HD, purely out of interest, do you ever simply go uncovered instead of the full condor and albatross?
Elite, Very occassionally I will write OTM naked puts on individual names that have experienced a volatility spike and where I wouldn't mind owning the stock at the written strike less the premium. I recently did so on MO and JNJ at modest profits. One rationale for writing naked options on individual stocks is that I can generate a reasonable credit without tying up a significant amount of capital; whereas a naked write on the XEO/OEX can be very margin intensive and thus not very attractive from an ROI perspective. But, since I don't consider stock-picking to be my "edge", and am loathe to turn a trade into a reluctant investment as I did more often than I care to remember when starting out a few years back, on the rare occassions I do go naked, I'll reduce my profit target (typically 50% vs. 80%-plus for credit spreads on the indices), have tighter stops, and will generally act much more quicker to close out the trade. Regards, HD
Interesting. I remember dealing with the margin situations in equities years ago. This is one place where I appreciate SPAN. Best to you.