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I surely don't use the TWS to its fullest. At times, it's a bit overwhelming. Thanks for the directions. I'll save the info for a time, if it occurs, that I need some historical quotes.

That put should have a minimum of $4 of intrinsic value plus some time premium. Either you're mistakenly looking at the call (or other incorrect symbol) or the broker is providing bad data. There's no free money like that in the market :->)

Can you provide some bread crumbs that will lead me to IB's historic option quotes? TIA

Once in awhile, a web site pops up with some amount of free historical info (I don't know of any now). Eventually they either disappear or go pay per view (g). Here's one that has been around for ages but isn't cheap: https://csicheckout.com/cgi-bin/ua_order_form_nw.pl

IBKR charges 25 cents per contract to close 5 cent or less contracts. Not as good as E*Trade as mentioned by others. They also offer free assignment and exercise. I only like exercise when I do it in my account :->)

When looking at conversions and reversals, the carry cost is factored in. I assumed that carry cost is the same as borrow cost and evidently that is incorrect. Would you mind presenting a pair of hypothetical examples that demonstrates this? The first one with no borrow cost and the second...

In 2008 and 2009 I had years that anyone would be proud of. Maybe I was lucky. If so, I'll take luck over brains any day.

I prefer to take risk off the table and free up margin so I'd close the cheapie stuff. I can't tell you how many times several penny options bit me, costing multiples to close. If I'm selling premium, why wait one week for a nickel when the next week's (or month's position) is going to offer...

Dividends increase put premiums. Borrow rates increase call premiums.

Higher borrow costs raise call premiums so the benefit goes to the synthetic short.

Since you didn't post position details, it's not clear what you're asking or what the circumstances are at this point but one habit I've gotten into is buying to close near worthless short options rather than trying to capture some pennies/nickels. Not only does it free up margin for new...

As I mentioned to the OP, the usage of the volatility curve and then the pricing model is to arrive at a guesstimate. No matter how you approach this, what the final IV level will be is unknown and past performance is no guarantee of future results (looking back at what happening after the last...

Here's a fairly simple way to guesstimate an answer. Go to IVolatility (free sign up) and look at the one year implied volatility graph for NFLX. You can see the three previous quarterly IV expansion into earnings and their subsequent collapses after the release. Note the IV that they...

Thanks for the suggestion but I'm not looking for a site that recommends the "best covered calls". I want one that brings up the option chain for the stock that I'm interested in an does the calcs on every option in the chain. Traderlux: Yep, I will check out Schwab. AFAIK, they offer...

Threads have a way of going in the direction of whatever comments made interest posters. The maximum risk of an iron condor is the width of the widest spread less the premium received. After you grasp the construction as well as the R/R of an IC, look into developing a plan as to how you...

There are multiple problems here. IB provides 3 ways to set up the order using "Combinations"/"Option Combos (SMART)". The 1st is MULTIPLE for creating several spreads for the same underlying. The 2nd is STRATEGY for creating a single order and the 3rd is PAIR OR LEG BY LEG. You want to...

Higher IV increases the value of closer to the money options than those further away so the net credit for a vertical or an iron condor will be higher when IV is higher. The counterbalance is that higher IV raises the value of delta so the probability of touch and the probability of expiring...

What you have described is an Iron Butterfly. An Iron Condor involves a pair of strangles.

If possible, could you provide an example of how you are using index options to hedge your credit spreads? I've been looking at various ways to hedge a long option portfolio. I realize that there is always a scenario where there's potential loss but I'm looking to reduce the ding down. I have...

Zero risk? I'll let the numbers do the talking. Here are the closing high and closing low for some preferred stocks from 2008. I included all of the Lehman and Royal Bank of Scotland issues to see how bad it hit the fan. I was net short a number of LEH issues the day they went under. Best...