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Knowing myself, I knew this would happen and I probably forced the situation a bit (and in a paper trading account no less to eliminate emotions!). Feeling bearish when the SPY was at 132.00, I opened a put debit spread (DEC 06 130P/126P) for .90 knowing that I might do something like this in a...

Mo, or anyone ... Do you have any recommendations for software? I'm not a ToS customer, I don't think I'm willing to spend thousands on OptionVue (until I try it without having to pay them for the privilege). I have a nice Excel spreadsheet that does most everything I want except for...

Quick question, I'm papertrading the spreads still but would also like to begin papertrading the diagonals. One thing that is nice about the simple spreads is that I have the Option Trading Workbook (Excel freebie) that lets me see simple spreads (max PnL, greeks, graph, etc). I guess for...

Kennesaw, mostly options.

Thank you. What's odd, is that I've had the exact same reverse luck. I find technicals work much better when going long and my "gut" works a lot better for going short. What's more, I can consistently lose money by going short on technicals on a majority of systems. One was so good in fact...

So you've given us a hint as to how you pick your longs ... what is the criteria for shorts?

Indeed! Not too mention, the moves down always seem to happen faster than the moves up. By the time you see the move down, you've missed most of the move.

You mention a shorting strategy. I'm not asking you to give away the farm, but I've been looking for a shorting strategy that works for awhile. I have a long strategy that I've stuck to over the years that has done me well. I guess my question is, are you simply applying your rules in reverse...

Well, the MMs must be watching this thread and finally decided to fill me ... :D Actually, the price continued to fall off. Unfortunately, I put my order in when it was XOM was at 64.90 and it had to fall to 64.30 before I was filled. Perhaps I just need to lower my expectations?

Hrmmm ... I'm trying to place a spread today as a test on XOM. The Bid/Ask on the spreads was 1.00/1.30, I came in at 1.15 to test the waters (1 measly contract). As the price came down, the Ask came down to 1.20 and I still didn't get filled. Damn. Is this fairly typical? I believe...

I had to read your post 6 times before it sunk in, but now I got it! That's great. So now I really don't have a reason to buy the underlying, synthetic or otherwise. Many thanks!

I don't know, I'll consider that I'm doing something wrong at the moment and continue to research.

Ooops, my P/L on the verts were not correct. I was looking at the P/L if the price were to move between $60-$70 today, not at expiration. In any case, the ratio is still about the same. The P/L on the 62.50/67.50 would be 2.47/-2.53

OK, so theoretically this isn't QUITE the same if I understand what you're saying. If you remember in my first post, the 65/70 collar had a P/L of 2.93/-1.80. The 65/70 bull vertical which I interpreted as buying a 65 call and selling a 70 call has a theroetical P/L of 1.07/-1.00. The...

Hrm ... so I can get the same result cheaper. Even better! Thank you very much. I have some testing to do.

Thanks for the response and the suggestion. I do appreciate it.

It certainly has an effect, but not nearly as bad as I would think. If I change the good spread from an IV of 11% to 22% turns out to be max P/L -2.04/2.70 from max P/L -1.80/2.93. The "bad" spread goes from max P/L -2.84/ 2.16 to -2.58/2.42. I typically hold for 15-25 days. Can vol...

I've been trading stocks for a number of years and options over the last couple of years (but always simply buying calls, or doing simple spreads). I am a very conservative trader and I'm always looking for a way to minimize risk (aren't we all?). I've been testing a theory and everything...

I see a lot of folks talked about trading spreads on Sept 11 or at least paper traded 9/11 ... but my question is, how viable would this strategy be during 98, 99 and then again 00-02? Those were quite volatile times. It seems like that nice runup in 98-99 might've shook a lot of call...

A collar? :D