable than the covered stock. The cash used to secure the put, over the same term as the covered call, earns interest. Using a covered call with an underlying stock, the forward price of the stock must be sufficiently...

Truth! I had to drag myself through the last half of it, but it's a great reference. Unfortunately I may have to re-read it sometime on the future; I'm not sure how much of the info I absorbed the first time, what with my eyelids drooping. :D I'm currently reading The Volatility Edge in...

Option Volatility and Pricing, by Natenberg.

Like these guys are saying, don't even let one side go in the money. I tend to set up SPX ICs with short strikes at about 10 delta. I adjust when one side goes above about 30 delta. Not a recommendation of how to trade, but just saying how I do it. Risk/reward isn't great, but if you wait for...

Try credit spreads or other hedged short option positions. Low margin requirements and limited risk. Speculating with long options isn't a great idea, especially purchasing OTM calls. You'd have to be correct about direction, timing of the move, and volatility assessments. For example, by the...

There's normally an important difference between physically settled securities and the cash settled ones. Physically settled options are normally American style exercise, while the cash settled types are generally European (OEX is cash-settled, American style, however). Make sure you're aware of...

Yup, oh well! No kidding! Buying options ahead of an earnings call? Meanwhile, there was a beautiful IV spike ahead of the call that could have been safely and profitably played... But I guess the Greeks are for Geeks, right? :D

Short-time lurker, first-time poster. Just signed up specifically because of this thread. OP: If you don't want to blow up your account playing around "being greedy," step back and look into more conservative strategies. There's money to be made trading iron condors, double diagonals, covered...