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Thank you Mech! I never said you should have trades planned for every contingency. A plan means to have a good idea of how to adjust or get out of trades when things go against you (or you get unlucky). What you want to avoid is the deer in the headlights phenomenom! (Been there...not a...

Yes, I shorted some contracts during the recent decline. It reduced the volatility nicely. Fortunately, I covered well before the Fed and even made a few bucks.

Zegras, Please take this in a positive way but it is best to have a plan for how to handle moves like this before putting a position on. These kinds of moves happen on a fairly regular basis and if you don't have a stategy you are comfortable with, you will get hurt. You can hedge by...

Can anyone share some info on how you report all of your trades to the taxman. 2006 was my first year. I use IB and am hoping that there is a streamlined method to reporting trades besides line by line. thanks in advance kapil

Piccon, Do you leg in to these spreads or place the orders as spreads? Kapil

Mark, A good analogy might be if someone bought Enron for $2, rode it to $75 and stated that he has very little risk in that position because of his low basis. Kapil

In 2007 lets try deep in the money debit spreads! :p

Thanks for your insights Mark.

Mark, I am still trying to get a handle on position sizing for my own portfolio. For every 100k of assets, roughly how many e-mini diagonals would you open? Hope you don't mind all of the newbie questions! :) Kapil

I think ROI and ROP are the same for Mark, which is why it is such a good target return. Mark, please correct me if I am wrong.

Mark, I think 4% per month is phenominal. How close do you come to acheiving this? How bad have the drawdowns been? Kapil

I had the same thought. I try not to look at it too frequently as I tend to get a little trigger happy as my deltas and gammas keep changing.

Mark, Do you find the Portfolio Analytics data on IB to be accurate? Kapil

I would add: Keep costs as low as reasonably possible. Commissions and b/a spreads can eat up a lot of potential profits.

Mark and Ryank, Are your returns based on return on margin or your total capital allocated to options? Kapil

I would be interested in this as well Mav. You should share what you are comfortable sharing and not feel obligated to divulge more. I would prefer to read what you are willing to talk about rather than nothing at all. I am learning a lot from you and many others on this thread and want...

4% per month is excellent. If I remember correctly, you do them for credits so they are much wider than Murray's.

This is what happened to LTCM. They were averaging 40% per year until they went away.

Thanks Mark, I guess I am trying to get a handle on what kind of ROE you guys shoot for. I agree we all have different risk tolerances but when you are trying to compare investment alternatives, total return counts. If you don't mind sharing, what is your target for ROM vs. ROE?