Probably closing short positions. Take a look at the daily chart for November 2008 expiration day - I think DOW and Nasdaq had 5% gains. Being short could could have been painful. forex-forex -------------- The guru
lol you guys are making this really complicated. Gambling. It's cheaper than going to Vegas. Risk/cost is rather minimal for the POTENTIAL gain I suppose. It's a lotto. Personally, they make me lose sleep
I trade QQQQ options on almost every expiration day and I am definitely ahead overall on the practice. When the price is crossing a particular strike during the quiet midday period I put on a few straddles. (Sometimes if the price is at an intraday pivot I may take it outright.) It is fun, the risk is only a few bucks but the options are pure gamma. The market seasaws and I take off the leg which is profitable. What's left either works out or not. It helps that at IB there is penny pricing and the commissions are reasonable. What I have gained from this is nothing compared to the results of my scalping or other trades but I am keeping my legging skills honed which is essential when one needs to wiggle in and out of options spreads. Regards, GC
IB is pretty sweet. They're on their way to becoming my next broker once I get everything organized here. Strangles are also another great strategy to use as well. The sweet thing is that if you don't like how high the premiums are for whatever option, just write 1 for each leg and then lower your basis (if the option exists....sometimes it's not worth it). You can get pretty creative with these things. Commissions do start to add up though.
What you suggest makes sense but for me this is usually a one shot directional play and I would not want to limit the potential gain in any way so I would not convert to strangles. Best, GC
====================== BoneFish; a]Most likely, boneheaded traders; even though one can figure the odds,for daytrade. So probably a few top traders , that do it well , despite wide bid/ask. Lottery is a stupid tax on people that cant do math. Also a bit of humor,;option MMakers or insurance businessmen/buyers/sellers have a lot better rep than lottery sellers or lottery buyers.LOL z] However with options [buy]you could figure the precise/exact risk[total premium]; long or short the underlying, only figure an educated guess. Underlying stock not likely to lose it all unleveraged; but really cant say for sure, but you could figure exact risk with option.