in the grand scheme of things both expose you to very similar risks, ratio spreads are risk-capped one sided, short strangles/straddles expose you on both sides. It is a horrible way to trade options long-term, in fact I have not seen a single options trader who survived with such approach alone. Most who sell premium are very good at protecting themselves at the wings when it is needed.
Sweet Bobby and his BBFF Surf are taking the afternoon off to attend the Versace summer fashion show in South Beach.
"US EQUITY MARKET STRUCTURE: LESSONS FROM AUGUST 24": https://www.blackrock.com/corporate...t-us-equity-market-structure-october-2015.pdf
I had a whole entire discussion typed out on risk, the analyze tab, making this all safer, etc. before Windows 10 gobbled everything up. I'm too tired to re type my entire post so I'll leave it to another day. I'm working full time and taking three graduate courses this summer. I'm exhausted. One of my GTC orders kicked in today closing the SPX 8 JUL 16 2225C(2)/1900P(1) for a 50% profit after 9 days. I sold to open the SPY ratio strangle 15 JUL 16 215C(3)/184P(2) ratio strangle with 43 DTE. The experiment is up $168 on the day. Theta is 104, delta is -222, and vega is -630. Now, here's the most important thing that I wanted to get across today. ARE WE SAFE ENOUGH? Please watch the tasty trade market measure segment from 03/22/16. Here's the link: https://www.tastytrade.com/tt/shows...lationship-between-spx-and-the-vix-03-22-2016 This study found that over the last ten years, a 12 point drop in the SPX resulted in a 1 point increase in the VIX. Again, I typed a lengthy discussion about this, but I will repost another day. I think this is important in considering the risk that we are putting on. I would love to hear your thoughts. Happy trading! Bobby
Yep, new money paying old money. But there's another supertrader lady in the town as I'm typing: https://www.sec.gov/litigation/complaints/2016/comp-pr2016-106.pdf Bbbbbut she seemed to be so profitable..
I'm thinking out loud here and constructive comments are appreciated. I've been thinking about a possible tweak to the strategy to mitigate some of the risk. My current theta is 104. My goal is theta of 105 to 150 per day. On a date when my daily profit is in excess of my daily theta, what If I used a portion of that to buy puts? For example, today my daily profit was $168 which is $64 above my daily theta. What happens if I use all or a portion of the $68 to buy puts? Now I will play with this a little. Which puts should I buy? Which expiration? Should I buy wings to an existing short put? On days that I have a loss, I do nothing? This may be the dumbest suggestion ever, but I look forward to your thoughts. Bobby
translation: On a nasty Friday (or insert any other day) vol pops >5 points and our annual pnl is eaten up in a single day. Those are my thoughts...
Today the market opened down. I usually don't sell iron condors. But since I can't get my safer butterflies filled for days, I broke my own rules and put on these two trades this morning as encouragement of your experiment. SOLD -2 VERTICAL SPX 100 (Weeklys) 10 JUN 16 2115/2120 CALL @1.10 SOLD -5 VERTICAL SPX 100 (Weeklys) 10 JUN 16 2050/2045 PUT @.50 The PUTs are priced at 11.5% vol and the CALLs are priced at 8.1%. If the realized vol within the next 7 days exceeds the vol prices, then I shall be screwed.