Today I sold an SPX unbalanced Iron Condor using March options.
I had to slightly mutilate the language of Shakespeare by the end of my tweet due to the 140 character limit rule. But I hope it was clear enough. I received 0.30 credit for the Put spreads and 0.50 for the Call spreads. I decided to play fewer Call spreads as the 2170 short Calls are not clearly above the projected uptrend channel. So, I prefer to play that side conservatively.
Here's the trade with position sizes adjusted for the "Model Portfolio"
Buy 4 March SPX 1845 Put @9.80
Sell 4 March SPX 1850 Put @10.10
Sell 2 March SPX 2170 Call @3.85
Buy 2 March SPX 2175 Call @3.35
Credit Received: $220 (0.30*4 + 0.50*2)
Max Risk: $1780
Days to expiration: 56
The market is pretty much in no man's land here so I started playing the March cycle with an Iron Condor. Decent time premium 8 weeks to expiration and still an attractive VIX (above 16) for selling options. If we go to an extreme in the next few weeks I will add a Credit spread preferably using RUT as my vehicle.
As usual an SPX chart at the time of the trade, when the future is still unknown (I hate left side of the chart traders that are so great in retrospective). This is for my own future reference and study.
(Click on image to enlarge)
Current positions in the portfolio:
February SPX 1875/1880/2190/2195 Iron Condor
$320 credit. 27 days to expiration and 87% probability of success. Looking as good as <insert name of hot model here> naked. No concerns with this babe.
March SPX 1845/1850/2170/2175 Iron Condor
The trade discussed in this article. A fight that has just begun. Time will tell.
Check out 2015 Track record
Related Articles:
Weekend Portfolio Analysis (February 8, 2015)
Weekend Portfolio Analysis (February 14, 2015)
Weekend Portfolio Analysis (February 21, 2015)
Weekend Portfolio Analysis (February 28, 2015)
Weekend Portfolio Analysis (March 7, 2015)
Weekend Portfolio Analysis (March 14, 2015)
Position expires worthless yielding max profit
Sold March $SPX 1845/1850/2170/2175 unbalanced Iron Condor. Half size on the Calls side. Received .30 credit for Puts and .50 credit Calls
— The Lazy Trader (@lazytrading) January 23, 2015
I had to slightly mutilate the language of Shakespeare by the end of my tweet due to the 140 character limit rule. But I hope it was clear enough. I received 0.30 credit for the Put spreads and 0.50 for the Call spreads. I decided to play fewer Call spreads as the 2170 short Calls are not clearly above the projected uptrend channel. So, I prefer to play that side conservatively.
Here's the trade with position sizes adjusted for the "Model Portfolio"
Buy 4 March SPX 1845 Put @9.80
Sell 4 March SPX 1850 Put @10.10
Sell 2 March SPX 2170 Call @3.85
Buy 2 March SPX 2175 Call @3.35
Credit Received: $220 (0.30*4 + 0.50*2)
Max Risk: $1780
Days to expiration: 56
The market is pretty much in no man's land here so I started playing the March cycle with an Iron Condor. Decent time premium 8 weeks to expiration and still an attractive VIX (above 16) for selling options. If we go to an extreme in the next few weeks I will add a Credit spread preferably using RUT as my vehicle.
As usual an SPX chart at the time of the trade, when the future is still unknown (I hate left side of the chart traders that are so great in retrospective). This is for my own future reference and study.
(Click on image to enlarge)
February SPX 1875/1880/2190/2195 Iron Condor
$320 credit. 27 days to expiration and 87% probability of success. Looking as good as <insert name of hot model here> naked. No concerns with this babe.
March SPX 1845/1850/2170/2175 Iron Condor
The trade discussed in this article. A fight that has just begun. Time will tell.
Check out 2015 Track record
Related Articles:
Weekend Portfolio Analysis (February 8, 2015)
Weekend Portfolio Analysis (February 14, 2015)
Weekend Portfolio Analysis (February 21, 2015)
Weekend Portfolio Analysis (February 28, 2015)
Weekend Portfolio Analysis (March 7, 2015)
Weekend Portfolio Analysis (March 14, 2015)
Position expires worthless yielding max profit
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