thanks for your input option911. tomorrow's gdp # could be a mover either way. i'm almost exactly delta neutral on spy now with the purchase of the sept 116 call and gave it a lil lift on the calls side looking at the risk profile. so i'll hold it for a bit or add to it. this will be a new approach on adjusting this trade as opposed to moving the calls higher up or buying back the short calls.
i was wondering if this topic was done or not lolz. well, my spy position is now finally making money after having to add to my position and my margin requirement. this is not an easy market to trade however. i am still holding the 116/118 position as well and the 117/119 and 118/120 on the calls side as well as the put spreads. so, its basically 3 times larger a position than original. i sold my 116's for sept at a small profit today. and my eem trades are going well also finally waking up a bit. i also tried to get filled on a spx iron condor today for sept but no luck. this has been a bit stressful period still with the run up but i'm still trading much smaller than before. i am thinking of how to defend the short calls and i like the broken winged butterflys as a trade but i don't want to keep trading and trading which eats up a lot of money too. which brings me back to why i prefer to trade the spx and rut.
howdy option911. i'm going to be going back to selling spx condors with much further distance to expiration and with wider spreads to not only save on commissions but the closer to the money shorts have a higher theta. also, by going to the further out months, its a lot less stressful since these front months condors have a much higher gamma risk. the goal would be to close the trade a least a month before they expire. unless, ofcourse, there is a possibility to lock in most of the profit and morph both sides into really wide broken winged butterflies which can potentially increase your returns by a large percentage all while reducing the margin. i like this trade because with the reduction in margin you can then look for your next large position and the broken winged butterflies can act as defense on your next condor for a few weeks anyway. but, i will be watching the shorts on spy like a hawk.
Keep us posted on how it goes with the spx. Personally I think sticking with the SPY makes more sense. Just keep them further out and increase the spread size. It is not about reducing risk with spreads, it is about reducing margin. Especially on the call side. We only spread the call side to reduce margin as there is no vega benefit to spreading. And spreads actually make it more challenging during exits as they become more binomial. Check out our SPY system in this free book. www.GoTradeSignals.com
cheers.
cheers.
Thanks GTS for that and I'll check out your site. I'd like to get the portfolio margining with thinkorswim at some point and I think there is a test of some sort. This would help a lot with margining requirements. I think trading the front month on these condors is not such a wonderful idea, its been about 10 points up in 20 days and this is common these days. But I am trying to work through the safest way to put these trades on in combination with other trades like calendars and broken winged butterflys and other underlying etf's.
option911
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If you are going to be using portfolio margin you need to look into how to use the margin properly. It is a totally different ball game because it opens up the ability to put on some different kind of spreads. Id be happy to talk to you about it off the forum if you have any questions about PM.
Yes sure I'll send you a PM option911. Thanks. In my case I want to use the margin with max safety in mind and as I understand portfolio margining will give me more capital to work with if they are taking into consideration the risk I would have on certain trades. I'm in my 'trading lab' now and I'm really starting to like the bwb as defense for the condors. Also, they are pretty flexible, you can adjust them to get credit or debit so they would make good sense as part of any trading plan.
option911
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The problem with more courses, and actually finra, is that there are actually safer trades that they charge margin out the wazu for for Reg T. I have no probelm with broken wing butterflies, I think they are great but if you are going to have that much in an account you need to know how to maximize the efficiency of your capital. It is probably the number one mistake by traders.
hello, this month has been wild. i don't think i'll be trading SPY iron condors and especially the front month although my trades are improving and getting into the green. Not a lot of excitement is my goal. I much prefer EEM at this point for iron condors.
Anyways, I entered into a regular put butterfly on SPX for Sept, really wide, 900,950,1000 for 2.75
And an EEM iron condor for Sept. 33/35/45/47 for .21
Looking into a SPX iron condor for Dec, maybe 850/875/1275/1300, not yet however.
Good luck guys.
Dave C
Anyways, I entered into a regular put butterfly on SPX for Sept, really wide, 900,950,1000 for 2.75
And an EEM iron condor for Sept. 33/35/45/47 for .21
Looking into a SPX iron condor for Dec, maybe 850/875/1275/1300, not yet however.
Good luck guys.
Dave C
Hi Mark!
I agree, when you factor in commissions and the risk, trading condors are not so great on ETF's. I think I'd like love to own a brokerage firm, they must be making money hand over fist when the market moves like this or anytime for that matter. Anybody want to chip in?? I do like the SPX butterfly for Sept just because its really not that far out of range especially when Sept can be such a brutal month but who knows. I'll just add some trades around that and have some defense if we start to tank. But the far out condors on the SPX are more my speed when the volatility starts to come in. Take care!
I agree, when you factor in commissions and the risk, trading condors are not so great on ETF's. I think I'd like love to own a brokerage firm, they must be making money hand over fist when the market moves like this or anytime for that matter. Anybody want to chip in?? I do like the SPX butterfly for Sept just because its really not that far out of range especially when Sept can be such a brutal month but who knows. I'll just add some trades around that and have some defense if we start to tank. But the far out condors on the SPX are more my speed when the volatility starts to come in. Take care!
I'm glad the month is over and the trades worked out well. I still gotta practice with calendar spreads and stay away from front month iron condors like i mentioned before.
Where is the market going? Nobody knows but I am going to stay small because lets face it, our economy is in the tank and theres not much good news out there. Maybe the markets will price in some more pain to come. September and October can be down months so I'm hopin' to catch some of that downside with my SPX butterfly. And my EEM trade is working well so far. Have a good weekend.
Dave
Where is the market going? Nobody knows but I am going to stay small because lets face it, our economy is in the tank and theres not much good news out there. Maybe the markets will price in some more pain to come. September and October can be down months so I'm hopin' to catch some of that downside with my SPX butterfly. And my EEM trade is working well so far. Have a good weekend.
Dave