Search results

IB would have charged you a total of $2.00 for that trade. Mark

I don't know which is a better approach either. It never bothers me to get out before my target profit is reached because I find that I can receive a significantly larger credit by moving out one month. That provides an excellent path towards making more than my target profit in the new...

I do have positions in SOX, OSX and MVR, but they are not large enough for diversification help. I would rather trade indexes where I can more easily get into and out of positions. I have an extremely difficult time with SPX, so don't do much there. Bottom line: I chose to trade whre I...

I closed a bunch of diagonal put spreads (my call positions are all ok, because I own some extra calls) for two reasons: One the profit was good enough to tempt me. But, more importantly, the market was running away from the strikes. I open these spread for a credit. As time passes and...

I know you askad Coach, but I thought that I would chime in: I have already closed all my Decemeber positions and a large portion of my Januarys. Most of my portfolio consists of Mar/Feb diagonals. Mark

They are dolar cheap, as you know. They are also IV costly. Am in identical quagmire. Mark

Being 'confident' does make the market go your way. 'Hanging tough' is a shortcut to bankruptcy. That's my 2 cents, based on more than 30 years experience as an option trader. Mark

Perhaps the takeaway strategy for most of us is not so much that these options should be bought, but that selling them is dangerous - and should be avoided. Mark

Yes, that's the correct graph. (Thank you for posting it.) And the graph is what it is. My question is: what are the real world results - compared with buying the ATM fly? What I am wondering is: 1) If it's true that the ATM and FOTM options are undervalued in the real world and if the...

If article's strategy of opening ATM butterflies apparently results in decent profits, how about combining this method with the previous discussion? The question becomes, would a butterfly strategy provide better results if instead of centering the bfly ATM, one opened both a call and put...

If you were able to develop such a system and it proved itself capable of beating the market, would you offer to 'recruit' others, or would you keep the secret to yourself and make a few billion using it? Mark

Just thinking out load... It's not quite that simple. Buying ATM can be very costly when the underlying finishes near that ATM price more often than anticipated. To compensate for that lost time premium, one could sell twice as many OTM options. Then one completes the butterfly by...

Serious question: Why would anyone care? You bought some calls and you won. So what? That is not the topic of this board. Boast elsewhere. Mark

Good question. 1) Commissions are so cheap (75 cents per option) that I don't need the lower costs of the prop shop. 2) Haircut would allow me to be more efficient with capital. But it also allows larger positions and hence, more risk. I don't want an excuse to carry larger positions...

But, we'll never hear about it. This is a gloater who shares boring posts and winning trades. Mark

I do diagonals, or double diagonals. But very small size. And I don't trade them every month. I currently have the Feb 2025/Jan 1950 call spread. Credit 1.70. Also a put spread that is currently pretty far OTM - Feb 1585/Jan 1650. Credit 0.70 Mark

This spread starts out 90 delta and 3 gamma, short. It takes a move to get the curvature working in your favor. If you think 1502 at expiration is break even, you are mistaken. Your long Jan options would carry time premium, giving you a huge profit. What is the spread worth if SPX gets...