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IB is NOT saying they made an error. They are saying the CBOE erroneously reported that the order was filled, when it had not been filled. Mark

Always interested in looking at new ideas. But, I have no clue what this strat involves. Do you mean buying the near term options as extra longs vs. selling longer-term options? That does not appeal to me - but I do see the advantages of this methodology. Mark

How did you hear about this? I have not been notified. 1) Don't jump into something new just because you can. Be certain it fits your investment style 2) In your case, you may (or you may not) find it more profitable to buy nearer term options for protection, rather than the vega-rich...

You have many choices. No one is 'best' Depends on what you want to do. If you have an opinion on market direction, you can go with that. But, unless your track record is outstanding, I strongly suggest not doing this. It's easy to say that you should have a plan in place, but, to me...

YIP, Coach, Thanks Mark

I have a friend who is considering opening an account with TOS. He understands the benefits of their analytics software- but this is his question: Is their platform 'easy to use'? Thanks Mark

April 1978 was an extremly unexpected market surge. Note; Lower IV was not always associated with an up market. That's a 'recent' phenomenon. Up markets once came with volatility explosions in (these dates are from memory, but I believe they are accurate) Apr 78, Aug 80, and Aug 84. I...

The problem with this approach is that you bought options RICH in VEGA at the precise moment that IV is high and youw ant to be selling, not buying VEGA. To me, the lesson you should be learning from this is: If hurting from a substantial market move, if the move is up, then IV will probably...

It's not so easy to define 'if I can afford to.' Is saving 'hundreds' worth the risk of losing tens of thousands? Each of us must answer that question for himself. For me, the answer is 'no.' I am sympathetic to the dilemma of trying to close near-term options, but as you know, refusing to...

Hi Rally, I agree in principle, that a clearner book is easier to manage. Assuming that risk is under control, I choose to sell some 750/740 put spreads in some random index. Time passes, the market declines and I decide it's now appropriate to sell the 720/710 put spread. Are you...

There are excellent reasons for choosing CTM spreads rather than OTM spreads. This is a topic that generted a great deal of disussion at one time. I'm wavering, but for the present, I'm still in the OTM camp.

Depending on which strikes you spread, it can be painless. Example. Let's say you are selling the 730/720 put spread. If you decide to buy some (smaller number than sold) 740/730 put spreads, the out of pocket cost can be small. To make up some numbers, say you want to sell 10 spreads...

These choices are not similar. For me, there is no comparison. With the back spread, the major profit opportunity comes from a big move - when your extra longs go ITM. It's also fantastic black swan protection. In fact it's a HUGE BS winner. But, I need more than that. Time is your big...

The concept of debit spread on top of credit spread is appealing, and I've begun using it in my trading. It's not a panacea, and fails miserably in a black swan scenario, but it does have one imprtanant advantage: When short a credit spread, if the market approaches the short strike as...

Peace to everyone.

I have no clue what the future holds, but to me this lengthy commentary is another example of a common situation: The under-informed, under-educated individual investor jumping out of the market at the bottom. I agree that it may be intelligent to scale back, but that's because there is...

Close Thursday. That's the best alternative. In the long run, it's a LOT cheaper than being forced to hold onto long positions you don't want. Isn't avoiding the risk of a substantial move against you during the day Friday worth the cost of closing Thursday? Another alternative, which...

This is not necessarily true. Don't own them as your long leg against another option that is much CTM. But it might be ok to own them as a naked long. Mark

No. What I meant was don't buy FOTM to hedge ATM. Remember your Jun 900 call vs. Feb 800 call spread? That's owning vega to be short gamma. I thought that if you owned June 700 (or lower strike) puts it would not be good to use them to sell Apr ATM puts. The 790/780 doesn't fit that...

The argument for keeping them is that it's a good idea to have insurance. But, if too far OTM, they will not provide much help. [EDIT] OK. I see these are expensive options. Question: Are you a market prognosicator? Do you want to own these options as a gamble? I thought you were a...