Search results

SOLD -1 EBAY 100 MAR 07 30 CALL @4.10 ISE SOLD -1 EBAY 100 MAR 07 27.5 CALL @6.60 ISE 30: +2.5, 27.5: +2.6. Net: 510 The puts are 267.50 underwater, 175 on the 30s and 92.50 on the 27.5s. I'm scratching my head and trying to think what I can do with them. I'll probably just leave them...

Sure. My account is with ThinkorSwim. BOT +1 STRADDLE EBAY 100 MAR 07 30 CALL/PUT @3.80 ISE (1.60/2.20) BOT +1 STRADDLE EBAY 100 MAR 07 27.5 CALL/PUT @4.05 ISE (3.00/1.05)

Thank you guys for the advice and special thanks to FullyArticulate for his offline comments! What is the 3.50+? Thanks, Joel

I forgot to mention that I cannot buy or sell shares since I don't have enough capital in my account. So gamma scalping is out of the question :-(.

Folks, I put two straddles on EBAY, March 27.5 and 30, between 10:34am and 10:50am when IV was 42-43% and stock price around 29.34. I specifically bought March since IV was about 10% lower compared to February. My understanding is that this would make the straddles cheaper and, hopefully...

What does it mean that puts are skewed higher in price? I would think that calls are skewed higher in price since I paid more for the calls than the puts while the index price was just a tad ITM. Also, why would puts be skewed higher? Thanks, Joel

For calls: 26.33 -> 34.92 -> 38.76 month ago -> week ago -> current Puts about the same. Interestingly, Feb 480 calls are 39.73 vs 35.11, Feb vs. March. 490s are 39.40 vs 34.70. I guess this reaffirms that volatility drops after earnings and it's best to buy when IV is low, right...

I must be lucky today. With RUT +10 at about 788.13 I sold the straddle for a profit of $45. In: 14.40/12.20, net 26.60 Out: 18.75/8.35, net 27.50 --- +45 After the above explanation, I don't think I would do this again, though.

Phil, thank you very much for the indepth explanation!

Thank you guys!

Will do! So much to learn :-). I wonder how long it would have taken me to figure this out on my own :-). It's been in front of my eyes all along but... I now understand the meaning of buying straddles cheap! The cheaper the straddle the less significant the move needs to be! /running...

Hi Phil! Thanks for taking an interest in my issue. I'm planning to buy your book but at the moment I'm reading through McMillan and will read through Natenberg and Cottle, all of which I already bought. My loss here is my initial investment, i.e. 12.20 + 14.40 + round-trip commission...

I'm experimenting with straddles on the ThinkorSwim simulator. Put on a straddle on RUT when it was around 780.65. 1 Feb 780 Call @ 14.40 1 Feb 780 Put @ 12.20 RUT is up 7.90 at 785.86, straddle is 16.85/9.65 or +245/-255 thus I'm still down $10. How do you play this?!

Folks, How do you put on a straddle when stock is trading between strikes and assuming that you don't know which way it's going? Books recommend buying ATM options but which strike is ATM in this scenario? The one closest to the price? My minuscule experience with straddles so far is...

Any traders here? Thanks, Joel -- http://wagerlabs.com

Read today in the WSJ that traders are buying up YHOO July calls/puts which are cheaper relative to volatility because they are so far out when compared with the February contracts. The article also fingers straddling as the culprit. How did they determine that it's straddling and not just...

This is awesome, I didn't even know they had a real-time feed. Is anyone using OpenTick here?

Folks, Do you know of a real-time futures feed for Unix that's not Zen-Fire? Thanks, Joel

Thanks MTE! I'm looking for something... more programmatic, though.

Folks, I use ThinkorSwim but they don't have an API and I would like a real-time options feed. I know about IB (can't use) and OPRA (2 x OC-3, +40K/mo) but all I want to monitor is 10-20 contracts. What do you recommend? Thanks, Joel