But i cannot Understand why you would put this position on in the first place. Seems difficult to manage and is Terribly complex. Isn't this the No-holds-barred Go-to strategy that phil B used as an example to demonstrate the benefit of haircut margin - wonder what RiskArb would say?Quote from Heatheranderson:
I am afraid its not working out, coach(atleast, for me). The DEC long positions are losing more than the JAN short position. I am clueless as to how to close it.
This is only paper money.
DID I PUT IT ON REVERSE?.:eek:
SPX Credit Spread Trader
- Thread starter El OchoCinco
- Start date
Hey careful there buddy... the hype meter is edging into red a la George Fontanils and his cronies who claim they have discovered brilliant new trading techniques... I doubt you're doing anything different than your averag floor trader. I generally have a hard time with people who do something well and pass it off as a mysterious secret ability. Very few secrets in this world today.
Whats wrong with you?. I said clearly its paper money.I am testing this strategy by observing this position everyday.Your perception of my trading ability has changed because of that incident and every time i say something, someone jumps up and bites me.
Andy, excuse me, please post where I said anything about secrets. I think I have stated on ET at least 100 times that there are no secrets in trading. Perhaps you have a case of selective memory here?
Hey Yip, outside of two phone conversations you have had with me regarding my prop firm, how the hell do you know whether or not I make money consistently or not or whether I make good money on average. Answer me that question and maybe I'll take a little more time out of my life to expand on my strategy. Otherwise I'm not going to give you the time of day.
Maybe I've got it wrong but it seems you're being quite cagey about your trading. On the one hand, you like to demonstrate your knowledge of derivatives on this board. On the other hand, you're holding back when it comes to explaining how YOU make money applying your knowledge. You gotta respect Coach for laying it all out for everyone to see. In your own words, you have nothing to worry about since it's not about "what's the best trades" but the trader behind them...
Cagey? Andy, you need to understand something. I'm not here to teach anybody anything. I respond to posts I find interesting or amusing when I have time to do so. I am not obligated to anyone on this thread. This is Phil's thread, not mine.
As to why I don't go into exact details about what I do, maybe it's because I have spent the better part of the last 11 years working my ass off and learning how to trade. Maybe I'm not interested in laying that 11 years of labor onto the table for someone to pick it up and walk away.
I don't have any special skills or inside info. I did it all through hard work. Everyone on this thread has the exact same opportunity as I did. If you want it bad enough, you'll have a crack at it.
Another reason is, a lot of my strategy was taught to me by a trader at my firm that runs a hedge fund now. He is very private about what he does and does not want me yacking away about it on a public message board. I will respect that.
Andy, when people work hard for things in life, it's not about giving away any edge, it's about giving away a man's life's work. We take pride in what we do. I don't mind answering basic questions. I don't mind helping people when I can. But I'm not going to do the work for you. I don't have any secrets locked away, just years and years of hard work. It's all out there for the taking.
So no, I'm not being cagey. People have asked questions about what I do and I have actually answered them in a pretty straightforward manner. I'm not interested in posting trades, posting performance numbers, bragging about this or that. I'm only here for casual conversation.
I have opened myself up to a few people in person, one of them from this very thread. Sailing has been to my office in Chicago and I have opened up the vault so to speak for him and his partner since we have a working relationship now. I have a vested interest in making sure he is successful. But to anonymous people on this board? I don't owe them a thing.
Go for it Mav - show me the holes. Sorry to blaspheme your religion.
I really don't want to get into a religious war but I have slowly built up an amazingly good core portfolio of high quality "long" equities that I have identified as desirable by writing naked puts about 5 points under the prevailing market price. If its a fast moving momentum type equity then this mechanism is not effective and I just grab those "at market" to get in. But if its an event driven equity (e.q. highly correlated to quarterly earnings reports) and temporarily range bound with good fundamentals and favorable long term trends then I use naked puts to get paid to mark time. No, its not a huge amount of money but it's much better to be paid to wait for the equity to come to me on an unpredictable period of thin trading (and be assigned by entry design strategy) than it is to mark time with uncommitted capital on a limit order boogie that might take months to execute. Some of us believe that options are only one tool among many and use traditional equities to structure our core holdings for specific long term growth, yield and beta relationships as well as for forming a good margin base. In some cases it also gives time to reassess the original equity's performance relative to others and to abandon it into temporary strength. In that sense naked puts can also become a focusing mechanism to keep the underlying equity on one's trading radar to monitor and observe for changes in strength/weakness.
When I actually acquire an equity on assignment I then commit another blasphemy and sell covered calls against it and make additional income while I wait to sell it back at target exit points. But then again, my average yearly portfolio return is only about 28% and compared to yours is probably boring and relatively under performing. But it suits my low stress trading lifestyle and it works for me.
Just my two cents for the collection basket:
TS