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You're mocking me, right? :) Seriously, it's a percent of what? What's the denominator?

LOL. All I want is the simple IV of the options that I'm looking at. I know what that is and what I want it for :) What exactly is the Imp Vol (%) ? What is it used for? >> Are you logged in demo? << I log in to the standalone platform.

Yes and no on the IV contraction hitting them similarly. If there's no more than the small skew that you normally see in closer months, a large IV contraction is going to shrink the far month more dollar-wise than the near month. Only higher front month skew will push this more towards...

In and of itself, a calendar is a neutral position where you expect (hope?) the underlying will expire near the strike sold. Some other possibilities include: 1) Using them as bullish or bearish strategies (buying them OTM), 2) Double calendars (what I call calendar straddles and...

Thanks for the suggestion but it's not there. The only choices faintly resembling IV are: Imp. Vol % and Opt Implied Vol which sounds good but isn't... It's a 30 day forward prediction based on the past 2 expirations. Any other thoughts?

Sorry for off topic post but you mentioned obtaining IV numbers from IB. I've been trying to figure out how to get that data from IB's Option Trader but no luck. Their tech support had no clue either :( Can anyone spare a dime, errrr, some help? Here or PM is fine. TIA

Consider money market accounts :)

IC contracts after an earnings announcement. So by definition, you're losing money on a long straddle even before you know how much, if any, the underlyingk moves post EA. So you either have to have a good selection process to find movers or some other plan to offset that IV collapse...

LOL (eye roll)

That makes no sense at all. If the stock moves up 10 pts, ignoring the premium received, you lose the same amount either way (covered put vs naked call) It makes no difference if you're already short the stock or get assigned short at a later date. If the stock drops, you max out either...

That may be the simplest but best answer I've ever read for trading long options ... maybe other than for the lottery ticket buyer with no clue :)

42 days? As in trading days? There are 60 days remaining until January expiration. If AAPL is 190 in mid January, the 3 highest strikes will be worthless. The 200 will have some remaining time premium but it will have lost a chunk of its value. The ITM 170 call will have a nice gain.

From what I've seen, you need an edge with this. You either have to get the direction right before adjusting orr get a bump in IV. Or both. Or just get lucky enought to stumble into a stock that keeps reversing! Since I'm not particularly good at either, I figure that the market should do...

That is precisely why I have been DN trading a couple of straddle positions in real time. I do calendar straddles/strangles for earnings releases and for a long time, I have observed the steady IV increase the weeks before the EA. So I'm hoping to get a trading feel for the idea before...

Far out, man! Long calls! Whooooosh (inhales ;-)

Unless you're doing something clever like legging in or trading individual legs, etc., you're just incurring more commissions and B/A slippage. 100 shares short and 1 put short is equiv. to a short call. Check out your synthetics again.

Odds are, your software is thinks that your short strangle and long shares is an initial position. If so, it will do that regardless of whether the initial position (the short strangle) had a paper gain or loss when the shares were added. You can verify this several ways. 1) Set up a few...

Give me enough time and I'll confuse both of us :) Yes, "It is better to go long when the IV is lower and has a chance to increase and to go short when IV is already very high and may go lower. Very high IV inflates the price of options and shorting options with high IV could be profitable if...

I'm a bit confused by your question and I'm probably going to make things worse :) If the underlying of your delta neutral (DN) straddle moves right away, you're in the loss area right away. Because it started DN, the loss area is symmetrical, eg., a 4 pt move up results in the same $$ loss...

Yes, the zig zagging I'm talking about would be desirable you're long. I'd rearrange #3 and say it's good to be long delta when IV goes higher and it's good to be short when IV goes lower. I don't think that the level matters if you get the change right. Smallest B/A spreads tend to be...