when do you take a loss on the iron condor?

J

jgold310

Simply put, at what point do you take the loss on the iron condor?

please answer something helpful not like " when it goes against you "

Thank you!!
 
You might want to ask member "jbingo" that very question.
He's been "there" before.
He put one on right before the GOOG earnings announcement.
No time to react.
Position quickly went to the maximum position loss....and stayed there.
 
Quote from jgold310:

Simply put, at what point do you take the loss on the iron condor?

please answer something helpful not like " when it goes against you "

Thank you!!
More...

I would close the losing leg once the short strike has been reached. Keep the winning leg until expiry.
 
There are different points of view. One opinion is never to adjust a loss on an IC as it is a defined risk play to begin with and you need to be consistent with what you do. Another view is to take pro-active measures to either rescue or to at least adjust the delta movement against you to keep loses at a minimum. The only problem with "rescue" is you will often just did a bigger hole. My humble opinion is it depends on how much time is left. If you have an IC that is under water with 3 or 4 weeks left I would leave it alone. If/when you decide to close then be sure to close both sides....otherwise the market could rebound and threaten the other side. Some suggest opening another spread to offset the loss. There is no one RIGHT answer, I usually will give it one adjustment (buy a butterfly to move the strike farther away) then if it still looks pretty hoplessless will close or let it expire and take the loss.
 
I agree with RichardRimes. There are too many unknowns for a simple answer. Some people go for a high reward/risk ratio, in which case they generally say you never adjust. I prefer a lower risk, so I go farther OTM. If one leg gets threatened, I may roll it out and double my position, aiming for break-even. It depends on time left and where I think support/resistance are.

Resist the temptation to put on a new trade on the other leg to make up for the loser (i.e., if your put leg is in trouble, don't open a call leg). If the market snaps back a little, the calls would be threatened quickly and you'll be in the same (sinking) boat.
 
I usually buy a next month ITM long option to balance my deltas. However, after years of experience, let me tell you one thing : each time I had to adjust, the total postion ended up a losing one. Thank god, it didn't happen many times, but when it does happen, it's ugly, since the R/R ratio of condor is BAD to start with.
 
I don't adjust my ICs. My risk reward is set with the trade. But I usually dont trade 80% plus probability ICs so my risk reward is manageable.
 
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