Is that because it's less volatile?
I did some reading about contango. But how would that affect me in this case?
No, it is because you are giving youself a ton of breathing room for the trade to work. Although, there is something worrying coming out of the CME.
I was reticent to post this while you were in your position, but since you are out, it is safe to post it and for you to ruminate upon. The market is always full of possibilities!...
------------------------
Changes to Price and Strike Price Eligibility Flags for Certain Energy Products
Today
Sunday, April 5 (trade date Monday, April 6), as an operational step toward potentially supporting negative pricing and strikes, the MDP 3 Security Definition (tag 35-MsgType=
d) for
these Energy outright futures and options on CME Globex will be flagged as eligible to trade at negative prices. The options on futures will also be flagged as negative strike price eligible.
Trading at negative prices for these outright markets will not be supported at this time. Negative strike prices will not be listed.
Negative order prices will be rejected with
Execution Report (tag 35-MsgType=8) message:
- Reject code tag 103-OrdRejReason = 1012
- Tag 58-Text=<’Price must be greater than zero'>
Any changes will be published in future CME Globex Notices.
Negative trade price instruments, and negative strike price eligible instruments, are identified in the
MDP 3.0 Security Definition (tag 35-MsgType=
d), in repeating group tag 871-InstAttribType:
- tag 872-InstAttribValue= 9: Negative Strike Eligible
- tag 872-InstAttribValue=10: Negative Price Eligible
- tag 872-InstAttribValue= 14: Zero Price Eligible
------------------------
And this...
https://www.cmegroup.com/content/dam/cmegroup/notices/clearing/2020/04/Chadv20-152.pdf
They are hoping for the best but planning for the worst, it seems.
@bone Any insight on that .PDF statement about negative spreads? The "Bachelier model"?