To do any damage against the futures would've required >$100k in debit on the par-calls which are down by half today. The point of this bet was to securitize $50k in skew. Plus, it wasn't a symmetrical hedge; it was weak by 80 futures initially. The upside b/e was 1315 on SPX with the 200 lot futures short. I was j/k on the "OC calls" comment.
OK, I was asking my question in general but with the actual numbers I understand the point you were making. Thanks!
To add: It would've converted a large portion of the position to long synthetic puts. I don't like to hedge barriers with long atm puts. Crazy day. Lots of skydivers will be seen if esignal and IB suffer outages.
It's all good, call or no call Bad luck on the barrier. Sounds like it was about scratch overall if you include the VBI position. Might even make bank on the hedge if we keep going down from here.
Yes which got me thinking about hedging the barrier with ES puts but I think the cross-margining makes the futures more attractrive then putting out the cash for the puts I assume...
Paid 1278 on 300 ES. ES futures: $247,500 SPX barrier: ($265,000) VBI futures: NA Comms: ($1500) Net: ($19,000) w/comms. Ugh. With the VBI I was nearly flat PnL, but didn't post the buys. Starting down $19k on closed PnL. [journal blotter 1] Edit: just reading Momo's post; you nailed it.
Shows that attempting to replicate gamma in a wild market is very tough. I screwed up a bit, but would've been ugly had I martingaled. Added insult to injury in selling that last 50 within 200bp of the cash barrier.
Point taken! Running the numbers, as you say your b/e was way up by 1315 so there was room to breathe. What was hypothetical plan of attack if ES went north of 1315?
The good thing about the Es hedge and the barrier option is no need to ride it out. Once the barrier is hit, you take off the futures position and move on