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As long as you're happy with your returns, its always a good idea to be closing out shorts.

Ok, to your point, if I had to choose, I'd rather sell a cash secured put over selling multiple bull put spreads. Its still a lousy trade. Well, sooner or later it will make you feel pretty lousy because you will lose all those tiny gains and a lot more eventually. Buy/Write or selling...

Just an easy fill. Try to put it on your trade platform now to see what it looks like but this is a typical entry for me. Yes, I would add a couple more longs as mentioned on the puts. Add volitility and time to this trade. As also mentioned a 10 point spread can work better on the calls...

For the covered call sellers. I know its another popular strategy, buy/write but as you know this has the same risk as selling puts naked. This is another strategy that can wipe you out in a bear market. Think about what your risk is on the trade. If I traded this way and wanted stocks...

OK, as I mentioned I trade RUT exclusively. Here's what I'm looking at for OCT. Looks like there are the strikes are slightly skewed against me so the credit is showing 4.62 after hours but could be better maybe closer to 4.80. Calls, -30 880, +50 900 Puts, -40 680, +50 660...

I am glad to at least get you to think of potential risks in this type of trading. I don't want to discourage your trading but rather enhance it, make it safer and keep you in the game. Put those back ratios on paper and compare to standard credit spreads, you'll see how much safer you'll be...

Ok, its 5:20PM here in the Philippines ha. When vol jumps, all options cost more money, in a standard credit spread, the trade loses since the short is closer to the money. Like I mentioned, if you are using TOS, set up a credit spread and then just adjust the volatility and price to see...

Standard credit spreads are one of the fastest ways to financial ruin when volatility spikes. If we have learned anything over the past few years, volatility tends to jump after a period of time of being on the floor and it does not take much to set the VIX or RVX screaming higher. This is...

For you guys trading IC's in this market, consider that the VIX is near its lows and since IC's are neg vega, if we get some bad news somewhere, you're still going to get killed on that trade. Credit spreads can be the end of your trading career. You don't have to look too far back to see...

You could also look at daily candlestick charts. Look for wicks to form at bottoms and tops. If you are watching the markets daily, you can get your own sense of market turns better than any technical study you can find.

A draw tool I like to use is Andrews' Pitchfork to help show the multiple support/resistance lines. You can modify this drawing by adding more lines.

A lot has already been said as to how PM is calculated. I don't use IB but I will add that trading short strangles on stocks like GOOG and AAPL in a PM account would not surprise me to see your margin requirements higher than usual. Since PM is risk based, these are stocks that tend to move in...

The takeover was messy but I didn't think of going elsewhere.

Its also important to check the volatility skew. Always check before placing any trades to see if you are getting fair prices.

Good morning traders, This is not another doomsday thread. I just wanted to get a feeling as to what fellow traders are thinking/planning for with current VIX levels. I know the VIX can go lower and stay there for a long period of time but you just need to take a look at the VIX chart to...

I like the newer version risk profile. This appears to be a very safe trade set up but there has to be some trade-off. Perhaps, its the margin requirement or the return within a 5% range is not too great. I would also like to see how this risk profile looks with +/- vega and with the passage...

Good to see someone looking outside the box. Its an unusual risk profile, but interesting. I can't make out the profit potential without additional trades (adjustments) at expiration and what the margin requirement is? What is the plan as market moves either direction?

I think you have to keep those weeklies really small or as a hedge for your larger monthly trades. I know returns are possible but looking at Fridays action, I'm sure lots of pain to go with that up move on those trading weeklies. And moves like that are too common. Just my take.

I would and always do go with back ratio spreads. Much better if you have the portfolio margin to keep the margin very low. Good idea not to use a standard credit spread, ever. My first post and my first .02 take it for what its worth.