New to option selling, loving the cash flow but wary of gaping markets so I always buy protection: For those of you doing repeated iron condors/butterflies or credit spreads on the same stock or index, is it worth having the long legs on far out expiration dates (like 6 month or so) and the bodies on weekly/monthly or 45 DTE or do you have the whole combos on the same expiration date, then rinse and repeat? Transaction costs would favor longer dated protection but commissions are not that high, while positive Treasury Bill curve would favor shorter protection so I'm not sure.
Yeah, diagonalizing the wings is a good idea but you can't get root time neutral or anything approaching it by going M2 wings. If you're going to roll weekly/monthly M1 over and over then it's OK. I take positions in deferred series as rate plays on the forward more than outright bets on M2 vols or prot.
Gotcha, Thx.I guess response to my question might be "it depends" lol. I'm thinking quick and dirty rule of thumb would be in low vol environment, diagonalize, in high vol environment, roll the wings.