Unfortunately GLD doesn't have options. Btw, 50 call and 45 put is a strangle not a straddle. A straddle would be 45 call and 45 put, or 50 call and 50 put, or to get ATM you would trade 47.5 call and put since the stock is 47.69 now.
not sure if this helps or is just a hindrance but after working the floor in prior years, I have rarely seen many folks make good money on metals calender spreads unless they are able to directly execute orders right down to the floor. Electronic options spreads in the metals complex is still very thin and many times fills are made very far from the actual market that is made on the floor. Even in the energy ring, most traders fill their spread orders down on the floor. You might be better off just taking outright positions unless you have a good broker that can get you floor fills without raping you on the commish...
That helps a lot, thanks. When I start to get the same comments from a lot of people, I like to listen up. IB is my broker and of course the fills are fine in the ES, YM and equities, but I have no idea what the fill would be like on an options trade, especially in a thin market. Thanks for the comment, I appreciate it. In terms of a directional play, it seems to me that gold is more likely to break out to the upside than the downside here.
Liquidity will increase over time as the OI increases in electronic options. I very rarely use options or spreads in the metals but the setup with gold is looking very good here. I am looking at April and June 900 calls right now if there is any further pullback to the 790 cash area. I am already long outright GCG8 and PLF8. IB is a great broker but they do not like to fill floor orders for anyone except the large fund clients and the order must be worth their while in size. They are trying to push clients to stick with TWS fills i believe...
Triangles are continuation patterns. You should want to be "long" the market because you expect the eventual breakout from the triangle to be in the direction of the trend that preceded the triangle. In this case, to the upside.
Thanks for the help guys Long 1 YG G8 this morning in premarket @ 809.00. Stop @ 795.00. The contract is definitely jumping around a lot in terms of the value of an intraday move relative to my total risk. This stop may seem kind of close, and comments on it are more than welcome, including 'you're an idiot for having a stop that close'. In my stock trading (EOD) I tend to test the market and get out quickly if it goes against me, willing to jump back in again even if it's the next day (if the signal occurs).