Swing trading with Butterflies

Opened a directional position on GBPUSD on Monday.

Trade date: 05 June 2023
Security: GBP
Price at opening: 1.2394
Direction: ItM/AtM Call Debit Spread
Expiry date: 03 July 2023
Strikes: 1.2325 / 1.2425
Opening Spread: 0.0059
 
Closing orders for the GBPUSD trade filled towards the end of yesterday's session.

Trade date: 05 June 2023
Security: GBP
Price at opening: 1.2394
Direction: ItM/AtM Call Debit Spread
Expiry date: 03 July 2023
Strikes: 1.2325 / 1.2425
Opening Spread: 0.0059
Close date: 08 June 2023
Trade duration: 3
Closing spread: 0.008
Profit / (Loss) 0.0021
Profit / (Loss) 35.6%

Introducing a couple of non-directional trades to capture anticipated fall in volatility on US Treasuries in case anyone is interested:
Opened 23/06/2023 124/127.50/131 Iron Fly for 2.27 credit on 30/05/2023 and closed 07/06/23 for 1.95, or 25.3% profit on VaR
Opened 30/06/2023 124.50/127/129.50 Iron Fly for 1.77 credit yesterday.
 
Global OptionsTrades said:
Closing orders for the GBPUSD trade filled towards the end of yesterday's session.

Trade date: 05 June 2023
Security: GBP
Price at opening: 1.2394
Direction: ItM/AtM Call Debit Spread
Expiry date: 03 July 2023
Strikes: 1.2325 / 1.2425
Opening Spread: 0.0059
Close date: 08 June 2023
Trade duration: 3
Closing spread: 0.008
Profit / (Loss) 0.0021
Profit / (Loss) 35.6%

Introducing a couple of non-directional trades to capture anticipated fall in volatility on US Treasuries in case anyone is interested:
Opened 23/06/2023 124/127.50/131 Iron Fly for 2.27 credit on 30/05/2023 and closed 07/06/23 for 1.95, or 25.3% profit on VaR
Opened 30/06/2023 124.50/127/129.50 Iron Fly for 1.77 credit yesterday.
More...

Do you have an overview of success rate and/or profitability of each spread type you use? I have a general impression that butterflies were most sucessfull in your journal.
 
I don't have info for the flies to hand @Perspective , but the other stuff is:

upload_2023-6-12_13-20-47.png


...so Calendars are arguably my most profitable strategy, but I don't get many set-ups / opportunities that meet my conditions / requirements. Monthly equivalent rate isn't compounded in the table btw.

The downside with butterflies vs vertical spreads is that with flies I need to be right with both direction and magnitude.

As you can see in this journal, there were plenty of OtM flies where the underlying moved sufficiently beyond the body of the fly, that the trade didn't make a (satisfactory) profit. c.f. Vertical debit spreads (short leg AtM) that provide upside as long as direction doesn't move too far against me.

I have been using Iron Flies to attept to capture theta decay and drop in vol, which seems to complement the directional stuff quite well. The 1DtE stuff is exploratory with small positions but is included for context.
 

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I was about to post a short directional trade on oil that was opened on Friday, and realised that closing orders had already filled this morning, so an unexpected nice quick profit on that one.

Trade date: 09 June 2023
Security: CL
Price at opening: 71.20
Structure: ItM/AtM Put Debit Spread
Expiry date: 23 June 2023
Strikes: 71 / 72.75
Opening Spread: 0.96
Close date: 12 June 2023
Trade duration: 3
Closing spread: 1.38
Profit / (Loss): 0.42
Profit / (Loss): 43.8%

with hindsight, I probably should have pushed closing orders out more aggressively rather than leave upside in the market.
 
I have changed approach for GBP slightly, and expect that duration of swing positions will be shorter than for the other securities traded. Opened this yesterday and looking to close in less than a week.

Trade date: 14 June 2023
Security: GBP
Price at opening: 1.2711
Direction: ItM/AtM Put Debit Spread
Expiry date: 21 June 2023
Strikes: 1.27 / 1.275
Opening Spread: 0.0028
 
Closed the cable trade at a loss. It went the wrong way almost imeediately and showed no sign of turning around.

Trade date: 14 June 2023
Security: GBP
Price at opening: 1.2711
Direction: ItM/AtM Put Debit Spread
Expiry date: 21 June 2023
Strikes: 1.27 / 1.275
Opening Spread: 0.0028
Close date: 16 June 2023
Trade duration: 2
Closing spread: 0.0021
Profit / (Loss) -0.0018
Profit / (Loss) -64.3%
 
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