Iron Condors ? how many should we have

Maybe it's similar to double negative being positive. If you short both you actually end up long.

 

From the Wiki page:

So I went to Natenberg and he defines it as short. Guy Cohen defines it as long.

I recall seeing a post by atticus (or maybe riskarb, I've been looking at his old journals) where he talks about being "long the fly" and I think I figured out he was talking the credit version.

ETA: Just to add to the confusion, if you go to Thinkorswim and select "buy an IC" you get the debit version, and vice-versa.

 

I tend to agree with MTE and others that I would call it being short the condor as opposed to "long the condor." That being said if one were to apply this methodology to butterflies it would be deemed as "short the butterfly" which I haven't heard/read too often. In fact, I would associate that with being the inverse of the traditional fly position people typically put on such that you would be long the body short the wings. Regardless of naming conventions, I think most traders who are familiar with the popular strategies are well aware of the position a fellow trader takes when he/she discusses about it.

 

Long iron condor

 

I use the terms condor and iron condor interchangeably. There's no question about what buying or being long a condor position means - long the wings, short the body. So I just use the same for iron condor - long means owning the wings. "I have an iron condor position on" means I'm long the position. Quibbling

 

Have you ever clicked on the discussion tab? The debate goes on and on.

 

There is no debate in my mind. If I want to communicate with others in the industry then I conform with the industry's definition. These debates are entertaining, but of no practical value.

 

I'm not convinced that "the industry" ever got its mind straight on this one.

 

What about the:

Long Call Condor
Short Call Condor
Long Put Condor
Short Put Condor

And what is called the Long Iron Condor , Long the Body, short the Wings.

CBOE option margin manual.

 

That's the point I was trying to get across in my post the included the same Wiki page that Howard repeated. Even well known authors don't agree.

The CBOE, which might be considered "the industry" seems to confirm that it's long because it's a synthetic form of the long all-put or all-call version.

http://www.cboe.com/LearnCenter/course20.aspx