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I have been backtesting double diagonals on IWM, first going back to last July when weeklys started, then simulating further back by closing and opening new positions every Friday. Every year has been up since 2003, some up quite a bit, some just enough cover commissions, and some years have...

I just went back in to try some more back tests and I see that I made a few mistakes on my previous post, like at least one duplicate entry, I think the first one I used the monthly and not the weekly. I guess I was doing it too quickly. Edit: No, maybe the first one was correct.

I just tried a little experiment. I went in to TOS thinkBack and ran some ICs on IWM weeklys starting back in July 2010 (just after the weeklys started trading). I selected ATM and then widened out the wings +/-5, so for example a 60/61/62/63 becomes a 56/61/62/67. I sold 100 per week and the...

Thanks. Yes, there are no separate weeklys on the last week of a monthly expiration. (BTW, I think it is the CBOE that uses the funny spelling.)

Never mind. It doesn't track very well. And any "arbitrage" would be the same as doing a weekly/monthly calendar spread. The weeklys are much more volatile as would be expected.

It seems if you wanted to do some backtesting, like with TOS thinkBack on a stock where weekys are not available, you should be able to just treat the monthlies as expiring every week. If not then there would be an arbitrage opportunity in trading the real ones. Any thoughts?

Long stock portfolio (low beta), long SPY LEAPS put 5% OTM, short OTM SPY calls each month. The long put is enough to protect the stocks from a crash. Long put/short call is basically short stock if at the same strike/expiration. In this case it's some kind of calendar combo or something...

I tried Martingaling the nickel poker machines in Reno a few years ago. I was able to play for quite awhile without adding new money, never got very far ahead and only hit the limit once or twice. (I suppose I could have gone to the quarter machine in that case, but I just started over.)

Yeah, that's a long term solution.

The Fed has a solution to that problem. Buy the crap mortgages at face value from the banks, hold them for a year or two, then disappear them from their accounting books. Solved!

On a related note, I knew a sales manager who said he interviewed a guy once and at the end picked up his coffee mug and said "Sell this to me". The guy replied "How much do think it is worth?" "Five dollars." The guy says "Sold!" and got the job.

Why would a former pit trader or market maker like Sheridan know how to make a profit as a retail trader? Market makers are there to take the other end of a retail trade, which they either have an opposite order to offset, or they hedge until they can offload it. They make their money on the...

QE2 fail? Market calling the bluff.

According to AARP, two thirds of people between 55 and 64 have a mortgage in 2007, with a median value of $85,000. I wonder how much that has changed in the past 3 years? Most likely many are underwater now.

Let's say I live above you on a hillside. I decide to rent some equipment and build a pool myself (I got the plans on the Internet). Wouldn't you want a county inspector to look at it and pass it so it won't come crashing and spilling into your home office whilst you are daytrading? ETA...

QEII won't spur the economy. It will just raise input costs, like commodities, but businesses don't have the power to raise prices. Even the CEO of Starbucks was saying that the cost of coffee was up about 50% but they can't raise the price of a latte. At least Volker prescribed the right...

I was sure the OP was going to be named Bernanke. *runs to window to look for helicopter*

Back to level 0 for rew. BTW, are the mainstream brokers still putting cash-covered puts in a more risky category than covered calls?

Sorry, I hadn't read the article at the time. It actually looks pretty impressive.

Until the company cuts the divvie. Then it will go down faster than Obama on Lloyd Blankfein.