Well, low risk is a relative term. Doing the same credit spread 5-7 weeks before expiration is definitely lower risk. You at least can manage those trades and the loss will not accumulate so quickly even if the underlying gaps. Take a look at the link I posted, it compares two trades with different expirations.
Thanks - good information. Other than credit spreads, are there any other option strategies you would consider low risk? If you were to design a portfolio of low risk option strategies, which ones would you include?
All spread strategies (calendars, butterflies, etc.) are RELATIVELY low risk if opened not close to expiration.
so if I do weeklies and I open on a fri or a mon is that not close to expy so then id be in a RELATIVELY low risk spread
It is too close for me. It doesn't mean it cannot work - in fact, many times it will. But when it doesn't, the loss can be brutal. Those are speculative trades, and should be handled accordingly. They are NOT low risk trades like many services would like you to think.
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