I roll up one time at most. I di it based on my analysis of the market and if I need more cushion with expiration approaching. Automatically rolling up and out several times is not a good idea. Even on my ill-fated diagonal, I only rolled up once for cushion and once that cushion collapsed I got out.. Take the loss and look for the next position.
I have a Oct/Nov call diagonal with a 1365 short and another Oct/Nov with a 1375 short. When the market rallies on the jobs number tomorrow (does anybody really think it matters what the numbers are, this market is going to the moon!) I'll need to adjust or close as I'm sure we will be at/past 1365. Right now I have a small loss showing on these. I'm thinking I should close them now and load up on long calls and futures before the market closes.
Actually I have done a vertical roll twice to move up and out as one trade and my experience is that it actually turns out better than closing the first then opening a new spread. When I close one spread then open a new one I'm at risk of getting worse fills (at least on the SPX) the MM's get to screw me twice. As long as you have a plan for trading off the new spread when market conditions warrent and fully understand you are booking a loss for the front month. edit. having said that I will not do a vertical roll more than one month. If I would have to do it two months in a row then I need to re-evaluate what I'm doing.
Just as I felt good with my call diagonal this morning, I feel the strong up momentum with RUT this afternoon that I just made a hedge to reduce my delta risk with another call diagonal even though I am still positive. sto rut oct 770 call bto rut dec 790 call for a net debit of 6.3.
SPX is up over 3% in the last 30 days. I think many of us started to put on positions at about that time, thus the pain we are feeling now with such a good run to the up side. Market is closed now, time to wait until the jobs numbers come out and ignite the market again.
Let me see. Volty moving down, market strong trend up with quick, shallow retracements. This is a buy and hold market. Euro looks interesting.
Or it is topping... who knows lol... Personally a pullback is in order before resuming an end of theyear rally..
Murray, with SPX through your short strike at 1353, what is your plan for adjustment? (hope that RUT is still working out for you)
Sure the high vols let you go wfotm spreads for good premium. But looking at the chart in 2002, im sure the market still reached and threatened those strikes even though they were wfotm