My Options Play

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Quote from novel20:

Multioption, what is your stop loss on the long APA Nov 65 calls and short APA Nov 60 calls?
There can't be stop loss on Long Nov 65 Call and there's no need for it on the short leg either. Trade is hanging!

I love options; the game is now intriguing!

Let's wait and see how it pans out!
 
Quote from Multioption:

There can't be stop loss on Long Nov 65 Call and there's no need for it on the short leg either. Trade is hanging!

I love options; the game is now intriguing!

Let's wait and see how it pans out!
Yes indeed. And you have some demand coming back maybe you will end up with a profit.
 
Well I've read most of the messages posted over the past 127 pages. I cant belive theres been 127 pages with only about 5 trades~.

I'm real interested to see how you do multi; enjoying reading your trades.

Keep up the good work and there are people that enjoy reading your posts trades without being a player hater.

oh one question; you mentioned in one of your earlier posts that you have only had 3 trades expire worthless.

How do you accomplish that? I've had 2 in the last month lol.

bought AMZN calls before earings (crash)

bought CHK calls last week (granted I should of sold but was away and couldnt - dont really matter didnt spend much) - but still its at 0 for the bid now.

I was in EBAY earlier - but bought and sold and lost out on much $. <<< need better trading plan.

I did have one winner in the recent past; bought intel for cheep and sold it for $. (ie sold on friday).

I just bought IBM calls on friday; going to see how it pans out.

oh almost forgot I bought some SHLD friday and sold that same day; didnt like it.

anyways just sharing some of my recent adventures (I've really enjoyed reading yours).

good luck
 
A "rather" safe trade on DELL:
Sell Dec 27.5 Put and buy 32.5 CALL for December with the credit of 10 cents.
If DELL stays between 27.5 to 32.5, you will get 2% profit in 5 weeks. and if it goes above 32.5, you are the king and if it goes below 27.5, you will start to lose. This is not a screaming trade but a safe trade and you can sleep. You can find lots of trades like this.
 
Quote from djxput:

Well I've read most of the messages posted over the past 127 pages. I cant belive theres been 127 pages with only about 5 trades~.

I'm real interested to see how you do multi; enjoying reading your trades.

Keep up the good work and there are people that enjoy reading your posts trades without being a player hater.

oh one question; you mentioned in one of your earlier posts that you have only had 3 trades expire worthless.

How do you accomplish that? I've had 2 in the last month lol.

good luck
100% loss on three trades does not imply that some trades didn't post losses; they were just not 100% of the preimum. How many trade(s) per week/month do you think is/are ideal for an option trader?
 
Quote from Multioption:

100% loss on three trades does not imply that some trades didn't post losses; they were just not 100% of the preimum. How many trade(s) per week/month do you think is/are ideal for an option trader?

I am also a directional option trader. My personal experience is that there are very few option trades per month that I would take. Perhaps 0-5 trades per month at most.

Perhaps I am a little conservative, I only like to take the A+ trades and keep a very concentrated portfolio.
 
Quote from hajimow:
A "rather" safe trade on DELL:
Sell Dec 27.5 Put and buy 32.5 CALL for December with the credit of 10 cents.
If DELL stays between 27.5 to 32.5, you will get 2% profit in 5 weeks. and if it goes above 32.5, you are the king and if it goes below 27.5, you will start to lose. This is not a screaming trade but a safe trade and you can sleep. You can find lots of trades like this.
hajimow's position is equivalent to:
  • (synthetic stock) + (bear vertical spread)
or
  • sto Dec 27.5 put (b/a .2/.25) & bto Dec 27.5 call +
    sto Dec 27.5 call & bto Dec 32.5 call (.1/.15)
It might be opened for $0.10 but the natural price is only $0.05 less $0.025 in commissions at oX, with a margin requirement of $560 per contract. This means about 0.5% return on margin.

To size this position I have to firstly decide on my stop loss. As no support is in sight and DELL closed Friday at $29.4, I'd put my stop loss at $28.25. Considering a worst case IV increase of 25% (from 25.7% to 32.1%), my options position's R (risk) is about $0.60 ($0.05 commission to open and close both legs). Note: the maximum risk of this position is much higher as DELL could gap down.

See attached this position's graph: today, in 9, 18, 27, 36 days.
 

Attachments

Quote from cnms2:

hajimow's position is equivalent to:
  • (synthetic stock) + (bear vertical spread)
or
  • sto Dec 27.5 put (b/a .2/.25) & bto Dec 27.5 call +
    sto Dec 27.5 call & bto Dec 32.5 call (.1/.15)
It might be opened for $0.10 but the natural price is only $0.05 less $0.025 in commissions at oX, with a margin requirement of $560 per contract. This means about 0.5% return on margin.

To size this position I have to firstly decide on my stop loss. As no support is in sight and DELL closed Friday at $29.4, I'd put my stop loss at $28.25. Considering a worst case IV increase of 25% (from 25.7% to 32.1%), my options position's R (risk) is about $0.60 ($0.05 commission to open and close both legs). Note: the maximum risk of this position is much higher as DELL could gap down.

See attached this position's graph: today, in 9, 18, 27, 36 days.
DELL's both weekly and daily charts show a bearish trend, but both exhibit bullish divergences for a bullish setup. See attached weekly and daily charts.
 

Attachments

It might be opened for $0.10 but the natural price is only $0.05 less $0.025 in commissions at oX, with a margin requirement of $560 per contract. This means about 0.5% return on margin.

Disclosure: I will not do the trade that I mentioned because I am already loaded. If I could do the trade, I would not change my credit from 0.1 to 0.05 to make the order a market order. I will pay 1.5 for commission so credit will be $8.5 per contract.

I have to have (20% 29.5 - 2.5)x100=$340 per contract.
So the profit will be $8.5/$340 x100=2.5% in 5 weeks.

If the market goes down and the stock dips, you can get more than 10 cents from the spread.

My broker is IB.
Another disclosure: No trade is safe. We just believe they are safe and profitable. Once we enter the trade, time might prove we were very wrong.
 
Quote from Multioption:
100% loss on three trades does not imply that some trades didn't post losses; they were just not 100% of the premium. How many trade(s) per week/month do you think is/are ideal for an option trader?
Quote from Toad:
I am also a directional option trader. My personal experience is that there are very few option trades per month that I would take. Perhaps 0-5 trades per month at most.

Perhaps I am a little conservative, I only like to take the A+ trades and keep a very concentrated portfolio.
When I trade daily charts my forecast time frame is about 10 trading days, and I close my positions in 1 to 3 weeks from opening. This means an average of 2 turns per months.

I size my positions for a maximum 2% risk (R) of my trading account. At any time my total risk doesn't exceed 6% of my account, so I can open about 3 positions at the same time. When an open position goes my way I tighten my stop loss, so I may have enough room for a 4th or even a 5th open position.

This makes 2 turns * 3 positions = 6 positions / month when trading daily charts. If I sized my positions for 1% risk, I would trade about a dozen positions a month.

Going to a lower time frame, i.e. 60 minutes or 30 minutes, my forecast becomes shorter and I can have more turns, but the limitation comes from the reduction in price swings. These smaller swings have to be still large enough so that they're at least 5 times larger than my cost to put on a trade (slippage and commissions).

Considering a cost of $0.20, the option position targeted swing needs to be at least $1. For a delta of .67 it translates in an underlying swing of $1.50. This restricts the pool of stocks that I can trade, and limits how low I can go with my time frame. For a 60 minute chart trade my forecast is for about 2 days, and for a 30 minute it is only 1 day, and my target swing has to be possible in that time frame.
 
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