Though, I should say that I'd like to lift that upside call short strike. 'Cause I think today is the first day of an extended upside move to new highs. Take the money and run, We shall see
You're missing the plot my friend, At no time was I ever "naked" on any position at any time. So the legging issue is only semantic. Sept Gamma covered the whole thing. Futher, "Margin," I have no clue as to what this is all about. I deal with "haircut."which I barely understand. BTW: I'm looking for break to the upside.....positioned that way
We shall see. 1245 is still the hurdle for now and the index bounced once off of the previous uptrend support line which has become resistance now. Any supported surge through 1245 and we are at 5 year new highs with the next possible resistane at the 1300 mark. This week shall be interesting to see if today's rally can be sustained. I am looking forward to trading the E-mini against this short-trend. Phil
You lost me a second there. If you leg into an OCT SPY spread by selling the short call first, you are naked on that call until you leg into the spread by purchasing the SPY call to form the spread. I do not see how Gamma in Sept covers a naked call in OCT unless you are not talking about vertical credit spreads anymore (i.e. reverse calendars). As for margin, if you sell a SPY 127 call short (i.e. have not bought the long 129 yet) then there is a margin requirement on the short call position. Your broker does not follow the same margin requirements? Phil
I suppose I could try to be. Seriously though, this is getting a bit beyond the scope of the thread. Market Maker haircut and retail margin are different, what can I say? Though I understand that some retail option brokers are offering some very nice margin requirements these days.
SmilingSynic, I think Phil has a valid point. If you're warning readers that a black swan can end a trading career after years of profitability then suggest a constructive risk mitigation plan (simultaneous spreads on currency, index, soybeans, corn, and energy for diversification?) instead of just saying "beware, stay away". Present some historical data of when and how much the SPX has gapped (my point being the SPX is resilient to multi-percentage gaps) and how one might have controlled damage. Suggest some guidelines on the "right" market conditions for credit spreads (in your experience when vol exceeded such-and-such, credit spreads did not work)...