Well the only question in my mind is the averaging, on the losing side. The accumulation of long options as you average. I've read up this morning a bit about it. People are all over the place as far as opinions.
The difficulty is in pin pointing the high, or low of the monthly bar. There is a problem averaging, if you go on too long in a trend. I'm watching my 60 PUTS accumulation right now with trepidation. This one is the real test. There is an edge, so to speak; in that I don't have to make a profit on this leg. I only have to break even, to keep the profits from the other winning side of the straddle. The other thing is to keep my spacing wide enough to stay within my ability of capital to do averaging. I'm allowing three trades, per monthly bar for averaging. Doubling up each time. I've done the arithmetic and that seems the best performer for averaging. The other blessing is that the further OTM you go, the cheaper the options get. I think I am going to be able to stay under $1000 total with this averaging leg. With the goal, solely of hitting breakeven at some point in a five week period.
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I ran across this trading method by somebody named ( whoops didn't write his name down ) Anyway the Elite trader post was 2 years old. Said it was successful, but he was scalping. I checked the scalping idea, but while that might work, it would put me into day trading possibilities, which is verboten by the Exchange. If I widen the gap, to two strikes, it would fit in a weekly trading format. At any rate, the guy says he buys options 5 strikes out the money, both puts and calls, then scalps. I did some figuring on paper with it. It didn't seem too far different than what I'm inventing, for the losing leg of a straddle. In his case, he said to trade, or scalp DOLLAR AMOUNTS and not contracts. I'm trying a paper trading on the idea to what happens, with this. Of course going against such an idea is that OTM, or the further out you go, the smaller the premium moves. Looking at the QQQ this moment, the 69 CALL is at .48 cents and you would need 2 strikes to get .78 cents. That would earn .30 cents. ( About a ten day swing ) On the PUTS the 5 strike OTM is much higher in premium at $1.48. I'm sure the difference between .48 cents and $1.48 in premiums for 5 strike, OTM CALLS and PUTS is telling me something about the expectation of the market, but I do not recognize what that premium differential is saying? At any rate, I was looking for confirmation of averaging the monthly bar would work, if not to make another profit, but at least reach a new breakeven closer into the market action. With the idea of solely closing the whole long straddle altogether, keeping the original profit. The stuff I have been reading is not conclusive enough. So it will have to be trial and error, with my real cash money.
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