Recent content by JohnGreen

ElectricSavant is absolutely correct. Your broker will send it to you and also to the government. Your records should agree with your brokers. The only time this becomes a little bit hazy is if you hold on to a security for a long period (more than about 8 years, and made several transactions...

Did you get the situation resolved? I have been having issues with their margin system since they do not correctly calculate spread margins anymore when you have unmatched call and put spreads (IC's). I have also had issues with bad quotes leading to false valuations. On the day the SPX...

If you set it up simultaneously, there is no margin requirement, besides paying for the option spread itself. If you do the far month option first (long option), there will be no margin requirement, besides paying for the long option. If you do the short option first, it will be treated as a...

More advice... beware of delta neutral, it's a nice academic concept, but in the real world vega will eat you for breakfast.

Hey Steve, Your comment about multilayered broken wing butterflies really resonates with me. What percentage of the population even knows what that is, let alone knows what to do with them? I'd bet it is a fraction of 1%, perhaps less than 1 person in 20,000 has any clue about this stuff. I...

It worked just fine for me. There are other ones out there, too. Just search for technical indicators in excel on google.

Here's how to do it: Check out this document which explains how to do a whole host of technical indicators, including RSI, Bollinger bands, MACD, etc. http://www.tradinggeeks.net/2014/05/technical-analysis-in-excel-part-ii/ Then, download the SPY data from Yahoo Finance which allows you to get...

Eastern Europe and Russia= 1000 years of bad government.

Hi Victor--- In response to your question, I would say a couple of things. Writing call spreads to earn $0.20 means that you are not looking to make a lot of money generally. Since the entire spread started out of the money and is now further out of the money, the most you can make is the...

Giving a strategy a fancy name does not mean that you will make a profit if you use it. Every strategy has a downside to it. The Jade Lizard, as was pointed out above, has an obvious problem which is the major downside risk. The upside risk is not really an issue if you make sure that your...

Welcome to the world of trading. Let me offer you some clear advice. First, in order to trade effectively some capital is useful! Starting with $1300.00, even if it is invested sensibly and capably, will take a long time to grow to an amount of money that is substantial. I recommend that you...

osho67, check out the volume and open interest on these options. I'll bet they are not widely traded which means that you are paying an even bigger than usual bid-ask spread on these.

Nixodian, I have traded many IC and modified IC trades over the years and may be able to offer some advice. First, however, I need to know what the expiry is. Is it this week or next? It was not entirely clear from your post or title, and the duration matters to your decision making...

taowave, I see earlier in this thread you bought a BWB (broken wing butterfly for those who are not options traders). +1 450 -3 350 +2 250 in the Jan 14 puts.. When did you get in, and what was the price?? I'm curious about your statement that you thought 450 would be the low. If you...

cd, you are on the right track, and especially for the call side. It is definitely worth exploring. Wings can be very cheap, and provide significant protection. On the Dan Sheridan topic generally-- my hypothetical IC used his rules more or less!