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I would be very careful with LDK. Very careful. Just when you think 100%+ implied volatility is high, it can easily zoom higher. ALso, the underlying can EASILY jump 20 points in either direction. (I have been scalping the options here and there.) Good luck. AZD

Funny you should mention HAR. Less than 1 hour before the close, with the stock trading over 88, the Sep 85 puts still had around .25 - .40 value. Thinking both short -term (selling premium) and long-term (maybe HAR was not a bad buy at 84.7 or so), I placed a limit order to sell some 85...

Not entirely true. Although the OP bears responsibility for the consequences, it seems that the broker was not keeping its clients up to date regarding the new VIX margin requirements and acted harshly in liquidating the positions. AZD

Last Friday, with the VIX at nearly a 52 week high, I decided to take a chance on a ratio spread. I bought the Aug 25 Calls and sold the Aug 30 Calls for a ratio of approximately 1:2. I also sold some of the Aug 40 Calls. Today, with the sharp drop in the VIX, I closed out all legs for a...

Spin is correct. It's really tough to call these biotech events. Over a year ago, I put on a Pozen play, shorting the stock and overselling OTM puts. I felt I had a "feel" for the upside risk (the reason for not purchasing the inflated puts). What happened? The stock dropped enough to make...

Folks, SPX quarterly options are fairly new and seem to have low volume. As such, it has been nearly impossible to split the wide bid/ask spreads. You thought the regular SPX contracts were tough, try these. The other day I saw someone trying to sell a bunch of contracts at 3. The...

Mark, Good to see you are still around. Thanks for your detailed answer. This type of diag has never been my thing, although the SPX has been somewhat kind to me over the years in regards to other spread strategies. Since the SPX environment "appears" to be changing (more spikes in...

Yes, I am talking diagonals. For example, buy to open August 1350 puts, sell to open July 1400 puts. AZD

Correction, I wrote "(i.e. Long Aug, short June distance of 1 month or long Dec, short Sept distance of 3 months.)" I meant to say Long Jul, short June distance of 1 month. Obviously Long Aug, short June would be 2 months. AZD

And just when all of you thought this dead horse was beaten . . . LOL Somewhere in these 2,000+ pages this topic might have been discussed, but I'll ask anyway in hopes of a decent response. When doing the infamous SPX credit (or quasi-debit spread), 1) What is the optimal short month...

Opt789, Thanks for taking the time to post your detailed answer. I will have to do some additional research on PM. I have done a bunch of RCs in the past, some with great results, others so-so. The main plays I have done have been "event-related" ones (earnings, FDA announcements etc.)...

So with portfolio margin, will a reverse calendar be treated the same as a regular calendar? This would mean unlimited $$$ credit on RCs if true. If not, could you provide an example of the actual margin requirements? Let me put out some hypothetical numbers: company ABC trading at $40...

Oh, and a quick question for anyone: Has anyone ever (or are they able to) negotiate with their broker to do a reverse calendar and NOT have the short leg be calculated as a naked position? Imagine the leverage . . . AZD

Oh the good ol' days. I have not visited the Yahoo boards in a while. I learned quite a bit from a few posters . . . AZD

Au contraire mon ami. At THIS time I see a bid of .60, no wait, a bid of .55 and ask of .65. With thousands of contracts trading today, your chance of getting filled at .6 are most excellent. Just my two cents worth - is it better to take the profit now (20% at that) and potentially miss out...

F-F, I noticed that your SBUX June 30s are now around the .60 area. Care to take a $1000 profit off the table? :D AZD

Thanks Longhorns. I'm tempted to pick up some pocket change on the OTM contracts but I'll wait for some "stability" LOL in the underlying. AZD

Hi Folks. Seems that SEPR is dropping like a rock on NO NEWS. At least no news that I have seen. I would love to sell some May contracts (Yes, you heard right, May contracts! Only several hours left) as IV is sky high, but with no news, I'm not so sure. Anyone have any idea what's going...

CPI was released "ages" ago. Normally, with such a wide spread there is an event pending or there is wild movement in the underlying and the VIX is going wild. I see neither. AZD

Anyone notice that the bid/ask spread on the May SPX options just jumped from about 1 or 1.5 to over $3? What just happened to justify such a jump? This is an outrage! But wait, as I finish this message, the spread has narrowed somewhat. I've seen this happen around Thursdays before...