Hello, thank you for taking the time to visit my journal, I look forward to your comments! Purpose The purpose of this journal is simply to share my trades. Trading is a very solitary business so I feel the need to share and discuss it with other's who understand what it's like. This journal should not be viewed as advice on how or what to trade, so if you choose to follow my trades with your own money, understand that you do so at your own peril. Real Trades Every trade will be real with my own money at risk. I'll post only after the trade is filled. Methodology & Rules I will be writing options on futures in any market that I believe has enough volume and has options worth selling that are at or out of the money. I will use a maximum of 30% of my account for initial margin requirements, and will have roughly 2% of my account at risk for each option including estimated slippage and commission. I've paper traded this system for nearly 4 months over 12 different markets and they've all be profitable to varying degrees. Background I have traded on and off over the last several years buying and selling options and trading futures with reasonable success. But this is the first time I will be trading more or less full-time. My broker should be finished setting up my account by early next week. So I will post my starting balance and initial trades as soon as they're set up. Thank you in advance for sharing your comments. Let the trading begin!
I will be interested in watching you. I have 2 accounts now where I sell commodity options deep OOM w/30 days or less before expiration. Been doing it for <6 months. Still at b/e, which I guess isn't too bad. It has been an interesting ride so far. I hope not to pay too much tuition before I get it right. Good luck. Neil
Good luck with your long bond strangle. I don't know if I'd sell gamma and vol into 7% or lower implied vols. Don't be greedy when selling cheap-vol/gamma -- take gains when they appear.
The tuition bill usually hits the morning after you think you've got it right. Analogous to when Maverick74 gets lit and goes "hoggin" on Division St. in Chicago and wakes up with an unmentionable. Just kiddin' Mav!
Neil, nice to meet you. I'll make you a deal, if I make money I'll help you get beyond b/e. But if I lose money you help me get to b/e, how does that sound?
Sounds alot like my son up in college right now. Constantly trying to keep him beyond b/e. Was curious about the bond trade. Why did you take those particular strikes and not further OOM?
Day 3 January 20th, 2006 Fills Sold 1 ECH6 1250 Call @32 Sold 1 ECH6 1180 Put @33 Open P/L -$10 Notes: I'm disgusted with my broker's (Dorman) platform and execution speed, it took 4 hours to get a bid price on EC that could be filled and then another 20 minutes to get confirmation of the above put fill. Anybody have recommendations for brokers that handle pit-traded as well as electronic futures options?