Recent content by Strangler

No no....options are easy. He gave you 17 reasons why. With stocks you lose 66% of the time but with options: - stock goes up you win - stock goes down you win - stock doesn't move you win - stock moves fast you win - stock moves slow you win Plus you get free leverage and free dividends...

I chose 15 and 30 deltas out of thin air just for an example. There's no right or wrong delta levels. Whatever works in your comfort zone. I usually adjust/close in steps at different delta levels - ie close half at delta A, close the other half at delta B.

Using P/L or things like "double the credit received" seems like an arbitrary and silly way to close or adjust. I sell a lot of different spreads and I always use DELTA as the adjustment criteria. It is a more logical and common-sense approach than some random P/L number. For instance you...

The problem is you are only looking at the "Bid" price. You should be looking at the midpoint for a more realistic view. If you use midpoints then the credits are $1.625, $1.75, $1.75.

The only limit is the cash in your account... - You can buy as many options as your cash balance will allow. - You can sell as many options as your margin requirements will allow.

Name me one indicator that isn't garbage. Personally I like this indicator, wish IB would add it. Doesn't mean I will blindly sell vol at 51% and buy it at 49%, but it's another tool for the toolbox. Don't hate the indicator, hate the trader.

I've been trying the same thing. Basically you want to be long vega (IV), and theta/gamma neutral. You can accomplish this with a "half calendar" - buy more longs than shorts. The number of longs/shorts needed will depend on which months you choose, which strikes, term structure, etc. You...

Your original post is all over the place. First off are you buying a put or selling a put? You seem to indicate both. To clarify... if you think SPY is going down you would BUY a put or SELL a call. You would not sell a put, selling a put is a long strategy. The math above is almost...

Thanks but that's not what I'm looking for. I don't care about HV. I just want to see IV compared to previous IV (ie IV rank or percentile). Anywhere to see this in IB??

Is there anywhere in IB to see IV percentile? Not looking for IV over historical, looking for IV compared to previous IV (i.e. percentile). Thanks.

You are contradicting yourself. In your AAPL hedge example you ARE an option loser. Who cares if you're hedged with the underlying? If you're discussing options then stay in the option universe. And if there is no edge in selling options then how do you account for all the hedgers who lose...

Yes. You will be short 100 shares at the strike price for every short call. The proceeds from the short sale will show up in your account.

I've played with this strategy a few times as well, and the problem is clearly stated in the bolded part above. Even with a ramp up in IV, the theta loss will cost you more. So you get to expiration with a much higher IV than you started with, yet you're still down money. A long straddle...

I sell straddles every month and as Kenny Rogers said: "Every straddle's a winner, and every straddle's a loser." So much is dependent on how/when you adjust. If you run the data from open until expiration with no adjustments, that's fine, but it may not give you a realistic picture.

Lol I like your adjustment techniques!! :)