Not necessarily directional, rather, it's a play on the forward stat-vol when trading gamma/vega. You're trading vega/gamma with longer term-structures. A LEAPS is a vega play, Dec05 options are a gamma play.
THAR SHE BLOWS! SPX at 1251 and falling... Haven't you people learned anything yet.... when I adjust a credit spread, like I did with my 1275 Calls, you need to go long the other direction! So far for the year, if you faded my adjustments you would have had a 147% return! lol.... The sad thing is that the lessons that most of you will learn is that when Coach adjusts his puts lower, your puts are now safe, when he adjusts his calls higher you calls are now safe! I am just joking of course but I think the market knows when I adjust.... Any of you grabbing puts on a nice day like today? I still have my 1220 put spread but I do not see a 30 point drop in the coming week despite the weakness hanging around.
I'm also holding the DEC 1220/1210 .... agreed.... no 30 point drop coming. Looking at the JAN 1190/1180 Puts for .75 cents.
I'm trying to close my Dec 1300/1310 call spread for .05, that is the mid so I probably won't get filled today but I placed it to see if I might get lucky. I have a Dec 1195/1205 put spread that is just a little profitable but I'm holding it for now to squeeze some more out of it as I don't feel we will be dropping down to that level by expiration (although I could be wrong). I'm ready to move onto Jan positions but I need a little more cooperation from the market before I make the jump. Quick Phil, put on a big bearish position so the market goes back up! ryan
Looks like you will have to rewrite your trading plan! You can call it the George Costanza trading plan, whatever you think is the right play, do the opposite and success is sure to follow! ryan
It's approximately one-dev up and down, but based upon the implied vol, not statistical volatility. Run a 20/2 bollinger band on SPX and compare the stat-distro to that implied by the SPX atm straddle. The 20d[trading days] BB corresponds to a 30d straddle[calendar days]. You can manipulate the BB ma to fit the time to exp on the option combo. You'll see they are usually very tight. Some charting/ananlysis packages will alow you to shadow-chart the atm combo superimposed on the spot chart. Be mindful of the BB and/or the BB bandwidth when selling premium. It's a good visual indicator of option vols since stat and implied are [usually] very tightly correlated in index markets.
My understanding is your are in the Tahoe area...Is the snow there as good as here in Colo? Needed to get away from trading today..went up to Loveland...fantastic snow...decided that if skiers are investors then the snowboarders are the day traders and the tele-markers down the steep bumps are the options players...just can't get away from trading...I wonder how others do it (besides J A imagery ) that is get away from trading???
Telemarkers, I like that. I've never done it, but always wanted to. We have a long season, but typically not the snowfall you get in the Rockies, last year's huge snowfall notwithstanding. I have family in Bend, OR and they've the longest season in the US. I try to spend a lot of time away from the pc, but always carry a PDA and laptop with bband cellular access. Trading US, Asia and EUR index and fx markets take their toll. I do Vipassana meditation and use a sound and light machine daily. I sleep for two hours after the US market close which helps immensely. I have a home gym with tons of freeweights, machines and a Stairmaster 4000. Traders need as many outlets as possible to handle the stress.