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Expired just OTM. Took a lot of heat on it throughout the afternoon, then was nearly at a double at five minutes before the close. I thought for sure ES was going lower, so I held on through the reversal and into the close. In retrospect, I should have taken the trade off when the price started...

It's a fair point. I did the vertical because I don't anticipate us moving much beyond 1620 (if we get that far) and it reduced the cost of the 1630 put a bit. To be honest, I put the trade on quickly at the end of the speech and it is almost reflexive with me to not buy naked calls or puts so I...

Long the Aug30 ES 1630/1620 put spread from 2.55. It's moved against me quite a bit since I put it on but I will be holding it until the close. After the Kerry speech I think we will close lower into the long weekend.

Great to have you on the journal Pinkman, and thanks for the kind words! This is both a directional and a volatility play, with limited risk. All other things being equal, the spread should increase in value with the passage of time, with movement toward the body strike (1615), and with a...

Well, Atticus is obviously the originator of and authority on PFs, but I believe that a PF put on today would be quite a bit farther down (just outside straddle range) and farther out in time (30 days or so). E.g., even for this fly expiration (13Sep, ~2 weeks out), the ES straddle is priced a...

Long the ES 13Sep 1580/1615/1685 2/3/1 iron fly from 26.25 risk (43.75 credit). I expect that we will see another leg down in ES by early to middle of next week. The nice thing about this leveraged fly is that it is pretty resilient to the upside if I am wrong, while also paying off well on the...

Just to throw it out there and not trying to state the obvious, but for those not as familiar with options, short ES + long ES call = long ES put. One could be in the synthetically equivalent position and save on commissions by just buying the 1650 put. Understand you might have other reasons...

Subscribed, good luck!

I would suggest also to delve into some options books to better understand how they are valued and the different types of trades available. Options are very versatile instruments but can also be very dangerous if you don't understand how they work and the risks. Sinclair's Option Trading and...

I remember your thread about this back in June...the position will only be profitable at expiration if the market drops 50% between now and March, which seems pretty unlikely. You might get lucky with a volatility spike that drives up the value of the puts, such as happened on a small scale the...

Out at 69.25 credit, for a 2.4% return on risk after commissions. I had planned to hold this a lot longer, but the market dropped hard right after I put this on due to the Kerry speech. I was lifted on a resting offer I had in the overnight to ensure that in case ES continued dropping I would be...

In the ES 13Sep 1610/1650/1710 352 iron from 49.00 risk (71.00 credit). Sic transit gloria mundi.

Tough game you're playing...I've tried to do this myself occasionally but without much net success. Subscribed, and good luck!

Fascinating stuff Wingz. Thank you for being so open to sharing your journey and the thinking and materials that have influenced you with others. I just ordered Leonard's book and look forward to reading it. Good luck to you going forward!

Out at 3.17 credit, for about a scratch after commissions. Gold hit a new two-month high this morning and may be breaking out; I wasn't going to wait around to see if it holds.

Your trade results were not as expected because you purchased OTM calls. As Maverick pointed out, if the stock rallies the implied volatility of the calls will likely drop which will hurt you, and if the stock doesn't rally the time decay on the calls will hurt you. That is not to say that being...

I switched to IB last month and had the exact same problem on my 64-bit Win7 system. Turns out that it was a glitch in the TWS version (I figured it out from another thread here). I had been using the downloadable TWS, but now I just have it load from my browser by going to the IB homepage ->...

I personally would definitely go for the DITM call over the risk reversal. The risk reversal would give up the limited loss aspect that made you prefer the long calls over the stock. As an aside and not trying to state the obvious, but don't forget about the 9/3 ex-div on NEM.

One possibility is to buy DITM calls, with a delta close to one. They are a lot cheaper than stock and their exposure to the other greeks will be minimal. I do this frequently as a stock replacement, e.g. when hedging. Downsides are that they will be more expensive than ATM or OTM, you will lose...

Out at 15.75 credit for a 4% return on risk after commissions. The stock dropped significantly as I had expected, and I tried to close the spread for a 10%+ gain at lunchtime but unfortunately NASDAQ crashed as I started working the fill. With the Icahn buyback talk and a dip having already...