Calendar Spreads

Quote from DonnaV:

IV...I still do like them a lot. The three that I have been Journaling..RMBS, WFMI, and SHDL have so far been one win, one loss (because of poor management) and one still to be determined. i've opened several others that I have not shared and they seem to be doing ok...won't know for several months.

What I like about calendars in addition to the fact they require no margin is there does not seem to be that much risk in the type of market we have been experiencing the last few years...fairly low vol..sometimes slightly increasing. Bottem line is that I expect that on stocks that are kinda high priced like IBM, BG, CL PG and others...this might be a very viable strategy. (I don't mean High in the sense that they are over priced but high in the $$ to buy the stock...cheaper to play the stock but as an IC or cal)
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I see. I am entering much more calendar trades this year , but all of them are for a short term/event driven.
Good luck , Donna
 
Quote from IV_Trader:

I see. I am entering much more calendar trades this year , but all of them are for a short term/event driven.
Good luck , Donna
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I'm going to shorten the duration of mine as well...as I re-read my posts I see how confusing they were...more like "stream of consciousness" no wonder I confused myself!:confused: And probably everyone else. I am going to try to be more concrete and not go into explaining my thought process as I am obviously very inarticulate:(

GL to you as well:)
 
Quote from IV_Trader:
I see. I am entering much more calendar trades this year , but all of them are for a short term/event driven.


Hi Guys,
Been busy the past month or so (tax season) and have been more lurkin than postin.

I have been doing more Cals vs CS/IC's lately. I like the slow movement of the Cals and the r/r has been better. Been having success with strong trending stocks (using IBD ratings) setting Cals up w/30-45 days B4 exp of short strike.

A recent one was JOYG when the stock was ~ 54. Did Cals on the 55 and 60 strikes. Debit of 1.20 on each w/~30 days to exp and did 5 contracts each. Sold the ITM spreads (when JOYG was ~ 58) for 1.50 - netting 100/620 for 16%. The MAR 60's expired OTM and I sold the APR 60 Calls for 3.00.

Right now I guess it's better to be lucky than smart. I'll see how the next few months go to see if I can be consistant with this strategy. Am also curious to see if this strategy works well w/indexes.
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Quote from nlslax:

Quote from IV_Trader:
I see. I am entering much more calendar trades this year , but all of them are for a short term/event driven.


Hi Guys,
Been busy the past month or so (tax season) and have been more lurkin than postin.

I have been doing more Cals vs CS/IC's lately. I like the slow movement of the Cals and the r/r has been better. Been having success with strong trending stocks (using IBD ratings) setting Cals up w/30-45 days B4 exp of short strike.

A recent one was JOYG when the stock was ~ 54. Did Cals on the 55 and 60 strikes. Debit of 1.20 on each w/~30 days to exp and did 5 contracts each. Sold the ITM spreads (when JOYG was ~ 58) for 1.50 - netting 100/620 for 16%. The MAR 60's expired OTM and I sold the APR 60 Calls for 3.00.

Right now I guess it's better to be lucky than smart. I'll see how the next few months go to see if I can be consistant with this strategy. Am also curious to see if this strategy works well w/indexes.
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nice trade...are you looking at the IV's at all in making your decision or just focusing on the direction/value of the underlying?
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I do look at IV's and have only done spreads where the IV of the short month is greater than the IV of the long month. I'm sure there is a better and more complicated way to do it, but for now I'm keepin it simple and hope to refine the process as I go along.
 
For now I have been looking at the company and then checking to see if it's a good Cal candidate. I would like to be able to screen for stocks or indexes where the IV of the front month is > the IV of the long month.

Any suggestion on where to go to run screens with those criterias combined with others (price, volume, OI) would be appreciated.
 
Quote from nlslax:

For now I have been looking at the company and then checking to see if it's a good Cal candidate. I would like to be able to screen for stocks or indexes where the IV of the front month is > the IV of the long month.

Any suggestion on where to go to run screens with those criterias combined with others (price, volume, OI) would be appreciated.
More...

Have you tried chartbender's? I do pretty much what you do. I either have a stock in mind where I'm not certain of its direction but "think" it may be down or up then check to see if the vol's front/back are favorable.
 
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