Me too. Friday can't come soon enough. Theta drip feels so slow with the amount of gamma on the table. I'd imagine the theta will start pouring in at 2 pm ET this afternoon, but who knows which way the market will move after the Fed minutes.
Slim pickings for the end of the earnings cycle. I entered into a put ratio spread near the close to give me something to do in the morning.
Bot Aug 77 puts @$2.27 x 2
Sold Aug 75 puts @ $1.33 x 4
It's been a pretty good earnings season for me. Except for AAPL, all the neutral plays have worked. ATM Aug 5 straddle ($41) closed at ~$3.10. After hours move was +$0.50 to $41.30. I'm hoping for the calendar to open at around $0.75+ tomorrow morning for a 200% gain.
For any kind of trading volume, IB is the only way to go in my mind. I have no complaints. I also have BMOIL and TDDI, but w/o TOS for my buy-and-hold equity only portfolio.
I have nothing against calendars for earnings play. I actually used a calendar for AAPL. I won't repeat myself about integrals between the b/e and the ability to customize strangle widths.
Like I said before, TSLA had already guided earlier in the quarter--hence the lower IV relative to other...
Closed the strangle. As I was legging out, my 3-year old powered down my computer. I logged back in through the iPad and I ended up having two buy orders on the call side.
Sure, I could have made more with a calendar, but the alligator tears I was shedding while closing the position reminded...
Iron condor isn't undefined, but I get your point on gap risk. But that risk is not uncompensated like I posted earlier.
I'm not anti calendars at all. My first ever option trade was an earnings calendar on Dell with both legs making a profit. ROM just isn't the end all, be all.
It is not. Undefined risk trades would therefore by definition never have potential for a 100% ROM as compared to debit spreads. Does this mean they don't have their place in trading?
Of course it is--it's pinning the strike @$224. Yes, in this instance a calendar would have been better than a strangle. But I won't be shedding any tears taking this profit.
Again, I don't care about margin.
Another thing to note about the strangle is that the unlimited risk is not uncompensated. There is a significant difference in gamma which has the following effect. If one considers the plot of P/L vs. the underlying:
integral of short straddle between b/e points >> integral of calendar...