SPX Credit Spread Trader

Quote from optioncoach:

From my experience with OX and ToS and what I have heard from IB, an Iron Condor is recognized when the put and call spread have the same distances between the strikes and you sell the same number of contracts. When that occurs, they will count margin on only one side of the spread. OX will treat it as 2 different spreads and 2 margin requirements if the distances are not equal or the number of contracts are not equal.

Basically I believe the brokers program their platforms to recognize margin and make it simplified to recognize ICs but count every other combination of spreads on an individual basis. I am sure that if you were with a large investment house and had a large portoflio you could ask them to treat the margin for call and put spreads with uneven strikes or numbers of contracts as the larger margin side. I think basically it comes down to the fact that margin requirements are automatically counted by the brokerages on their systems and ICs are easy to recognize and eveyrthing else is just looked at as individual spreads.

Phil

I have spoken with the margin department at OX on several occasions and they insist that these seemingly illogical ways of treating margin with assymetrical IC's is an SEC requirement over which they have no discretion.
 
I am not sure I believe that. SEC sets general margin guidelines as minimums, but I am not sure they have addressed IC's or credit spreads like this. Maybe among the brokers they have. But it is also easier for them to just treat them as individual credit spreads unless there are call and put spreads with same distance between strikes and same # of contracts.

Phil

Quote from B5476:

I have spoken with the margin department at OX on several occasions and they insist that these seemingly illogical ways of treating margin with assymetrical IC's is an SEC requirement over which they have no discretion.
 
Anyone else taking advantage of todays volatiltity? I just got a fill of $.90 on the 1175/65 OCT bull puts spread. Didn't think I would get it but the SPX dipped to 1220 and the order filled.
:D

I put this trade on today because I still see 1218-1220 and 1200 as key support levels then 1190.
 
Loaded up on puts last week so not able to jump in today but boy was my mouth watering. Did a ton of E-mini future trading and it was wild after the Fed announcement!

If we get any type of rally during the week back near 1230 I may add some calls but still content to hold on to my puts for now. WIll be interesting to see if people decide to jump in for buying opportunities.

Phil
 
Quote from optioncoach:

Loaded up on puts last week so not able to jump in today but boy was my mouth watering. Did a ton of E-mini future trading and it was wild after the Fed announcement!

If we get any type of rally during the week back near 1230 I may add some calls but still content to hold on to my puts for now. WIll be interesting to see if people decide to jump in for buying opportunities.

Phil

It's always fun to watch ES after Fed announcements. It's not soo much fun when your in a position when the announcment is released though. I remember once, being short during the announcement release. Right after the news came out, I was down 400 bucks within 20mins I was up $300 and I was glad to close my position.

I got my DIA put spread filled today after the announcement came out, to complete another IC.

Have a 103/108 IC for a total credit of 0.45 per contract.

Hope market rallies a little bit for the rest of the week.
 
Coach,

Thank you so much for your excellent posts on this board as well as Yahoo options board. I have learned a lot from reading your posts and book.

This is my first posting on this board, and I have a question:

I put a limit order for selling xeo Oct 530/545 put spread @0.65 before I went to work this morning. To my big surprise, the order was filled @0.90 at 3:05 pm. I would like to know why MM gave me much better price instead of my limit order price.

Thanks in advance.
 
"For OCT I am looking at OCT 540/550 Put Spreads and for SPX 1170/1180 Put Spreads."
-- Phil, what was the rationale behind looking at the XEO instead of focusing only on SPX?
 
Wow, I got a .60 fill yesterday for the same spread. What was the bid x ask when you put in the order? EOD is .40 x 1.20 for a .80 MID . Man, I'm bummed I couldn't take part in the IV trades today :(

sd


Quote from zman7854:

Anyone else taking advantage of todays volatiltity? I just got a fill of $.90 on the 1175/65 OCT bull puts spread. Didn't think I would get it but the SPX dipped to 1220 and the order filled.
:D

I put this trade on today because I still see 1218-1220 and 1200 as key support levels then 1190.
 
Quote from skdoyle1:

Wow, I got a .60 fill yesterday for the same spread. What was the bid x ask when you put in the order? EOD is .40 x 1.20 for a .80 MID . Man, I'm bummed I couldn't take part in the IV trades today :(

sd

I remember it was fluctuating quite a bit, the mid hit $1.00 when the market touched 1220 and I was filled at $.90 I like to take advantage of fast moving markets/volatility when I can to try and capture some of that volatility.
 
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