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lowvol, I think you're making this more complicated than it should be. To win on a long straddle/strangle you essentially need the underlying to move around a lot and have vols rise as well. Some people try to reduce their daily decay by gamma scalping, but that's a whole other complication...

The trade was a QQQQ 47/48/49 Sep/Sep Quarterly double diagonal. It was Sosnoff who discussed it yesterday, and I asked him during the chat why he would choose such a strategy given current high vols. His response was something along the lines of that he was trying to discuss how to place...

IV, is the problem that back month vols are not dropping enough due to the elevated vols throughout the market?

Murray, What extra analysis features does thinkPipes provide?

I second the RUT. Great liquidity, nice volatility, overall nice trading product.

Assuming your brokerage isn't trading against your positions, then as long as you continue to enter and exit positions they make money. The moment you stop trading, they stop making money off you (not including the money you have sitting in your account). They want you to trade larger size and...

Why are people flipping out about discussing the TOS "test"? It's essentially options 101. TOS wants people to know these basics. Discussing them is good for their business because more people will be educated, and thus be willing to trade more. With this sort of test they are only trying to...

Enjoy the ride while it lasts. Diversify your assets into other non-trend follwoing strategies. What else is there?

Kick ass trade. Vols drop 1 pt in Jan 08, spot wtf down, still a winning trade. This is what options are all about. Screw direction.

Speaking of splitting the bid/ask, cool new feature coming to TOS in the next week or two. You can set a stop based on the underlying price which when activated will submit an option order at the mid price at that time. Are any other brokerages providing this sort of order type?

Quite frankly the crime alleged, while despicable, is small potatoes compared to some of the trouble other athletes get into. What I find more troubling is why a superstar athlete worth millions of dollars is wasting his time with dog fighting? Of all the ways a man can waste his money and get...

The point is that short put/covered call is not a hedged position. Full downside exposure does not equate to a hedged position. If you plan to trade a leveraged position, might as well be a risk controlled one.

Too bad. Would have been nice to see the ICE mix things up. Long live the Evil Empire!

Reality check- people still come to this country for skilled jobs and education. The US still imports a couple thousand doctors each year. And while it may be difficult to be laid off in your 40s or 50s, at least you have the potential to improve your education and skills at any age and change...

Pabst, I'm enjoying your journal, and congrats on last month's return. I especially enjoy the honest assessment of your last few posts. Seems like trading successfully is first and foremost about survival. st

The main benefit of a high win/loss method is that you can somewhat withstand periods where your win rate drops. Drawdowns can be larger, but a well researched method should hold up long term with minor adjustments periodically. For those traders using a high win rate method, how hardy are...

The free commission from TOS is for buying back SHORT options for <=.05, NOT for selling contracts.

Rallymode, I agree that you likely won't come out ahead just buying otm Puts each cycle. Personally, I think if someone's portfolio is concentrated in various long equity positions, having it gain during a major market collapse is an impossible expectation regardless of your hedge. Perhaps I...

vetten, Selling futures works as well. Just need to have a plan to limit losses on that position if the market rallies again. Alternatively you could sell otm call spreads on an index.