My original cost on BMC was $1,800 for all three legs. I made $1,100 for my feb rolls, and $920 on mar rolls. I took a $300 debit for buying back my may 25 call. That leaves me short roughly $100 +commission of my original cost. Not as profitable as I originally thought, but I still expect to make 8 or 9 hundred bucks on my apr's.
Calendar Spreads
- Thread starter gatorplease
- Start date
That is certainly not bad at all. I've been trying to figure out how much SHOULD a calendar make...are we looking for 50% 100% return on investment? What I do like about calendar's is that you can whittle down the debt therefore in general they are smaller risk...but unless you take a directional risk and are correct on it I don't really know how much you can realistically make.
I generally seek out calendar's which have a roll opportunity of earning at least 1.5 times my original cost. So, when I bot BMC, i guesstimated my roll's the best I could, and came up with 1.6x original debit(As it turns out, i overestimated a bit, but I'll still show a profit on my last roll and some premium to sell back my long legs). I try to use the KISS(keep it simple silly) methodology, as someone on this site(forgot who) came up with. So, I try to use stocks where I feel will continue to trade range bound. I try not to morph my calendars into directional trades(occasional diagonal), if i'm wrong I'll generally just close it out for a small loss and move on. Maybe that's not the 'best' adjusment, but I try to keep my non-directional trades in one corner, and my spec(ulative) trades in the other corner.
I think your right...most traders seem to put calendar's in the "neutral" corner. If they are bullish or bearish then the puts and calls are much better.
Quote from DonnaV:
I did get filled on SHLD..was looking at the Mar/Jun cal but decided to go ahead a get a buck for feb....so
BTO 5 115P cal Feb/June (+1.30 Feb -8.10Jun) debt 6.80
BTO 10 115/120P diag Feb/Jun ( +1.25 Feb -10.50 Jun) debt 9.25
The March prem should be good. hoping to cut the debts on both by 1/3rd vol was 35 and June 36
the plan is to roll both the 115's and 120 in Mar to 120 (doing a reverse diag on the 115's for just that month)
current position greeks (on total position)
delta -289
gamma -58
Theta +97
Vega +324
VP GL on yours! keep posted
SHLD... rolled the Feb 115 to Mar 120 at 5.10 leaving a diag for my June 115 and cal for June 120...reason...stock could go up in Mar at least enough to justify the upward roll have reduced debt now to 1.70 for the 115's and 4.05 for the 120's with two rolls left.
ATE my loss on Goog $710...don't trade what you don't know/understand/follow/just because your bored..stupid jerk
I try to remind myself all the time...it still doesn't work...and I was so proud that I had not done anything stupid for a whole 6 weeks of the new year!
Doh! Sorry Donna, forgot to keep this thread on the radar. Will pay closer attention, though the time frame for calendar trading is a bit outside of my comfort zone. Occasionally do the odd (double) diagonal.
and I agree GOOGLE SUCKS! on Friday I sold a 360 put:eek:
:eek: indeed.
LOL. To borrow a line from a little known movie: "The total tonnage of what I don't know is enough to shatter..."
Seriously, don't think I would have enough time to do it justice. Besides, I prefer to snipe from the sidelines! Phil might spin off his butterfly strategy into another thread if you bug him some more.
MoMoney.
I took my loss on GOOG like a woman
and I do hope if coach pursues the B-fly he will start a new thread...it would be easier to follow....I was very close to really understanding it then it slipped away
but I'm thinking of expanding my calendars to double diag if and when I get comfortable with them.From DonnaV>>
"... but I'm thinking of expanding my calendars to double diag if and when I get comfortable with them."
You might want to consider subscribing to the Double-Double Advisory of RedOption (of ThinkOrSwim). It is very inexpensive ($20 per month) and you can turn it off or on anytime you wish. I had it myself for several months exactly for the same reasonâto get more comfortable with the mechanics of these double creatures.
Also, I would like to join you and also give a âshoutâ to Coach and Mo to combine their talents on a separate new journal dedicated flies and B-flies. (smile!)
~Ben
"... but I'm thinking of expanding my calendars to double diag if and when I get comfortable with them."
You might want to consider subscribing to the Double-Double Advisory of RedOption (of ThinkOrSwim). It is very inexpensive ($20 per month) and you can turn it off or on anytime you wish. I had it myself for several months exactly for the same reasonâto get more comfortable with the mechanics of these double creatures.
Also, I would like to join you and also give a âshoutâ to Coach and Mo to combine their talents on a separate new journal dedicated flies and B-flies. (smile!)
~Ben