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Here is your *real* question: "I am trying something, and don't know what I am doing. What should I do?" You should not put on a position until you have a **trading plan**. For example: 1. I take profit when I achieve a yield of 15% on my risk for the trade. 2. I cover the trade...

I do calendar spreads -- selling the front month and hedging the same strike price with a backmonth option. Limited risk. You are still getting the premium from the front month, and losing abit from the back month.

Unexperienced in these long term options, it is fascinating to see how the prices gap around during the day.

Did a Dec/Jan 380 call calendar yesterday. Long term trade to follow the up trend in my IRA account. Got in at 385, closed at 415 after a one day move upward. Potential profit over 150%.

Closed the vertical on the RUT trade. It was bleeding pretty badly. I need to look closer at that trade. The calendar is doing fine. The IBM is holding its own. May go down abit more, so waiting to see if I want to place the put side of the vertical or just leave it alone.

If I remember, it is per leg, so trading spreads is a very different story. IB is the way to go for commission pricing.

A few ideas. 1. Create shares. One share for every $10k invested. Profits are distributed according to the number of shares. 2. At the beginning, tell everyone that their money is "lost" money. You will do your best, but you will report to them in six or twelve months, and distribute...

Quote from mysticman: >If he had simply left his short vertical alone and had faith in his analysis, he would be making lots of money after yesterday's drop. What if the market had made a sharp move up? You would be singing my praises, that I was a genius. The market pretty much does...

Quote from ajna: >If I understand your plan for SPY correctly, IBM > it was to be short the call spread, and the calendar was placed simply to hedge over the weekend. I don't think the calendar is such a good short term hedge. I agree. The calendar is a long term position...

It is not a monkey calendar, but, as I said, I just threw it into this thread. Basically I saw an opportunity to leg into an IC, and the calendar ended up hedging the vertical, rather than the reverse.

1. I will place an IC only if it is legged in. The calendar can serve as a hedge against the naked leg. Eventually I have a combo of IC and calendar. 2. In the final position, the calendar becomes the basic position. The IC is just a hedge against vega and gives me more profit. I hate the...

Sounds to me that you are successful in what you do, and you're bored. Don't blow up your account trying to find action. Find an exciting hobby, go to Africa and help orphaned and starving children. Leave the "excitement" out of your trading. Just keep making money and do something...

I may be wrong, but here is the basic concept as I see it. The "there is no free lunch" view of the market. The high volty itself is not tradeable unless you have a view on whether the market is right or wrong on the size of the move. If you think the market is right, then you are stuck...

I was not trying to be flippant, just that this is a test trade. My expectation is that it will be profitable, but we shall see. If you see a prob with the overall concept, I am indeed interested in your ideas. That's why I started this thread. Not to argue but to get real feedback.

I use woodie's cci, as well as the basic support and resistence -- nothing fancy. IBM is really struggling, so it is only a matter of time. And, yes, the calendar was "unnecessary" but it is part of my overall trading plan. It will go onto the position eventually.

1. My basic trading style is the calendar. I am now trying to add verticals to diversify the position. So, in this case I started with a vertical, and added the upside calendar to hedge it -- both in delta and vega. Over the 6 to eight weeks of the trade I expect to make money on both the...

OK, I guess we shall see. As I said, I normally do not do such a wide month calendar. If I only make 10% on this one, I will be happy. Normally I go for 20% or better. Do you know how many weeks the ramp up normally occurs before the report in IBM?

Good point. I will be out of the position before earnings -- probably by the end of June, but I will watch it closely. I do watch for earning before placing a calendar, and that's one reason I go for the longer time period. I hope to be out of it before I get caught in the volty move...

I personally find him rather difficult for the novice trader. Anything by Dan Sheridan is very worthwhile. He has several webinars at Cboe.com, and a couple of chats at thinkorswim. If you are willing to pay for mentoring, he is available at www.sheridanmentoring.com

OK, I'm back. IBM is in a topping pattern, so Fri I shorted the Jul 135/140 call in the am. The market sat around and did not go down very much, so I "hedged" the vertical (did not want to go over the weekend) with a Jul/Oct 135 put calendar just before closing. Not very pretty, but if I...