SPX Credit Spread Trader

Hi Alp,

Sorry for the late reply due to work and have not been reading ET the last few days. I normally just click on the VIEW on the menu in TWS. Then i scroll down to ACCOUNT and my accout details comes up in a separate page. Within the page are the margin details as well. I don;t know how they work it out but i look at it to see how much margin i have available.

Cheers

 

With the overall market on "crack", I had to make a 2nd and final adjustment once SPX touched 1365 (10 points from my short strike). Originally I had 1350/1360, rolled that into 1375/1385, and now I exited my 1375/1385 position, both for October '06.

After adding up my wins and losses including commissions I'm down a little under $100 for 2006.

I have a new respect for Coach's FOTM credit spreads and am considering doing similar trades (ie 2 sigma) later. I figure, even if I can do 3-4% a month, that's sounding great at this point.

Good luck to all in your trades!

 

What is 2 sigma?


I have a new respect for Coach's FOTM credit spreads and am considering doing similar trades (ie 2 sigma) later. I figure, even if I can do 3-4% a month, that's sounding great at this point.

 

I believe he is referring to being 2 standard deviations away from the market when placing a trade.

 

Just keep total margin to a manageable portion of your portfolio so just like Argus, you will never blow out your account.

By the way, my strike selection criteria for SPX spreads is now proprietary ...

So are the advanced variance risk matrixes and cross-margined hedges I use....

(just practicing for when I have the hedge fund like Argus lol...)

 

Murray, I had a great time speaking to your group. for those of you at ET that had the opportunity to attend the "Mav speech", I hope you got a lot out of it.

I really was not expecting CNBC and the WSJ to be there covering the event.

 

I remember Steve cold called me a few years ago to invest some capital with him for calendars on futures options, I never did. Seemed like a nice enough guy though.
I can't imagine they have boded to well in Sept/Oct with a negative bias, especially if they are going that far out 2-3 months, ouch!

 

Thanks Coach for the input. Let me know once you get your hedge fund going

 

Your cross-margined hedges can only be applied for proprietrary traders using haircut!?

I also discovered a proprietary way of controlling the risk this month.

Mav will be very happy as everyone is going prop.

This will be a proprietary trader journal.

 

close one of my call diagonal oct 770/dec 790 at a credit of 10.6. Initial debit is 6.45.

a return of over $4 with a margin of $20.