Ahhh, ToS, like OX and many others, use Prophet.net for interactive charts. Choose TOS Charts. Works for me.
1) Luckily for me, I'm essentially 'all in' so have added just a couple of tiny call spreads over the past few days. 2) So far, I have been ok (lucky) with my Oct shorts. No strikes have yet been breached. But, one is getting close to the money (RUI 730) and I doubt that I can get away with holding. But, for now am not doing anything. 3) I carry many small positions (near 30 as I write this). Last month (Sep shorts) I was not as fortunate. and was forced to cover 4 different spreads. But, even with that, I was very pleased with my return, asI earned about 90% of my monthly goal. 4) Every time I covered a Sep/Oct diagonal, I opened a new Dec/Nov diagonal. Each roll was done for a net cash credit. 5) I have not yet added new put positions, as my portfolio is balanced (I was short too many put diagonals last month - and that worked out well. Now I am balanced.) 6) I am looking to close some Sep/Oct put diagonals that are far OTM. I don't want to lose the remaining credits in those positions. Once closed, I'd use the freed up margin to add new spreads (mostly puts). Thanks for asking. Hope you are doing well. Mark
you SOLD? so you are very bullish...humm at first I thought it was a debt spread and since puts are so cheap right now I decided to look at them. Put an order in to buy a 1330/1320 spread for 2.20 don't know if it will fill but what the heck
Of course there are not right or wrong approaches for everyone, but I'd argue that scalping against your positions is a way of reducing risk and improve your b/e by booking realized gains against your unrealized p/l. I prefer the set and forget positions, but sometimes you have to get dirty
Obviously, each trader/investor must trade according to principles that fit his comfort level. But, how does taking a leg reduce risk? Sure, if you COMPLETE a scalp, you get to book some realized gains and make extra money. But, b/a spreads are very wide and getting into and out of positions is both difficult and costly. One must be VERY right on the initial leg of the scalp attempt to make this strategy profitable. And what happens if the leg you attempt to scalp runs against you? How quickly is one supposed to cut losses? I have the utmost respect for anyone who has the ability to consistently make money by scalping the market. (I lack that ability) The only time I attempt to scalp the market occus when I own a position with positive gamma (and thus have the deltas to scalp). Speaking for myself (a risk manager, not a trader) I recognize that I am a bad predictor of market direction and thus, avoid scalping. If you can do it - congrats. Mark
Thanks for the reply Mark, Just trying to get a feel for how you're handling your risk as Im moving in similar direction in addition to credit verticals and diagonals. 3) Having to close only 4 positions in this strong up move and still achieving 90% monthly profit goals sound pretty good to me! Looks like the strict risk management is paying dividends. If Sep was not fortunate I wonder what how a fortunate month would look I have 7 very small positions on my IB portfolio page compared to your 30 and my head is already spinning monitoring them. My current threatened short strikes are ES 1360 (Oct credit vertical) and 1380(Nov credit diagonal). ES is currently 1346.75. Plan to close the 1360 spread if ES moves 10 pts higher. No procrastinating i hope :eek: Have priced what I'll have to pay to close if ES hits 10 pts higher and its not too bad (Around 5.00 and initially sold for 2.00) Plan to open higher strike diagonals in stages as ES moves up. I have also open smaller sized PUT diags to get some credit there as I don't like opening larger sizes as the underlying is moving up. As you said, everyone have slighly different strategies, and I do have my version, but its along the lines of your general strategy. Thanks again for taking the time to answer and good luck to your trading too. Cheers Scoobie PS no reply needed for this post as Im sure you're busy
I'm also very bad at predicting market direction. But I'm talking about trading against your position using the underlying. Gamma scalping, except that in this case I'm thinking short gamma instead of the most commonly done long gamma. For example, I'm now -408 futures equivalent deltas. So I go long 4 contracts on dips and sell them 1 or 2 points higher. Rinse and repeat. The position is delta neutral at entry, but if we continue down or time passes the gains on my position will be greater than the loss on the futures. [EDIT] While holding the futures, I have black swan exposure. So I bought 4 1300 puts against them as insurance. Those I don't scalp, just leave them in place.