I think I have proven 100% effective the partial hedge contrarian indicator. Everytime I place a partial hedge when I think one side of my position could be in trouble down the road, the market moves the other way LOL. Other than that, i think even a 400 spread position is a hair on the dog's tail in the SPX pit . But one day I am going to take all of you together and we are going to be one big SPX FORCE! BAM!
I case any one is interested, I called OX and was told to calculate the price as ryank suggested. If the ratio of the legs makes it possible to form smaller units (i.e. 10/5 is really 5 x 2/1) then you should make the price off the smallest possible unit. Just when I thought there was no use for elementary school math. Chip
SPX quote is not updating in ToS, but futures are. It's stuck at -0.95 when CNBC says it is down 4.12. Pisani is saying that there is often a turnaround in the market after an hour because initial reactions to FOMC are wrong. We'll see.
I decided to place one more bull put trade for April. Got filled on the following: SPX APR 1240/1225 bull put for $0.50. This was a tough one to get filled and I must have replaced the order at least ten times. The mid was jumping around like crazy and ToS informed that the pit was very, very busy and it might take some time to get filled. That does it for me for April. Just about time to start looking at May credit spreads.
First reasons today why I like trading through a prop now: Sold 125 APR SPX 1235/1225 Put Spreads @ $0.30 Credit = $3,750 Risk = $121,250 Return = 3.10% Good Reason #1 = OX b/a of this spread shows $0.15/$0.45 I got filled at $0.30 legging in in 2 minutes. Yes, $0.30 is the mid-point of the spread. Now the spread adjusted after I got my order filled so I doubt I was exactly at the mid-point when I placed it, but pretty damn close. Good Reason #2 = My original order was at $1.50 to sell for the short 1235 Put when the bid ask was $1.40/$1.55. I got filled on 25 of them before I moved the limit order from $1.50 to $1.45. So I got filled on 25 contracts above the mid-point. I moved my limit order because I thought I was being too aggressive and was in the middle of changing it when I got a fill notification on the 25. I decided to not leave myself hanging and come down $0.05 to get the fill. The platform does not have spread orders so I will have to leg in. But I leg in by grabbing the short first so I know the minimum credit I will get for the spread and since it is risk-based haricut, I am not prevented from entering a short position first and legging into the long. This gives me a slight advantage in legging in over retail margin. Just letting you know some benies since many of you were interested in the experience. From here forward I will be doing some position in the Prop account and some in the OX account so I will put OX or PROP next to a position or trade to be clear.
Yeah the turnaround happens a lot, but I think the initial market reaction was right on this one. Prices were high on hopes that there would be an end to the rate hikes. That only leaves one possibility for the market to continue higher. The fed had to say that the end was near. Anything shy of that and the correct reaction is down. On the other hand, every rate increase brings us that much closer to the end and I think there are still enough bulls to keep us fairly rangebound for a while. But who knows, right when I post this, SPX will probs reverse and close at 1310.
Big move lower today but stopping at previous support....for now. All eyes are on that line now for direction going into APRIL expiration and all our open positions... [EDIT] Right after I posted this the SPX did poke its head below the line so let's see how we close and where we go tomorrow
optioncoach -> i am curious as to why you open positions on a day like today. For example, you just opened that put spread when we are nowhere near the lower end of the current trading range. Wouldn't it cut your risk significantly(or in your case the need to hedge) if u were to wait until a better current SPX price??
Since I am not adept at picking exact bottoms I get in when I see a good entry. We could fall another 10 or 15 points or so before settling or moving back higher but I will never pick the exact top or bottom. Since my strikes are based on where we will not be by expiration, I do not mind not being exact as long as I like the strikes, premium and return I am getting.