Calendar Spreads

AA - Where were you yesterday with this advice??? j/k

I had 22 positions going into today. Learned alot about calenders this month and how to manage them better. One of those lessons is managing the greed factor.

EX - Bot RIMM MAY/JUN 70 Put spreads at $1.15 a few weeks ago. The midpoint yesterday was 2.10, I sold it today at 1.40. Much less than I could have yesterday. Just plain silly.

Also made a mistake of accumulating way too many calls vs puts.
Had ~80% calls - I didn't even realize it until this week.

Am way OTM on my long calls now, most of which are JUN. Assuming I sell the long options on Monday, I'll be just a little ahead for the month. I guess not too bad considering the drop in the indexes.

Question - What would everyone suggest regarding selling soon or waiting for a bounce "hoping" to get more juice on the remaining long calls?

Unless I see a bounce early Monday, my plan is to sell the remaining calls and start accumulating positions for JUN exp.

Thanks.
 
CBOE archives has lots of Dan Sheridan webcasts available for free. They seem to be on the intermediate/advanced level.

AA, I know you were discussing him recently. Free is alot more desireable than spending $5k.

fwiw
 
Quote from nlslax:

More stuff...

CBOE archives has lots of Dan Sheridan webcasts available for free. They seem to be on the intermediate/advanced level.

AA, I know you were discussing him recently. Free is alot more desireable than spending $5k.

fwiw
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I did listen to the last free webcase....worth every penny:D
I did buy Nov 42.5 HD...calls...am planning to sell the near term month sometime next week. I do think(hope?) for a bounce. I have to think there will be some kind of bounce. I also bought a call vertical on the NDX late in the day.
 
Aardvark,

No problem, I like to have other opinions as well.

Selling the position isn't really in the game plan at the moment. This is the correction I was expecting, just not so fast. I'm still fairly confident I can work with this trade, I'm down slightly overall if I were to sell and I'm not ready to run for the hills just yet. I would prefer to see some upside before I decide on anything. OIH ended the day strong on oil declining so we'll see what this brings next week. I'll just bank on the summer season to prop everything up..

The only reason I posted this whole situation was I thought someone on here must have been involved in a trade like this and I was just wondering what the adjustments were and how it worked in the end.
 
Quote from RichardRimes: 4/24

OK Pipe...woke up early with an idea of what I'm going to do.

now I'm looking a little more OTM...Buy OCT 150(12contracts)
sell May 155 (10 contracts) a ratio diagonal put cal. The more I thought and looked at the charts of OIH the more I think the trend may be down on the next few months and If it continues up I can continue to sell the higher strike month to month. If it goes down strongly then having the extra 2 contracts helps offset any adjustment down to a reg cal (ie I'll then sell 12 June 150's).

I'll post my fills after the mkt opens.
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Thought I'd bring this back to life since the above diag/cal on OIH went pretty well. Yesterday I opened a call calender on OIH at 150 which seems to be a mid trading range. The new one is a Jan/Jul
so I'll have lots of roll's. It is also ratioed. 25 longs 20 shorts. I still have the OCT/apr (currently Aug) Put calender. The extra 2 contracts I had I sold for over $17 each:p when the VIX was 23.

Pipepuller are you still around and in OIH?
 
Hey.. its been a long time since anyone has posted on here. Good to hear your previous trades went so well.

So yeah I'm still in OIH, the last month hasn't been the most productive, but i'm still ahead overall so can't complain too much. I've kinda stayed on the side lines a little bit as its pretty hard to say where this market is going.

I have been playing some VIX Calendars though, and so far they seem to be working well. The front month premiums seem quite inflated vs. the far term (NOV/Feb). Have you come across any other discussions about the VIX? What's your thoughts on it?

I'll be following your Jan/Jul OIH play.
 
OIH really got hit today...big hit to the longs but should be able to let the Jul expire and hopefully on a bounce sell some Aug for decent prem. A VIX calendar is a very interesting proposition, I'd love to follow along if you get one going.:p
I haven't heard of anyone playing a VIX Cal mostly just selling/buying.
 
I have an OIH calendar on as well. The short july didn't have much room to fall today so my position didnt look too good since the oct fell without the benefit of an offset position.
Looking forward to seeing how others play it.
 
I like your ideas re the VIX cal. Placed an order for the Jul/Nov 20 calls at 1.70, no go. Will look at it again tomorrow. Hoping to get in and sell Aug early next week.
 
Quote from pipepuller:



I have been playing some VIX Calendars though, and so far they seem to be working well. The front month premiums seem quite inflated vs. the far term (NOV/Feb). Have you come across any other discussions about the VIX? What's your thoughts on it?
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I have been playing vix call calendars for a few months now with great success. Infact its the only issue i would do a long calendar on. I love the risk profile of the trade. The recent vol spikes have been great opportunities to sell expensive near term premium against an '07 long side. If you want to get cute you can even scalp against the long side. The mean reverting tendency of the vix creates a great opportunity for rolls. I do one even better, i diagonalize them to profit off of a spike beyond my strike.

I'd go as far out as you can on your +strike w/o losing too much edge and sellthe aug same strike or higher against it. (yes you heard it right, higher, you wont lose much of the credit infact the credit given up is insignificant to the spread you get to keep during a vix spike)

By no means am i recommending a trade, plug in the trade in any option modeler yourself then allow for the ITM discounting and you will see what i am talking about. If you choose your strikes and timing right, in 2 months you can own a '07 long leg for free with not much unmanageable risk.

Good luck with your calendars.
 
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