Recent content by Benton D Struckcheon

I am completely flummoxed. I just checked your chart again, and it is exactly the same volume chart I see on TOS. The line you drew shows that there was higher volume in Feb, and it shows the two prior days close by that were almost equal in volume. So, what in Heaven's name are you on about...

My impression of the day was very different. Also, Feb 5 had more volume on both SPY and ES (according to TOS), and there were two days just before that date that came very close. I'll leave it at that. Monday will tell.

TOS is showing volumes in Feb that were roughly equal to today, both in SPY and ES. Either way, I was surprised when someone told me the news (GS), checked the charts, and found no evidence that it affected market direction. It was a down day to start with, and acted for all the world like a...

Nah. Volume's not unusual for an options expiration day. Also, the day after one is usually in the opposite direction. Over the past year, 10 out of 12 times the Monday after went in the opposite direction (just did a quick check of the daily chart for the past year for this).

Sweated out a small gain on the GDX call spreads by legging out: sold the bought side first, then sitting nervously with the sold side until it fell enough to cover commish and give me a little profit. Had to sweat out the usual 10AM bounce, which was pretty powerful today. Feeling better now...

I should point out that if this goes right (a big if), the potential profit is still higher than even this all-in loss amount: as of this very moment, 240 simoleons (1.975 - 1.025) + (3.5 - 2.05), a few north of the -217 so far. So, down but not out, even after this initial whack.

Sell tonight on GDX based on continued plummeting options volumes. The percentage of calls in that volume also fell, so that didn't save it today, as it did yesterday. Judging by what's happening so far, looks like my exit tomorrow from the long will be ugly. When it rains, it pours.

Of course I forgot to say what I actually did: bought back the 620, sold a 640 put on the put side. On the call side, got out of both, and legged into selling the 750 and buying the 760. So everything is moved up 20 points, except for the bought put, which is still at 610. The probability of...

All in P/L as of tonight on the condor is -217, which is not good, but hardly a disaster. A decent benchmark for what to expect to lose in normal times on a busted condor. In abnormal times like the fall of '08, you'd have to of course increase this considerably. This is important, since the...

Problem with doing new things is you tend to obsess on them and forget about the old reliables. Fortunately, gold is acting like it's supposed to since the last signal, so far. On the options sentiment front, volume has gone way down since the near-perfect day of about a week ago, but the call...

Intuhresting. I was wondering what that yellow button in the top right hand corner was. I won't have time to play with it until the weekend, but I definitely intend to try that. Seriously cool. As a first report, it right now is not letting me get past 4/10, so it obviously doesn't let you...

Thanks for the offer, but no. Indices only, swing only, far as mechanical; the discretion is in the intraday decisions on when and how to enter/exit, where I use that linear regression 100 indicator (not really an indicator; more like a set of guidelines, really) to figure out when to act. I...

I second that. I'm partial to red, myself. Bordello red, as if you didn't already know that...

Very strong options action today on GDX. Good volume, nice ratio of calls over puts, and not too frothy. Nearly as close to perfection as it gets. I'm getting a little more confident that we can challenge the old highs in gold. Condor in the Russell got relief today from the slight down day we...

Flat performance on GDX today. Funny day on the main indexes. You could just see them squeezing the shorts ever so slooowwwly; on my mini-condor, I had a stop in at 70. It got hit in the first half of the day, and of course the Russell sold off a bit after that. It then returned to the scene of...