I've never traded futures option spreads. I haven't traded in a few years and am now trying to slowly get back into generating a steady income if I can. What positions do you have on and when did you put them on? I am trying to train myself not to get emotionally involved in the trades like I used to do. Man is it hard for me. All of my spread trades so far this year would have been winners if I would have just let them run to expiration. But when it moves against me for any length of time the psychological impact can be hard to handle some times and I just bail with a loss then watch the market turn what would have been in my favor had I just held on. I'm learning albeit slowly. And sometimes costly ha ha.
One big thing that may help is you get smaller size on your positions. I had teacher tell me that and its helped a lot. I still go for the 7-same points/$$$ amount etc.. per month. But now i do it in 7-10 trades instead of 2-3. It is more work, but i sleep better at night. eF
I've posted here a paper money acc statement sometime ago. I've had live money with TOS, then forced to close it. Now back to school and planning to open live money acc with IB in a few month. This is a statement with 10K start balance. I try to keep open positions margin near 50% of acc balance in order to have some space while there're sharp moves (which tends to higher margin and more unrealized loss). All trades are 30 days expiring, so at the moment of now every trade opened before Jun 10th is expired worthless. In a current portfolio I have only one annoying trade of CL. 109 call with 104 current price keeps me little nervous. Nevertheless, expect it will expire worthless in a week.
How are you guys trading this earnng season. Getting into any individual names. I normally trade indexes only, i am sticking to that. I see people winging it with Tesla.? any opinions. market has been up 12 days in a row now. EF
I did. I've run live money acc with TOS/TDAT with the same strategy, then was forced to close it. Now I'm back via paper money and going to go live with IB.
How are our ET option sellers looking into this first full week of august,,?? Selling calls know that we are under 1700 sp500,??, I sold calls this week, next week and third week out. trying something new. Staggered strike prices above 1 and 2 std levels away. EF
Hi Eddie, agree the past two days have been good to balance my deltas. July over all was pretty slim pickings with vix so low as to make straddle/strangles not worth the risk. I picked GC long by selling a 1200 Sep put and short CL by selling a Aug (closed for profit) then 109.5 short Sept call which is doing well. Both GC and CL have a bit more vol. Now going back to ES and rolling out my call shorts and adding some put shorts.
Excellent, thanks for the reply RR. I am learning and watching. trading live and small i think its the best way to get my skill level to rise. EF
Richard, Hope trading is going well. A quick question for you, since it is very obvious you have much much more knowledge than myself. Whats your take on these "put backspreads", I am papertrading two now, they seem worthwhile to pursue.... do you have a take on them.?? All appreciated as always Sir. here is a link from cboe with Dan Sheridan. http://www.cboe.com/tradtool/webcas...6371&mediaId=86a84d26763949dc97d91a675b323b4b