Although it is not that exciting, I trade S&P and have to say that from contrarian point of view it is very attractive. Huge upside moves are rare, so to get protected on downside is usually good enough. What I`m still working on now, is to find the best conversions of verticals into other positions against the trend. Iron fly is a classic, but there are some interesting possibilities. Have you tried anything different ?
I also trade the S&P, but mostly options like SPX or SPY. Sounds like you an I are working on the same things. I've messed around a lot with conversions into iron flies, box spreads, etc. I'm actually in search of ways to adjust a position without locking in a guaranteed loss. I realize that most adjustments require the realization of a loss. I just don't like adjustments that don't then allow for a gain to offset the loss. In certain cases I like to employ the strategies that riskarb is covering on his combo to fly conversion journal.
Today's Action Sold 4 SPY MAR 132/134 call spreads @ 0.20 Year to Date P/L Account Value: $10,132.00 YTD Gross P/L: 210.00 YTD Commiss: 78.00 YTD Net P/L: 132.00 YTD % P/L: 1.3%
I recently adjust verticals in upside moves by writing another call further OTM and writing ATM put for conversion of existing vertical into fly. Then I buy OTM put to establish vertical on upside moves and buy further OTM call on corrections. This brings you much better vertical entries, however violent downside action can force you to offset that ATM put, so this needs some more work to get protected in such scenario.
A little bummed today because I have so far been unable to get into two bullish positions that I had setup. HPQ and DELL With a pullback in either of these I will initiate a position. HAL is another potential winner, but I haven't yet decided on it.
I've been working on some various vertical roll (balanced and unbalanced) combinations. Depending on how I structure them, I end up in various combo positions. The interesting thing about most adjustments is that a large part of them are merely accomplished by adding one or more verticals to an existing vertical. That is what prompted me to start this journal. For organizational purposes, I'm going to try to stick with the proposed topic rather than getting into too many crazy adjustments.
Finally got in on the bullish DELL position that I wanted. I'll post on it specifically at the end of the day. I've got a project that is screaming for my attention. This big down day was a blessing, but in the future I am going to try not to have such high -delta. Looking right now to neutralize a couple positions by finishing off the IC on a couple of my bear calls.
Sold some MAR SPY cull puts also. Thought I would take advantage of the big down day today. I put my short strike at 126 and the long at 122.
Getting too close to expiration to let the correction develope. Also, I am close to the short strike on my call spread. It costs me nothing to finish off the IC and also gives me a little more cushion on my calls. We will probably see a little bit more selling tomorrow, but time is wasting on the MAR positions. I am expecting a drop to ultimately around 126 but I think it will stall around 127 for awhile. At 127 I think it will come back up a bit and waste a bunch of my time. I wouldn't then get the fill that I wanted because of theta decay. I have a much larger bear call in my real account that I did not finish the IC on today. They are APR (resulting from a MAR roll) so I will continue to wait for the bigger drop. Today's Action Sold 4 SPY MAR 122/126 put @ 0.4 Sold 4 DELL APR 27.5/30 put @ 1.10 Year to Date P/L Account Value: $10,108.00 YTD Gross P/L: 210.00 YTD Commiss: 102.00 YTD Net P/L: 108.00 YTD % P/L: 1.1%