Thank you. I was filled on a position today. I put in a limit order a nickel above the current spread cost and got filled about 30 minutes in.
I'm a rookie on this forum after having read some of the posts, (I admit there are some much more advanced traders on here), but I have a basic understanding of the greeks, volatility, and their respective effects on options pricing. I have been trading options for about 8 months, and I'm up. I've been in and out of this game for 15 years, but just recently decided to attempt a more aggressive options strategy, with an intra-day or swing approach in mind. I long SPY puts and calls, and that's it. I've messed around with everything from Gold to Netflix. (Got burnt on Netflix puts, didn't think the thing could go any higher). Actually, overall I'm probably flat on Netflix, but I had a directional bias so I stopped trading it. I don't know anything about ES mini options. I read the book "Market Evaluation and Analysis for Swing Trading", and they pushed using the ES minis, but where do I chart them, and where do I trade them? The only reason I'm interested is that I read you can trade them 24/7. I trade based on elasticity of price, either breakouts or contrarian, and it seems to work if I keep it simple. So I've done well trading SPY options, but the short trading day annoy me. I want to trade whenever I feel like it. Should I look to foreign markets? Should I trade ES minis? Also, I'd love to get a conversation going about what everyone thinks the SPY will do tomorrow. I held a SPY put overnight tonight, we'll see what happens. It's an April 3rd week 157 strike put. I hate holding positions overnight, but lately I have caught some great moves by holding positions after hours. I can't stand the market making new highs; I want a well defined trading range. I think the overall market will retrace within 6 weeks, but I'm really bad at calling the top. Good size red candle on the SPY Wednesday, that's my only reason for holding the put. Would love opinions on everyones favorite timeframes on charts. Please don't tell me that it depends on my trading style, (even though it's true, that's a BS answer). If we all get rich who is going to be poor?
My trades last days to weeks so decisions made on daily charts. To time entries I look at 30 or 60 minute charts. It's always tempting to look at 5 minute charts, so I have to keep reminding myself that is just noise in the bigger picture.
Your right, the 5 minute and under charts have a lot of noise, but I look at them anyway. I woke up to a nice surprise with the 157 strike puts I held long overnight on the SPY that I mentioned in my post last night. My best trading decision since I started this strategy 8 months ago. That means I'm feeling arrogant, and as a rule, will not trade until I come back down to earth. Watching a 1 minute candlestick in real-time is like sports to me; (after entering a trade), other guys watch football or golf. To me there isn't really noise in the market that doesn't mean something, even on 1 minute bars. I do consult daily and weekly charts before a trade, but I think all timeframes have merit. My average time to hold a position is roughly 1 hour and 15 minutes, but my best success is with overnight positions lately. I caught that gap down in the SPY last night, but I was so worried I barely slept. I like to share strategies, and everyone can feel free to insult me on this next comment. I noticed the SPY had a good sized red candle on April 3rd, and the last time we had one was February 20th which indicated further downside. (daily chart). Pretty simple minded strategy compared to some of the stuff I read on here, but it worked. I'm going to come right out and brag; I'm up 80 % return on investment in less than two weeks. I'm bragging so that I can get some of you guys to insult me because I can't trade when I feel arrogant. Arrogance has been my worst enemy in trading.
Sorry, I already wrote a long post that didn't have much to do with the thread subject, but I thought of a question. Will anyone recommend a good book for an intermediate options trader, or even a good book about trading, or Wall Street corruption. I loved Blood on the Street.
"high probably" (sic) is what jumped out at me. ES options trade in nickels below 5 and quarters above 5.
High probably income scenarios are awesome, what are you complaining about? Do you mean probability? I don't mean to be critical, that's not my style, but you did say "high probably" twice in your thread. I kinda like the Iron Condor, but I think this market is gonna do something crazy so maybe more of a straddle would be better. We've been heading up since March of 09, volume is drying up. I'll make a bold statement and say a SPY June expiration 150 strike put is high probably. That is just a guess, but I am gonna risk a few thousand units on it. Or maybe I should look at the chain before saying that? Actually here's my idea, feel free to be critical of it. SPY options Long 151 strike June 3rd week put Short 157 strike June 3rd week call I think it's a debit spread right now, but anyone think I'm nuts?? Anyone think it's a good idea?
That June 150 SPY is similar to June 1500 ES ...you can do the same trade by selling the ES option. That far out is not as liquid but I do have one trade there I did the 1500 Straddle because my bet is the market will go up and down but not be that far off. You can then take off which ever leg goes low in a month or two then trade the cash ES as a hedge against the remaining leg. tons of ways to play your bet but if your used to trading spy then the ES should be an easy transition.