SPX Credit Spread Trader
- Thread starter El OchoCinco
- Start date
Yes, looking at the diagonals now 
This strong upward move today is hurting my first attempt at a put diagonal. My position is:
STO Aug 1200 put for $12.00
BTO Sep 1175 put for $13.60
Current mid is $1.55. I can close it now and take my small lumps or roll it into a Sep credit spread. I think I will just take my lumps to free up margin for other positions I am looking at that would return more.
Edit: It would make more sense to hold on until expiration, who knows, might get a drop in the market with a little pop in vol might put me into the black or leave me still with a relatively small loss if we keep going up.
STO Aug 1200 put for $12.00
BTO Sep 1175 put for $13.60
Current mid is $1.55. I can close it now and take my small lumps or roll it into a Sep credit spread. I think I will just take my lumps to free up margin for other positions I am looking at that would return more.
Edit: It would make more sense to hold on until expiration, who knows, might get a drop in the market with a little pop in vol might put me into the black or leave me still with a relatively small loss if we keep going up.
I mis-spoke when I told you about the haircut. Momoney is right, Simplex does not offer haircut margin, but does offer up to 5-1 option leverage.
Grabbed a diagonal today using ES and EW Calls for SEPT and AUG. I pushed hard legging in so did not get the best fills I wanted as the market crept higher but I still like it for post AUG expiration gains:
Sold 135 AUG EW 1315 Calls @ Average Price of 1.83
Credit = ~ $12,402.50
Bought 150 SEP ES 1335 Calls @ 1.45
Debit = $10,875
NET CREDIT = $1,527.50
The net credit is not the most attractive for this, but I am actually betting on bigger potential profits from the SEP ES calls after the EWs expire worthless or are adjusted/rolled into SEP. Even if the SEP ES calls have only .30 premium left, I can sell them for $2,250 or so. But I am hoping for sideways turmoil as we go into the end of August and perhaps a small SEPT pop and pause....
I am playing the short strike closer to the money based on my continuing feeling that we do not have enough steam to truly push higher, even with today's news. We will limp along the next week or so in my opinion and if ES pushes 1315 I will roll the EW to the SEP ES or a reverse calendar depending on the situation on the credits.
Sold 135 AUG EW 1315 Calls @ Average Price of 1.83
Credit = ~ $12,402.50
Bought 150 SEP ES 1335 Calls @ 1.45
Debit = $10,875
NET CREDIT = $1,527.50
The net credit is not the most attractive for this, but I am actually betting on bigger potential profits from the SEP ES calls after the EWs expire worthless or are adjusted/rolled into SEP. Even if the SEP ES calls have only .30 premium left, I can sell them for $2,250 or so. But I am hoping for sideways turmoil as we go into the end of August and perhaps a small SEPT pop and pause....
I am playing the short strike closer to the money based on my continuing feeling that we do not have enough steam to truly push higher, even with today's news. We will limp along the next week or so in my opinion and if ES pushes 1315 I will roll the EW to the SEP ES or a reverse calendar depending on the situation on the credits.
Perhaps I'm confusing myself, lol. The offer is actually 10-1 intraday for options and 5-1 overnight. And it's 20-1 for stock leverage.
[edit: the 10-1 really helps me out because I can leg into spreads with the short leg first no problemo. So in that regard I have a lot more freedom. And like I said you can carry 5-1 overnight if you wish, but the vig isn't cheap. So the setup is really geared towards the risk, stat, vol, conv. arb types of traders]
.0025
~50%APY
charged over and above your existing capital. If you have 10k in equity and 20k in positions, u will be charged daily interest on 10k.