How not to pay too much 4 Calendars?

Quote from eldorado1:

I use to trade iron condors till last May with short strikes deep OTM and Long's 6-7 strikes away (typical trade in today's prices would be: SPY Short p 114, c 126. Long p 108, c 131) when things move up, for example, I will tighten the spread by moving up short put. The system worked well but it felt like it was just good times for condors as markets were moving up and IV going down. So I upgraded myself to calendars :-)
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I can understand that strategy. However, in the couple months I've been doing this, the market has been to choppy for me to make that work and particularly with my rinky dink account. The underlyings that are stable enough to make a condor work don't have the premiums I want for a minimum of 10% ROR. So I'm just doing one side of the condor. To deal with the chop, I'm concentrating on the weeklys except I did a Dec 11 TIF 60-65 bull put hoping for good earnings and now it needs a xmas rally. As soon as I see some direction this week, I'll try some weekly trades. Too early to call a xmas rally or a Eurozone decline and maybe it will be sideways this week.
 
Quote from bc1:

I can understand that strategy. However, in the couple months I've been doing this, the market has been to choppy for me to make that work and particularly with my rinky dink account. The underlyings that are stable enough to make a condor work don't have the premiums I want for a minimum of 10% ROR. So I'm just doing one side of the condor. To deal with the chop, I'm concentrating on the weeklys except I did a Dec 11 TIF 60-65 bull put hoping for good earnings and now it needs a xmas rally. As soon as I see some direction this week, I'll try some weekly trades. Too early to call a xmas rally or a Eurozone decline and maybe it will be sideways this week.
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Agree. Doesnt seem like the time 4 condors. But why not trade a long calendar until you see a direction in the market?
 
Quote from eldorado1:

maybe I will hedge calendars with some condors.
in the past I tried to play a neutral-bear spread on VIX but that was just trouble.
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hopefully you were facetious when you say hedge calendars with some condors.

MAYBE a butterfly if the underlying market moves to the upside but no way a condor
 
Quote from bc1:

IV, Would you mind explaining what vega is and how positive/negative affects a trade? Thanks.
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vega is the otm part of an option premium.

whenever a trade will benefit from a DROP in IV, its referred to as a negative vega trade

wheneven a trade will Benefit from a INCREASE in IV, its referred to as a positive vega trade.

"all" option traders ultimately trade IV, most just haven't learn that yet. its one of the things that separates a beginner from a much more experienced option trader

the level of IV is what really drives which option strategy a trader uses
 
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