HoCo is just fine guys... normally a 6-7% loss in the index would cause total obliteration to these HoCoSpreadArbs, but HoCo's catastrophic loss of 99% of the spread requirement is but a small fraction of his huge fictional portfolio! I am certain that when he arrives in Rio he'll update this thread with a pretty excel graph.
Ay yi yi! I´m gone for 6 weeks from Howard´s thread and things go dead on here. I´ve spent six weeks devising a method to trade straight options. After a year and a half messing with all kinds of spreads, I´ve finally come to the conclusion spread trading is a waste of time. Now that should get some fire and brimstone ( grin! ) I´m trading the straight buying method. Not sure what the heck I´m doing, but so far it is working out. Only got 3 or 4 winning trades so far. Seems to be a weekly trade, or perhaps some weeks, two per week? Will know more as time passes. KISS as somebody once said, keep it simple. I gave up on Long Straddles. They work, but too darned slow and earn to little. My account was down 54%, so I have to earn 108% by Xmas. Don´t think I´m going to make it, but will give it the try. Just to break even by the end of the year. Just to let my friends on here and my enemies and general irritable types who kibbitz for the heck of it on here, that I´m not dead yet. Nor bankrupt either. Wish you all luck.
I don't think you are going to hear from Howard for a very long time. Don't worry though, he has moved on to several other message boards trying to sell his crap. He is a modern day Professor Harold Hill, traveling salesman you know.
Well I´ve been a busy little bee, for the last few weeks. My progress is here. http://tradingoptionsfordummies.blogspot.com/ Hmmnn! I thought I changed that title? To: The One Winning Option Trade Method. This is my private BLOG with my kids and grandkids. I thought my friends on Elite Trader would enjoy reading of my experiences, while the miserable old farts that like to kibitz and insult would enjoy throwing some darts at me. Nothing like stirring up things on a quiet day.
You should get a hot babe covered in marmite in the photo, instead of that bald cousin of yours. Even HoCo looks better. p.s.: Who says is a quiet day?.
Haaa! Good idea on the hot babe. Market did open with a bang, didn´t it. I was in PUTS yesterday and decided to close out because I couldnt decide whether the market would go up or down this morning. I lost the previous trade, therefore was happy with my leetle 4% on the bet. Now in hindsight of course wish I had stayed the course. Never mind, I entered PUTS again this morning, .14 cents worse price and right now it is losing me money considerably. However, I am hoping sometime today, the market will drop some more.
Well I looked at the SPX yesterday, saw a chart in obvious roll over mode, and bought some SPY puts. I closed them out this morning with a decent gain. Of course the rest of my portfolio tanked. Why do I ever buy those damn stocks?
hopefully, if anything, for any new option traders out there that think they can quit there job and trade credit spreads to make their fortune read these messages and see for themselves the effect of volatility on these trades.
One of the firms that does this kind of trading is LJM with a few hundred million. They lost 8.2% in July, and just lost 32.7% in August to be down a total 26.3% for the year. Since the end of 2007 they have lost over 21%, so they spent almost 4 years losing 21% of their clientâs money. They got lucky before 2008, but how many of you have the resources of fund with hundreds of millions, and can afford to spend 4 years losing 21% of your capital? Just shooting in the dark here, but maybe there is a better way.
Which is the same as buy & hold over that period. SPX ended 2007 at 1468; it's now 1172, a decline of 20.2%.