To Trend Sailor That was very childish of you. And please don't claim you have no idea what I am talking about. Mark
To Dad, Well that's what we kids do; so what do you expect from a bastard kid anyway? You should just be happy I didn't sell you a much larger short position and tie up all of your residual margin through another options expiration weekend again... Anyways, have a heart. I didn't' take any more than I needed to buy my Valentine a nice dinner tonight. TS
He is trying to be right and everybody else wrong. It's childish and stupid. Maybe He is trying to tackle me and YIP because He knows We trade RUT. By the way Trend: I didn't lose money this month, I close my 31 RUT FEB CALL at 1.10 debit and I left my 20 FEB RUT PUT 800/790 for 1.0 credit. So am making at least 5K this month. I do have plenty of MARCH CALL and PUT though. But I don't mind RUT move up or down because I know I to control my strategy. I thought this board was for education but people are just rough around here making me sick.
Hey, not sure who you are talking about piccon. All I was trying to do is post my real results for FEB RUT as a data point for others to have. There was nothing more & nothing less implied by that. I only started trading RUT 1 month ago. RUT is just a side trade for me. My largest positions are in SPX. Speaking of which, I am trying like heck to get out of my call spreads right now since SPX keeps creeping higher and higher. Its now starting to pose a threat to my shorts. I only have about 15 points left with 1 trading day and SET to contend with. There are more economic reports coming out this week too - so its still a potentially volatile situation. TS
Those frontmonth small delta OTM calls really don't help very much to hedge short calls closer to the money. The width of the bid/ask spread is so large, it dwarfs the option deltas for a "normal" move up. If the market goes apesh1t and shoots up to 1470, then of course the 4 1470s will be quite helpful. But a move to your 1450 short won't be helped much, as you experienced.
This rapid SPX upswing is a great emotional lesson that impresses the exponential nature of the gamma curve we pick up in credit spreads. This morning with SPX at around 1445 I could have closed out my winning SPX FEB CALL 1470/1480 spreads for a debit of .05 per contract. Now, with SPX up 12.75 at 3:00 EST at 1457.75 and 1 full remaining trading day plus SET it will cost me a debit of .40 to exit with a slim profit. I tried to get out about mid day at .1 debit but it ran away on me. Trading volume and anxiety among short sellers is still not high enough yet to normalize the bid/ask spreads for the large number of open contracts (63,000 open positions and only 2600 traded today). So I think rather than pay an exorbitant implied volatility premium to exit I think I am going to play this one straight through to the end. This will reduce the extrinsic value down to its pure historical volatility and zero theta. Then I will count on a moderate sell off Thursday to cushion SET surprises on Friday's open. This is an interesting month... TS
As expiry draws close, its very interesting... 2-3 days after i put on the position (ie with 2 - 3 weeks to expiry), I was making a lot of money even if ES was at 1460. Sum of my longs worth more than my short. It needed only move to 1460 for me to make money. Today or even 3 days ago, i would be losing some money if ES was at 1460. The 1470 CALLS are just too weak and too FOTM with only 2 days to go. In this case sum of my longs worth less than my short. So it really depends on how much time is left. But ES at 1450 as you said...it looks really really bad. Bid/Ask spreads is not too bad with ES. I try to leg in really quick on my shorts and longs. Well off to sleep for me over here. Scoobie
Yeah, I am in the exact same boat (1470/1480). I actually had a .05 debit close order throughout yesterday that never got filled. Saw the .1 possibility this morning and didnt bite...we'll see what tommorrow holds
Message to the board: I find it distaseful to air my personal problems here, but I think it's right for everyone to see what Trend Sailor has done. It's a personal attack. He is attempting to ruin my business and hurt me financially. Here are the facts: A reviewer at Amazon - someone who has reviewed zero other books - yesterday posted a vehemently negative, angry review for each of my books. The timing is just too oulandish to be a coincidence. Beware of TS. Deal with him appropriately, as he is a dangerous, vengeful person. Here are the reviews: 1) Weak book, February 13, 2007 Reviewer: The skeptic (Chicago) Weak strategies discussed. Why would anyone spend money to buy a book that basically just discusses covered calls? Poorly written. Won't make you money. Look elsewhere if you are serious about trading and care about your money. 2) Only for the clueless, February 13, 2007 Reviewer: The skeptic (Chicago) - Only buy this book if you know nothing about options, are totally clueless about how to find free information on the internet, and have no interest in protecting your money. At the current price of 13.95 this book is a rip off. I wouldn't recommend it if the publisher was giving it away. This author's options knowledge is clearly limited and amateurish given the two extremely poor books he has written thus far. I just don't know how to deal with someone as cruel as this. Suggestions anyone? Mark
Hi, Group: TOS sent out its standard expiration notification email today. One of the items in it said to beware of Friday's $.18 dividend on DIA. Generally speaking, what is the impact of a dividend on DIA options? I presently have a small Feb/Mar 127/135 call diagonal in play. It is only a small protion of my current positions and, in fact, the only one that is a loser at this time. Thank you, Bob P.S. I don't particularly want to roll it. This account is my IRA, which is with OX and I am trying to get all of my positions closed out in order to move it to TOS where my non-qualified account is.