Nice, Heather: So now that we both have powder and time till August expiration, what else are you considering for August? Premium is drying up in the range I would like to be at (namely short > 1325).
Remember, Phil said "for those trading ES options" Overnight margin for 1 short ES 1125P is in the $1500 neighborhood. Even if you don't plan to hold uncovered shorts, futures options give you the flexibility to leg in or out if desired. However, ES options give you fewer choices for executing spreads. I.e. you are pretty much required to leg in/out. But you have the ability to leg into the short side first if you wish. The margin isn't prohibitive.
Heather.... why did you close them with three days remaining? Check The Math .15 for three days.... is 1.5% return for three days... which is 182.5% annual return... not including the commission savings! If your margin account is paying that kind of yield, please let me know.... immediately. Otherwise.... consider being patient! M~
I have been paper trading call diagonals for a few months and wanted to do one for real. After some discussions with Sailing he convinced me that a put diagonal was the way to go with the current market conditions so here is what I did: STO Aug 1200 put @ $12.00 BTO Sep 1175 put @ $13.60 Debit of $1.60
I was pricing the same strikes in ES for a diagonal as well but I did not like the debit. Still cannot get used to paying a debit for a diag when I am getting sweet credits in the calls LOL.. but such is the skew . FOr me to do the size I like I would have to pay a nice penny. Still have a put ratio and credit spread mentality so not yet able to dive into the put diagonals for a debit.
Trying > 45 days credit spreads. Closed Aug. SPX bear calls today. Could have held another 15 days, but did not want to wait for just .20 - .30 more. 6/30 - SPX 1310/1315 credit 1.20 7/17- SPX bought back .40 return =19% -------------------------------------------------------------------- Also, have XEO July credit spreads. Greater number of bear calls than bull puts, so that even if market crashes, loss will not be much. I have 585/590 bear calls. Later added some 580/585 bull calls, transforming some of the bear calls to call butterflies, as the market looked like it was headed up at that point. But, of course it went the other way. I also have the 565/560 bull put and wanted to add the 565/570 bear put to convert to a put butterfly when it was .30 or so. But did not as 565 put was outside one std. dev. Wish I had, as today the same spread is 2.20. Besides, I would have locked in a profit and removed risk. So, my 565/560 is in danger........ Will have to close, or roll to the next month.
Thanks, Jeff. I haven't yet traded future options. I have traded mainly spider, iwm (most etfs), and like to consider trading future options. I couldn't find any free span calculators ( or formula ). Will trading future options give you better ROI? How much better?