Chris, Yes, converting to a long butterfly/condor is my preferred adjustment as well. Knowing when and whether to make the adjustment is the...
Chris, I'm still constructing the long/short leaps portfolio, but at this point its too early to tell whether it will work. So far, since I...
Chris, I don't disagree with you and I have no intention of changing my strategy to go gamma pos or directional on the indices. Iron condors on...
No problems here.
Mav, Absolutely. I may have used up 8 of my 9 trading lives with this one. Lesson learned. As a result, I'm inclined to cut back quite a bit on...
Chris, Well, in retrospect, doing the "right" thing on Monday, ended up in fact being the right thing. Had I not bought back my short 530...
Assuming there's no significant volatility skew between the two strikes, there are a couple general rules of thumb that you can use to help pick...
Chris, True. Though one could be tempted to learn another dangerous lesson from a day like today. That is, to hold on come hell or high water...
Chris, In the example I gave, the adjustment would actually be made before the underlying reached the short strike (i.e. adjustment is made to...
Yea, that's been my experience as well. If it hasn't printed, but you're .05-.10 off the mid-point, you should get filled.
Yes, but of course my limit and yours may be quite a way's off. Still, if you're not too greedy and go for, say, a dime below the mid-point, you...
Political relativism seems to have run amok on ET. I wonder if after 4 months of a Dean Administration (heaven help us), whether "Elitists" on...
Chris, It's nothing complicated. Let's say you had an OEX IC with the following strikes: 490/500/540/550. Let's further suppose that with the...
Liquidity's fine on the OEX for 10-lot spreads. You can go substantially higher before encountering fill problems. The XEO, however, is another...
Chris, SPX is European style. HD
While Clinton's extraordinary talents are notorious, I do recall the Ross Perot factor being rather significant in '92. Ralph Nader won't quite do...
Chris, I agree. I rarely if ever buy back the short options, unless they're trading for pennies and I want to remove risk entirely from that...
Very good point. Writing covered calls can help enforce a sell discipline that might otherwise be lacking. As pointed out, it's somewhat...
As others have pointed out, writing naked puts has the same risk profile as a covered call with a superior ROI. Also, writing naked puts is a...
A 32% lead in N.H. over "favorite son" Kerry, union support abandoning presumptive Iowa fave Gephardt for the Gov., and the most commited base...
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