While my thread might be titled trading long straddles. For now, I shall be concentrating on weekly VERTICAL DEBIT SPREADS. Got back from my mountain holidays. Forgot just how cold high mountains can be, whether in Canada, or on the Equator. Brrrrrhhhh! Enough of that for sure. Beautiful scenery, but mon, I like my warm eternal spring weather.
I have no idea. I'm a novice technical trader, losing money. My trades just finished putting on. wmb 29/30 at .66 cents - stock at 29.70 aapl 630/635 at .34 cents - stock at 606.37 qqq 63/64 at .47 cents - index at 63.04 ___________________________________ This is only my second try, at getting the order entries correct and to see if I have the root idea of what I'm trying to do. So these trades are in the TOS web based paper trading platform. I am still not totally comfortable, or clear about what is going on, with this. _____________________________________________ Now, I have bank to go to, some shopping at the hardware store, post office and later a long trip to the lumber yard to buy some supplies. Not going to watch these anymore today. Chou!
ATTICUS I do have a question? One of my three debit spreads, WMB 29/30 went above the 30 strike briefly today. The question in my mind,would be would that have triggered ASSIGNMENT the stock? I'm not clear on that point, and the web based TOS paper trading probably would not show that either, I imagine. It is something I should be aware of though.
Of course! I'm a novice. Lots and lots of questions novices don't even know enough to ask the right question many times.
here is some info on assignment and exercise from tda/tos, as you have an account there, you could also call them to talk about it... https://www.thinkorswim.com/tos/displayPage.tos?webpage=lessonExercise
Thanks Traderlux. I do really appreciate people with a positive mind set, instead of this harass, insult and negative stuff. Warped minds I guess? At any rate, got you marked as a very nice guy, the kind of guy I WANT to associate with. Much obliged. I had in the back of my mind, that if the stock goes .25 cents over the sold option price, it is assigned. The part that I was not clear on, was if it happened during the day and market hours, or if it happened after the market closed and the stock was above the SOLD side of a spread. I thought I could get a quick piece of information, without having to wade through a lot of stuff, from somebody more versed with this?
Just read your link TRADERLUX. Thankyou for the link. Some new factors I absorbed. I guess I was trying to fathom, at what point would I close the position, if the stock price approached the short sold side of a debit spread, which I'm learning and practicing with right now. I was trying to establish a rule on the trade, of if and when, to close the debit spread, as the stock approached the sold side. I'm not at all comfortable yet about what to do, in a debit spread if the sold side is approached by the stock. Certainly I can see I might likely be holding too many contracts for my cash and margin requirements, so that I will hold in mind. I suppose for safety sake, if the stock pushes through the sold side of the debit spread, I would best to take a loss and close the trade? THAT I EXPECT WOULD BE THE BEST RULE TO MAKE?
Hey dimwit ......... The best course of action is to close the debt spread at what would be maximum profit. So why are you worried about the ITM short leg of a debt spread, in this case the WMB 29/30? !!! CLOSE THE POSITION, TAKE YOUR MONEY. WHATS SO HARD ABOUT THAT? !!!