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    Hedging Portfolio With SPY/SPX/ES Options?

    Hi tommcginnis, if the instruments in OP's existing positions are only traded within regular hours, will the use of futures or FOPs (as a hedge) introduce unwanted over-hedging effect or margin consequences during night hours?
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    has Kim left the building?

    Hi JackRab, I started options trading only a few months ago, and I was not majored in finance or relative fields, but I am doing OK with high school math... Could you help me understand, analytically or quantitatively, why ITM strangle [+70C/+110P] is identical to OTM strangle [+70P/+110C]...
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    Exercise/assignment fees on cash-settled ITM strikes

    It turns out that one of my brokers charges exercise and assignment fees on SPXW ITM strikes ($5 per strike). See attached. I thought exercise and assignment fees would only apply to settlements that involve underlying deliveries. Am I wrong? Is it the norm in broker business? Thanks.
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    IB TWS - Freezing & Crashing

    Thanks for your reply, JackRab. I actually tried 2GB and 4GB max heap space as well, but my experiences were similar. When frozen, the memory usage of TWS easily shot up to 16GB~24GB (see attached). It looks like memory leaks or thread deadlock alike to me... I have many programs installed...
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    IB TWS - Freezing & Crashing

    I have TWS "stable" build 963.3m installed on my macOS 64bit with 32GB memory, and configured heap space -Xmx8G in ~/Jts/tws.vmoptions, but TWS still keeps freezing, especially when opening some charts in the volatility lab for SPX; it is basically unusable for me. Can someone recommend a...
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    Any funds that track BXMD index?

    Hi spindr0, I don't mind managing it myself, but my primary concern of doing it myself is potentially unfavorable tax treatments. I would like the core position (including the call premiums) to enjoy long-term capital gains...
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    Any funds that track BXMD index?

    Thank you for your replies, spindr0 and truetype. For this portfolio I prefer a base position with a higher Sharpe ratio and a lower beta than the broad market, so as to offset the risk of more speculative trades that I am going to layer upon it. It appears that HSPX shorts slightly OTM calls...
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    Trading for living and estimated tax payments?

    Thanks, Sig. It seems TurboTax is capable of automatically generating Form 2210 when applicable.
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    Trading for living and estimated tax payments?

    Could you point me to the link of this special form? Thanks!
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    Any funds that track BXMD index?

    According to a 2016 study listed on CBOE strategy benchmark page, the 30-delta SPX monthly covered call index BXMD leads in both absolute returns and risk-adjusted returns over 30 years. Is anyone aware of any investable assets (like ETFs, mutual funds, etc) that can be purchased outright and...
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    collaring a stock/etf to get to 12 months

    Same question here. Can I keep SPY QQQ DIA IWM positions open for long-term capital gains, and use ES NQ YM RTY and/or their options for short-term hedge or scalping? Will this trigger IRS straddle or constructive sale rules?
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    Wash sales on vertical spreads

    Thank, I think I got the gist, but I try not to dramatically alter my original geeks exposures... In fact, my real situation is more complicated; I have tons of legs with different maturities on dozens of tickers, and I really have no idea how IRS would determine anyone should track how to...
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    Wash sales on vertical spreads

    Thanks for your reply. If I roll out this single leg Feb 290P to Mar 290P instead, does it help reduce the likelihood of the "substantially identical" call by Uncle Sam? :confused:
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    Wash sales on vertical spreads

    Suppose I have a vertical spread on TSLA: - short Feb'2018 290 Put - long Feb'2018 250 Put and the 290P has unrealized loss. If, today (Dec 27), I roll down the short 290P to short 280P (of the same Feb maturity) to realize the loss on 290P, will this loss count towards the disallowed loss for...
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    Attention Spread Traders: Tax declaration and Form 6781

    It seems that IRS Pub 550 talks about "offsetting positions," it only talks about straddles, and it is complicated enough. What about the treatments on vertical spreads?
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    Attention Spread Traders: Tax declaration and Form 6781

    Can someone answer these 11.5-year-old questions? :(
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    Are multi-leg neutral orders easier to get filled at price price?

    sry, noneditable typo in the title: "price price" -> "fair price".
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    Are multi-leg neutral orders easier to get filled at price price?

    On one hand, I’ve learned that market makers are usually more willing to fill delta-neutral orders (near “fair” prices), as delta-neutral trades require them little effort of delta-hedging their portfolio through, for example, adjusting their stock inventory. On the other hand, delta-neutral...
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    Is selling options before earning Good Strategy?

    Thanks for your reply, Kim. The challenging part of this for retail folks like me might be to find out the (intraday) straddle prices in previous cycles. It seems some services like IVolatility sells it, but it is probably not cheap...
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    Etrade options marking methodology

    Agreed that midpoint is more accurate. This is evident by the fact that CBOE uses the bid-ask midpoint of SPX strikes to calculate VIX: http://www.cboe.com/micro/vix/vixwhite.pdf
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