Never said sell contracts you're holding. You sell OTM puts ro calls to adjust delta, that's all. Don ____________________________________ Now that is an interesting suggestion. Going to have to cogitate a few hours on that. Can I sell,with my tiny account? At the moment with market open, a short time away. Cannot take the time to try and figure that one out. Supposing I sell the PUTS, then market reverses, the premium would collapse would it not? Hmmnnn! Thinking, thinking, thinking! Okay, by selling I get something in hand in dollars, when the premium shrinks in a reversal I get to buy back cheap? Could I sell PUTS OTM and buy CALLS OTM then? Whenever the market reverses, I buy back the cheap puts after collapse of premium and the calls should get a volatility premium ballooning boost. Double whammy it seems like?
Missed out on the PCLN put trade I wanted to grab yesterday....would have been nice to add that with the GOOG and AAPL put spreads. Oh well, Time to look at locking in some gains if possible.
Market is on the bottom line of my channel. So decided to buy a Call and also sell a put. For calculation purposes, vs delta neutral, will set the buy Call aside, as a seperate trade. So I´m holding a Straddle 1 May QQQ -65- @$4.20 Holding a Sold PUT QQQ 53 @ .33 cents/ Which now gives me a .50 delta on the PUT side. WHOOPS! Did that wrong. I have .41 delta on the CALL side which I forgot to include. I should have SOLD PUTS for 17 Delta. Arrggh! Can fix it, but do I want to? Then I am now holding a CALL OTM at 69 for .28 cents, which I´m going to treat as a seperate thing. Alright, I´m short 9 Delta. So I need to SELL another 53 PUT for .33 cents. I think I will just wait and see, as the action seems to be violating my trend line?
I see you're working through all this. You do know that buying a call and selling a put means both are longer positions, right? Don
Don Actually I didn´t know that, nor yet, understand it. The buying of the OTM Call is an experiment. I was running the OTM call last night in the calculator - I´m not too swift with the calculator either - At any rate I noticed that the OTM CALL buying would not change the price much when the market reversed. However in diddling around with it, by changing the volatility number, it increased a 100% in value. I finally came to the conclusion theoretically at least, that the Volatility would change, when the market reversed and thus increase the value of the Call. The buying of the CALL is my effort to see if that would happen in the real world. It has implications for betting on OTM Calls and Puts. By anticipating a trend change before it happens, or accumulating options in anticipation. Won´t know until I run this bought CALL through, win or lose. The volatility was Vix 12 going before a directional change, but alternate options going with the trend, were running VIX 17 to 20. That difference in the calculator doubled the premium. What it means at the moment I do not know, so I´m trying it, to see if it actually will happen.
Thanks Atticus Between you two experts, Don and Atticus, I should be a millionaire by the end of the year? I see Ryan says he is back making money again. WOW! I just can´t wrap my head around that system.
Now you're making real nervous (for you). Stock price goes down, market goes down, VIX goes up a bit. The OTM call is MORE OTM and closer to WORTHLESS (just for emphasis, not yelling at you). A short put is a long position, because when you SELL them, and the stock stays the same, or goes up, they go out worthless, and you make money. You figure out what happens to the other side, the guy who buy that put, it goes out worthless, and he loses everything he paid for the option. Long call is the same deal only in reverse. And, for both examples, calls and puts, the stock staying the same price is devastating in time decay. Don
You can just buy or sell stocks. 100 delta, use stops if you like. Since you're saying you're trying to predict the market movement anyway. I know, "long options give me a calculated and limited risk" - yep, that risk is only everything you paid for the time premium, which you lose anyway when the go out worthless when the stocks stay in the same range. But, stocks don't lose premium, and even pay dividends. And, you can stop yourself out (if you must) for less than the wasted time decay. Please be sure you understand all this, not just what the book seller's tell you. Atticus is an expert, so sure, he can make money trading most any instrument, but I think he may agree that stocks are easier for new people. Don