told you, once the trade is in play, your skill as a scalper is what determines the net gain. most here have no skill as traders, putting on an ootm option trade is easy, milking it for every penny......forget about it.
I am hoping to make the option sub-forum a better place On the calls - in general, making the calls is useless unless there is an analytic discussion about the basis. E.g. I made the call to buy straddles based on historical earning moves etc - it would be interesting to hear some critique or thoughts. I cover based on historical standard deviation of moves to lock in my gains - is that a good idea or not. Etc. From my perspective, people bashing the OP for not trading it in size or unwinding early (really? seriously?) might as well go and sit on a carrot.
yep this was defined risk but you never know what you get on earnings, my reference to april was that they blew out earnings but I think Schmidt retired and it printed well inside the expected move. That said it rallied like hell over the next few days. The real challenge is what to do in the moment. How many people bought the open today in GOOG takes some stones, carry on.
by the way no one answered the question of how to hedge delta after hours, a few people asked about it will let someone else explain this as its above my pay grade..
Any individual trade can be a loser. The fact that a trade can end up a loser doesn't mean putting on the trade means you have money to "throw away". It means the trade's potential risk/reward and your overall win rate with the setup being traded indicate a positive expectancy over a series of trades. The OP clearly managed max risk in a volatile environment (holding through earnings) by trading the size that fit within his (her) risk parameters and closed for an excellent profit. The OP also demonstrated a professional trader's mindset when acknowledging that there was no profit until the trade was closed with one. This all adds up to a trader's mindset, not a gambler's mindset.
Final Update: When GOOG reached my predicted Fridays opening of about $980 I knew this trade was over and time to take profits. I definitely did not want this trade open any longer and risk GOOG trending down. Green dot - Closed position @ $50.40