Can’t rush those types of trades. I have made so many fuck ups that way. I’ll trade the wrong tenor, wrong leg, or somehow trade like 2 dollars offsides.
Small to mid caps can be tough. It's best to get the large risk side done first. Structure OTM (synthetics) when possible.
Thanks. Is there any general rule with respect to leg ratios? I try to minimize delta of spreads when slicing the combo, but is it always desirable? E.g. instead of 2:3 (close to neutral) spread, execute 2x 1:1 spread and then a single? Or the delta risk is bigger than a potentially better fill (of simpler spread)?
make the delta as close to zero as possible and make sure you’ve priced the legs properly. Bid ask widens a lot when you do spreads because the broker will sum up all the bid asks. So a small change with the posted legs can move the quotes a lot on the spread. That is where I sometimes find that I trade way offsides. One leg has an artificially low bid and it causes the market mid of the structure to move by 2x
The single is always going to be easy as the MMer or bot can always straddle it off with underlying. No crazy ratios. It's always going to be easier to do a 1x1.