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Donna, good question and I would like the details also, espescially since Andy indicated he puts it on at the inception of the trade. Hope its not asking too much , Andy

I do the front month to hedge my other trades if they were to cause any losses. Gold has bounced up now after being at all time lows since the late 80's, and like alot of the other commodities it has been in a very stong up trend. However besides commercial uses , we know people like to hoard...

Donna , just a follow up to that hedge discussion, my OTM bull put spread on XAU lost half its value today alone on the continuation of the trend in gold. I had sold the 130 and bought the 125 for .45 , and will just let it expire worthless unless FED causes more jitters and gold keeps...

Just wanted to add one more thing, since Donna got me thinking. In a steep trend like we see in XAU, you could certainly be alot more aggressive. However , it depends on your definition of what you are hedging. At the tender age of 63, I'm into conservative treasuries, zeros, and cd type...

Donna, I do it alot like SPY and SPX, OTM and hiding behind support, and low prob of expiring in the money. You can usually get .50 way out there, and put on what you need to hedge, and basically still have a money making strategy going.

One of the thing I do every single month as a hedge against a catastrophic event, is to sell a good number of bull put spreads on the XAU. Yes, I know it is only traded on the Philly, and it was known as thinly traded, but check it out now. For the last two years as gold has rallied , and as...

I dont think the people that are not going to be able to handle 2% on their credit cards minimum payment, play any role that affects the markets. My take on the rally is the Institutional boys bought big after the Santa Rally fizzle, and that will be followed by a spurt of more buying by retail...

Pic, I'm sorry, I didnt realize you have on a 5 pointer and not a 10 or 15 pt spread. Still makes my heart flutter with the short 1280

Pic, I am a credit spreader, but this month, I went with slightly bullish flies on SPY. Did them cheap, and if I have to adjust they become condors. The 1280's make me nervous with the kind of risk involved, but wish you the best.

In my trades for this month , I am slightly skewed to the bullish side, and I have no hedges in place except for my ability to properly adjust to the market moving against me. I hope to be flat by next Mon or Tues.

My 2 cents, and worth exactly that, is that there are many powers that be, from fund managers, corporate insiders, and even big gov. that wants to see Dow 11000. There will be cheering and celebrating on the floor, and the funds will be setting up their sheep for stronger bullish investment...

Spoke to my guy at TOS who handles Dr. Epps autotrade accounts for them, and he said that in Nov. Epps rolled and then cut his losses by closing out. In so doing he took about 5% losses across the board in SPX, and XEO. However for the aprox 3 years he has posted trades, he is up over 200%...

Andy, I know several traders that use the VIX and the VXO simply as contrarian sentiment indicators. Put some Bollenger bands on the vxo for example, and when this indicator is low and giving several hits on the lower Bollenger band, 2 STD, it may well be time to get bearish. Once this...

IV, Not being critical, but why do you think you have to be a very good directional trader to be following a rising trend with a bull put credit spread , or jumping on the train in a falling market with bear call spreads, but not nec. in the SPX. Please explain all the difficulty you see...

Doc, I have to agree, that when the market is docile , these neg Gamma strategies can lull you into a false sense of security, and your caution is well advised, and maybe does need to be repeated often for everyones benefit. I do have to say that Phil handles this strategy really well when...

Sam, I look at it this way, if the adjustment adds to the risk, and deminishes the reward , it may be better to close and play another day. If however the ratio of risk to reward stays within reason and probability of success is higher , it is worth considering. Strategist and former pit...

Sam, I have only read the risk management chapter which Phil makes available free. It is worth the read, but he has very gratiously discussed a great deal of whatever could be offered in the book by answering every question thrown at him. The book is cheap on the net , so if your curious...

Doc, I dont recall Phil ever saying it was easy. He also stated that it is not a just sell the iron condor trade. It is one way of trading a market , when the market is right. Also , I would imagine that most traders here other than absolute rookies , utilize other trading strategies , and...

Tos traders, you may or may not be aware of a service TOS has with a Dr. Epps who also trades the Iron Condors on SPX, XEO, and others. This system is traded for you, not my cup of tea!! That being said, you can see his results posted on his web site, Wise Options.com. Pretty interesting stuff.

Andy, agreed that the flys cost more later in the game, but I liked putting on the fly with under 3 weeks to go, usually the thurs or Fri of the week before the last 2 week period. I wanted theta to continue over the weekend, if that is possible. The TOS platform allowed me to store the upward...