Hi JW...did you get the above question answered? I am also curious as to the expiration of ES options. My understanding is that they are American vs European and can be assigned anytime, so I'm wondering if this could potentially be a problem with the short straddle if the market went strongly in one direction leaving you deep in the money on either your put or call. I do believe there is supposed to be EOM futures options that are European only so wonder if that would be a better vehicle?
One last question and it is a logistic question. I have never been subject to an assigment of any ES futures--I have usually closed them out or allowed them to expire OTM. I know that the April options expired as of 4:15PM ET yesterday. I am long the ES and I have an ITM call that will be exercised, and I will be assigned. When does the assignment occur? Does it occur at 6:00PM ET when the ES GLOBEX opens? Will the assignment/offset be "off the books" come Monday morning? I am asking for I wish to place trades Monday AM and will need my funds to be free of the old trades' margin requirements.
No i wasnt able to sell any atm calls when it moved close to the 200MA, very busy at work couldnt monitor until after hours last few days. I do have a pending limit order to sell 5x 1400-1450 call spread at market when the underlying es hits 1432. my current open position (all short) 6x 1400/1450 call spread (at 18 pt premium) 1x 1400 naked call (at 20 pt premium) 2x esm8 entered during afterhour at 1411 (this caused my margin to go up significantly, will convert it to atm options when i can). Current unrealized P&L for May is -$1800 My initial outlook based on technical and market sentiment was that we are in a bullish market and if 1400 is broken, signifcant upward movement was to be expected. But that all changed in the last 2 weeks as the market is just churning as more and more small bulls jump on board. There is no major force even trying to push past the 200MA, and volume continues to be low which means the insitutions arent buying. Plan is if the market moves to 1430ish, i will sell 5x additional call spread at 1400/1450 (june expiration). If the market continues to churn or drop, i will do nothing until 1380 level to start close my positions for profit. If the market gaps up pass the 200MA on significant volume/news, i will hit my stop loss and kill the positions.
the expected drop came today as predicted by this week and es closed below 1400, decided to take some profit and closed out the 2 esm8 naked shorts because 1) margin req 2) options x next week 3) larger than expected drop for a single day so may result in a reactionary up move tomorrow 4)volume is still low closed: 2x esm8 at 1395. 32*$50= +$1600 profit my current open position (all short) 6x 1400/1450 call spread (at 18 pt premium) 1x 1400 naked call (at 20 pt premium) Current P&L for May unrealized is +$2732, realized is +$1600
I think you guys may be interested in the site below. It looks similar to what you are doing. www.CapturingTheta.com
Wow - author of website spent an amazing 100,000 hours of research and historical testing to discover......(drumroll)....selling theta!:eek:
They also say it is possible to make 20%/month with their method. Are you saying you can do that simply selling theta? My limited experience with options is that selling theta will make about 1-2% per year LEVERAGED! Am I missing something?
The intro page is nothing more than a definition of theta.... Red flag goes up any time i see: "After spending over 100,000 hours of research and historical testing in the markets, I have found 1 way to CONSISTENTLY AND EASILY MAKE MONEY!!! " not that i ever sign up to any of those services/chatrooms (other than our very own the AMAZING rennick! lol)
opened 10x may put spread 1365/1315 at 5.25 premium. multiple levels of strong support above 1370, unlikely we will break them all on first try by end of next week(expiration)