Stanford I'm looking at the NDX at the OPENING. I see going out 4% deviation for a Bear Call spread has no premium. So 3% deviation has about 20 or 25 cents. Either way, I wait until this afternoon before making any decisions. Does not look like we will get a surge UPWARD today? If at all, will be at the CLOSE or last 45 minutes, so I'm taking the day off pretty much and do something else.
Stanford and readers So far our training has defined 3 useful strategies I can use. 1) Is the Weekly Credit Spread and am using. 2) Is straight buying of Call or Bear options. In this I've been defining the WHEN, the WHERE, and the TIMING situation. Got to do some scratch paper practice on these, to see if I have it right? 3) The other strategy is the BULL or BEAR DEBIT SPREAD. Again I want a bit more practice on scratch paper before doing this in my account. I have identified more or less, the WHEN, the WHERE and the TIMING situation that must arise before placing same. So far, I have one working strategy, the first one, a CREDIT SPREAD. Bit of practice first on the other two, and I think I have the 2 others. Waiting in the aisles is the Horizontal Time Spread and will know more about this one on FRIDAY morning, when I shall close the experiment. I've got another one I want to try, but haven't yet. Rather intriguing, but I'm going to have to actually experiment with it in real time, but on scratch paper. Some guy on the internet said he went from $5000 to a million in 30 months. But since he is selling lessons and subscriptions, one has to take that with a bucket of salt. Still it MIGHT WORK? So will give it a try, maybe next week, or the week after. Got to get these strategies working, from the experimental learning stage to the producing money stage first. Can only do so much at one time.
Trading Journal Checking up on your QQQQ TIME SPREAD. I figure you are UP +$600 If you bought a 100 contracts? What amount did you buy? Let me see; you BUY both the quarterly and the monthly 45. When you close them out, you will have to do that by the end of this month? Do you have a favorite time to enter into this trade during the quarter? Is a trend necessary? I presume it would be. If it is trend sensitive, then I would guess it is only good the last couple of weeks of the quarter? ______________________________ I see we are getting 4 to 6 day ahead, BULL TREND termination signals? That what you figure? I expect you would hold this as long as possible? Maybe not to the end of the month, but close it at termination of the BULL TREND? ___________________________________
Stanford and Trading Journal Wednesday before the close. Had a bit of a run up to 509 in the OEX. So I closed the two CALL trades. ___________________________ The OCT - 2000 NDX - 2 CALLS were sold for $16.00 and were bought for $11.30 originally. A gross profit +$940 before commission. Haven't figured out the commission yet. The OCT - 500 OEX - 2 CALLS were sold for $15.70 and originally cost $12.50. For a gross profit of + $640. Again I don't know the commissions on this yet, will have to look it up later. Still holding the TIME SPREAD. I think I'm losing .10 cents on that, will hold overnight again. The BULL DEBIT SPREAD was originally a $3 debit and it is now only a $3.20 credit I think, on closing out. So going to hold that overnight as well. A small gain of .20 cents is not enough. Lets see it was 5 contracts, so 500 x .20 would be +gross $100. We will continue to hold that also Haven't finished doing my WEEKLY IRON CONDOR in the NDX. Will enter the upper leg on that tomorrow. In the meantime the lower spread leg has earned abut $365 or something? It could even be closed, but if it can run to expiration, it will earn more; as I get to not spend for commissions and gain another .5 cents. ____________________________________ To sum it up: the two bought calls returned 70 % on capital gross in the NDX. The other one in the OEX returned 79 % on capital risked. For a total for the two of them of +$1580 for the week so far. _________________________________
The market is up in after-hours. My models issued a bearish signal. Since there are no option traded in after-hours, I decided to short it rather than wait until tomorrow in case the market gaps down from current prices. What do you think Falconview?
Falconview, good work! What is total amount of capital that you are using at the moment with all the paper trades? Michael
1. The amount I bought is zero because I did not get filled. 2. It is not about quarterly or monthly. It just happens that QQQQ have options expiring on sep.30, and also in october (third week), and that the numbers make sense for these two dates. Notice that it is the same market, but your time spread did not do as well as the QQQQ spread, even if the QQQQ went higher than the OEX. Reason: you were more exposed to delta (price). A move away from the strike hurts the time spread. However, notice that volty rose today, which is good for the time spread---People are bidding puts. 3. Please review the conditions for this spread I wrote in previous posts in this thread, and in the other thread. (A blog post would have been good to refer to here). 4. I did not understand the timing point. Could you pls. explain? With respect to when to close? Plan is until expiration of first option, if price of stock reaches the strike price (which ever comes first), or short option's price becomes a penny. Note: I added numbers in your post for use of reference in the response.
1. What is this that strategy? 2. I recall reading earlier on this thread an offer from you to share your timing methods (not in public but via PM/email). I do not remember if it was an offer to Stanford and me, or to Stanford only. If it is to Stanford only, it is fine and I will not be offended. If you extended it to me as well, I would be interested to read it. I am always interested in what others do.
1. Hey Stanford: I am amazed at your short yet useful posts. You must be very efficient! Just a question of curiosity: are you in "retirement" like falconview, or are you doing this on the side. If you have access to money connections, did you consider later in time helping others? I read that one can do it up to 15 people with no need for registration, etc. There are brokers that do this. They call them family and friends accounts, or something like that. 2. I think that you might be interested in this other idea in case the market moves down: you sell a call spread, and use the credit or part of it to bear a put bear spread. So you use one to finance the second. (Falconview might jump on this one as well. He is such a curious person which is a good thing in general, and a great thing if what one learns can make money or impact in general)
Falconview: This is my last post this evening. I decided to post them in a bunch to optimize time. Something that I thought to say and which has been in my head for sometime now. I understand you have made a fortune in real estate. Did it occur to you that options apply to estate as well? You would be amazed with the real-estate applications of options. If you decide to go back to real-estate armed with new tools, let me know...