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You need to determine if your gain is short term (as per the IRS) or long term. Check your 1099 or Consoldidated EOY report to see if you paired your trade dates correctly or if you had multiple trades, was there a wash sale violation that you missed? Get the correct tax data. Then as...

Oops, please ignore my previous reply. I read long but replied short, eg., what I'd do if I had a 50% gain on an option.

Here's another one. You might have to register (free): http://www.ivolatility.com/calc/?ticker=SPX

With a little more effort and saltiness, that could have been a decent limerick :)

That's called a "portfolio by adverse selection." After a good dose of that, one day you look at your holdings and you ask, "Where did I get this crap???" :) :eek: :D

The battle is never over until the option expires or you close the position. A stop is an individual and arbitrary decision. You place it where you can live with the result. If the option has decayed 50%, it's usually going to be close to expiration (if IV and price haven't changed...

People puking up their positions is a beautiful thing. Imbalances occur quickly and opportunities are greater. Long only types need to get over the fear of shorting. This "unlimited loss" mantra is about as worthwhile as the suggestion that covered calls are safe or that naked puts are...

Having a short SPY position rise 10 pts is no more painful than have a long SPY position drops 10 pts. It's just 2 sides of a coin. Don't get hung up on the fear of unlimited risk of shorting. Markets don't melt up and anecdotally, they drop 2-1/2 times faster than they rise. Given the...

I have to give you props for honesty. When you stated on page 4 of this chain tht you don't have an in depth understanding of options, you were telling the God's honest truth! As for size, I'd be willing to bet that the average annual amount of equity trading in my account far exceeds what...

>> I'm sure anything is possible, but what are the real chances of a major percentage gap these days? << LOL. Famous last words --> "What are the chances?" If the odds are one in ten thousand, they mean nothing when you're the one! :) I'm suspicious of your results because Yahoo...

There are all kinds of volatility... historical, implied, future, etc. But the really good stuff is when the general public hears bad news or reads their monthly statement and realizes that their 401K is turning into a 201K plan. Then they run for the door, blowing out everything, creating...

Given that Nine_Ender suggested that "$1000-$2000 can give you the option to buy or sell $500,000-$1,000,000 worth of stock" and you indicated that's huge leverage, I suspect that a 1-2 G option position must be huge for you. A position that small also does not require inside information nor...

My 2 cents is that if the data isn't reliable then the backtesting isn't. If the data is not so bad then it's really not so good.

If I don't, can we start calling each other names??? :D

A stop loss order in the underlying may be meaningless if there's a huge gap down in a swaaaaaan diiiiiive. Only long puts will protect against that.

You're being nitpick humped over technical details. An ATM call's delta is higher than a put's delta and the greater the interest rate, the IV and the time remaining, the greater the call's delta. So even if close to expiration with low IV and low carry rate, the call's delta will be...

Options are meant to give you many more ways to skin the cat (or be skinned). What you see as their use is not their only use.