Quote from cdowis:
OK, I'm back.
IBM is in a topping pattern, so Fri I shorted the Jul 135/140 call in the am. The market sat around and did not go down very much, so I "hedged" the vertical (did not want to go over the weekend) with a Jul/Oct 135 put calendar just before closing.
Not very pretty, but if I am right, the market goes down and I complete the Iron Condor with a put vertical. This is legging into an IC by using the calender as a hedge.
I have never done this before, so it should be interesting.
Helpful comments welcome.
PS. 1. This is not a monkey calendar, since the vertical is not above the calendar body. But it looked interesting and I just threw it into this thread.
2. My calendars are 6 to 8 weeks away from expiration. The whole "30 days before expiration" just doesn't work for me.
3. Normally I don't do three month backmonth calendars. Jul/Oct is just not cost effective, but, again, I am experimenting with the trade because of the pattern. I really hate the IC, but this may bring back the love affair if this works. The IC just doesn't work for me unless I can safely leg into it.
4. My broker does not charge me a ticket charge, so I can goof around without getting killed by commissions.