For those that make their living
- Thread starter steve0580
- Start date
Small chance you will get assigned early seling an ITM call with a dividend approaching...
Riskarb, I have nothing but respect for your knowledge of options, but I must disagree with your view of the NDX. Since ISE has listed it, it has become pretty damn tight. For instance, right now at the money calls are 0.30 wide. This is the contract I most trade because it is 40 times bigger than QQQQ, which allows much smaller size and therefore commish. I would encourage any QQQQ option trader trading over 20 contracts to take a look at this contract because it could mean going back to trading 1, 5, or 10 lots and saving a bunch on transaction costs.
Again, I seem to be out of the loop. I'll admit I've not traded NDX since 2004. I had no idea they were dual-listed now, that's fantastic.
I trade more Nikkei FO's than any other vanilla options, so most of this is outside my sphere. I didn't know ES has suddenly become liquid as well. Learn something new every day.
What time frame are you trading when you leg your flies? What I mean is, when you leg a fly for a credit or low debit do you usually complete the fly in less than one trading day, or do you buy the wings and maybe spend several days trying to sell the bodies?
If you are unable to complete a fly for a low enough debit what do you do to close the trade? Do you sell the long options for a loss or do you just go ahead and complete the fly for a larger debit than you wanted and try to make it up on later trades?
It is less rare than you might think. One advantage is that you get to "know" the characteristics of the particular option class which I consider a major advantage. I use a very simple system with two complementary indicators (just two well-known general indicators with the default settings, I use Hotline X as TA application) that tell me something about strength and direction. I also look at fundamental information, but only trade on it if it is confirmed by the technical indicators.Quote from Choad:
Interesting. Never heard of someone just trading one stock's options. The stock itself, or a particular index maybe, but not just one stock's options. I guess if you watch the stock and its options all day, everyday, you can get pretty good at predicting moves...
Can you tell us a little about your strategies and what you are looking at for trades?
Thanks!
C
Furthermore I use financial modelling software (Quantrix) to analyse price etc.
Paramount is a sound money management strategy. Also: cut your losses as quickly as possible and let your profits run. This is far more important than the exhausting quest for the Holy Grail, which doesn't exist anyway...
I trade for fun, and my wife and I have regular jobs that provide us with a comfortable income. I trade with money I can afford to lose, I would hate to lose it, but it wouldn't be a problem for me and my wife. Of course this takes a big load of my shoulders. In fact my only objective in trading is not to lose money. Any profit is an added bonus. No stress.
I am surprised whenever I read or hear about people who want to start trading for a living with a capital of 5000 dollar... Perhaps it is possible but just think of the strain that it puts on you...
So really nothing fancy or sexy. Trading is not an art, it is a craft. Know your tools and know your personality and there is no reason why you could not make a good amount of money.
I trade a lot of NDX and it is bar none the BEST index option trade on the market. The tightest markets, very liquid, lots of paper, and large contract.
Quote from riskarb:
I can't read my run, Mav... it seems to be written in crayon. Expect a terse phone call tonight.
We put your runs on an etch a sketch now. That way you can erase them right away when you are done with them.
