Recent content by i005890

The market does not care how hard you work.

I mapped out the spread on an equivalent position in SPX v. ES v. SPY in a spreadsheet a few weeks ago. There really was no difference to the mid-price.

Is there an advantage to the long put being shorter term than the short call? Is this typically the way the strategy is done?

Mark, I know there are some quite sophisticated traders here (and some not). My interest in asking the question was to get a bead on various strategies, beyond what I thought of myself, to determine whether they would make sense. I would not blindly follow what some unknown poster on a message...

I have a friend who who, lucky him, had about 6,000 shares of MEDX at about $9/sh. It was recently announced that the company will be taken over at $16/sh, cash. Should he: - sell his shares and take the profit; - use puts to protect his profit and hold on in case there is a better offer?

Yes, I understand what MTE told me. Thanks all for responding.

I have a long Jul 530/520 put vertical on RUT. Other than the risk that RUT moves above 520 and cuts into my profit, why should I not just let this expire? Won't I get the full $10 if I do?

Thank you.

Thanks MTE. Mike007, as to your question, I see trading options on SPX as difficult for a small retail trader, but I could be wrong. Another question about ES. Since the end-of-month options are European exercise, while other options are American, would the differing option exercise...

If I open a calendar spread on ES and the front and back month options have the same underlying future, is my loss limited to the amount I paid for the spread? For example, the front month is Aug. and the back month is Sept., which would both trade off the Sept. futures. Conversely, if the front...

I second your opinion about Mark. While I have not read his books, I did use his mentoring services. He introduced me to index option trading, something I would not have had the courage to do on my own (I was trading equity options and thought indexes were over my head). He taught me many things...

Dan is a great instructor and I recommend watching his FREE web casts on the CBOE web site. If you are thinking of taking his mentoring, it is important to know that he generally does not do the one-on-one mentoring himself anymore.