How do you manage the emotional side of trading SPX?

This question is for Jeff and everyone else trading SPX.

When your position is tested, like today with SPX at 3961 and short calls at 3970, how do you manage the emotional side of trading?

I usually close the trade early for a small loss, but most of the time miss out on a winning trade.
I think, it is a purely emotional response, but should be avoided in trading.

  • Do you stick to your plan and close early, or hope for the best and see what happens?
  • Is your approach different for Calls vs. Puts?

KRE

STO KRE Apr21’23 25 PUT @0.45
STO KRE Apr21’23 30 PUT @0.95

FAS

STO FAS Apr21’23 40 PUT @1.98
STO FAS Apr21’23 35 PUT @1.24

XBI

STO XBI Apr21’23 70 PUT @ 1.50

KRE

STO KRE Jun16’23 40 PUT @1.20

FYI SPY Dividend

FYI SPY Dividend – Mar 17, 2023

KRE

STO KRE Jun16’23 50 PUT @1.15

IWM

STO IWM Mar17’23 180 PUT @1.00

XBI

STO XBI May19’23 75 PUT @1.80

Forward implied volatility

VOL

XBI

STO XBI Apr21’23 75 PUT @1.50

SPY

STO SPY Mar10’23 380 PUT @1.65

Commission on SPX

I am curious what are you paying per contract for SPX options with your broker?
Interactive Brokers is charging $1.55 and $1.64 per contract, depending on the premium amount.

SPY

STO SPY Mar03’23 390 PUT @1.50
STO SPY Mar03’23 395 PUT @2.00

TSLA

Not sure if this was a smart move, but ..
STO TSLA Jul21’23 80 PUT @8.75

Question about keeping track of trades

Over the years, I have noticed that keeping track of trades is taking 2 to 3 times longer that the actual trading activities.

I use Excel spreadsheet and entering open/close trades is not a big deal. However, when I roll positions, sometimes for years, it is a tedious task.

Has anyone found a better way of recording trades (than Excel), including multiple rolls?

TSLA

STO TSLA Dec16’22 130 PUT @1.75

META

STO META Dec16’22 95 PUT @5.76
Let’s see what happens 🙂

TSLA

STO TSLA Oct21’22 200 PUT @4.00

Ability to create new posts.

Hi Jeff,
Somehow I lost ability to create new posts or reply directly in the optionsbistro.com.
Was working fine 2 days ago.
Checked login, cleared cache, etc…, but nothing helps.
This post is done from the WordPress account.
Can you please check if there are any issues with my username?
Thank you,
Mike

@fuzzballl Looks like EWZ is…

@fuzzballl
Looks like EWZ is coming back down into the range.

XBI

STO ITM XBI Jan20’23 70 PUT @11.45

INTC

STO INTC Sep16’22 35 PUT @1.16
STO INTC Jan20’23 35 PUT @1.98

BA

STO BA Mar18’22 180 PUT @6.40
STO BA Jan20’23 180 PUT @26.20

FXI

STO FXI Apr14’22 31 PUT @0.50

RSX

STO RSX Jan’23 20/10 Bull Put @8.05
B/E at $11.95

TSLA

STO TSLA Mar18’22 500 PUT @6.00
On a GTC order at the open.

RSX

STO RSX Mar18’22 10 PUT @0.70
Russia ETF

FB

Possibly too early, but…
STO FB Mar18’22 190 PUT @ 2.05
STO FB May20’22 175 PUT @ 3.75

How is everyone planing to…

How is everyone planing to celebrate the New Year?

@fuzzballl Have you looked at…

@fuzzballl

Have you looked at ARKG and ARKF ?

FAS

STO FAS Dec17’21 90 PUT @1.80

SOXL

STO SOXL Dec17’21 45 PUT @1.20

TQQQ

STO TQQQ Dec17’21 105 PUT @1.73

ARKK

STO ARKK Jan21’22 70.96 PUT @1.62

EWZ

STO EWZ Jan21’22 26 PUT @1.10

SPLK

SPLK is down 18% today on CEO resignation.

LABU

STO LABU Nov26’21 50 PUT @1.60

TSLA

STO TSLA Nov19’21 700 PUT @4.25

PYPL

PYPL is down 12%

VIX

Any idea why we had a 10% spike in VIX?

PTON

PTON is down 35%

DKNG

DKNG is down 3.3%

MRNA

MRNA is down 20%
Jan 150 Puts are $3

PENN

PENN is down today 20%

Z

If Cathie Woods is buying Zillow, that is good for me … 🙂 🙂

STO Z Jan21’22 50 PUT @1.50

EWZ

Just as a long hold with about 15% annual return.
STO EWZ Jan20’23 30 PUT @6.30
B/E = $23.70

BITO Time for a test…

BITO

Time for a test 🙂
STO BITO Dec17’21 30 PUT @ $1.05
STO BITO Dec31’21 30 PUT @ $1.45

Short NEGG AUG 20 2021…

Short NEGG AUG 20 2021 CALL got assigned on Friday. So I exercised the long call.
There is probably a charge for being short shares, just not sure how much.

What happens to a Covered…

What happens to a Covered Call position when stock back-splits?

For example GE will have a 1:8 split in August.
Right now I hold 400 shares and 4 calls.
After the split I will end up with 50 shares, but what happens to the existing calls?

A couple of trades today….

A couple of trades today.
STO EWZ Jul16’21 32 PUT $0.60
STO TQQQ Jun18’21 65 PUT $1.50
STO TSLA Jun18’21 400 PUT $4.34
STO LABU May28’21 50 PUT $1.20
STO LABU Jun04’21 45 PUT $1.00
STO ARKK Jun18’21 80 PUT $1.00

TSLA

STO TSLA May21’21 500 PUT @3.11

Visa

V is down 5% today

AYX is down 15%

STO AYX Mar19’21 100 PUT @1.79

AKAM down 11%

STO AKAM Mar19’21 92.5 PUT @1.10

SPOT

SPOT is down 8% today

STO SPOT Mar19’21 250 PUT @3.10

IB has lifted all trading…

IB has lifted all trading restrictions, but implemented higher margin on those stocks.

BK and USB are down today

STO BK Mar19’21 40 PUT $1.00

Question about TOS option chain columns

When looking at the option chain in TOS, is there a way to display annualized return in a column?
Just like displaying ROR, which is built in.

Question about Space Trip hedge (STT)

@smasty160
@winstonthink

I was modeling the STT trade in TOS and everything looks fine until I introduce IV increase. I would expect IV to increase in a case of a 10+% sell-off. With the IV increase of 10 points, the value of the STT is cut in half. This is for a well aged position, so a new position would be a loser anyway. This does not look like a good hedge.

I have noticed that presentations about STT definitely ignore ( if not refuse) to include the IV increase. I watched a number of them and every time all modeling is done without taking IV into consideration.

Am I missing something in the TOS model?

#bitty

BABA

BABA is down today 15% on the news.

ZM

FYI
ZM dropped about 6% today.
Possible reason is that one of the ZM employees got charged by US government for sharing private data with the Chinese government.
We received a notice at work from one of our suppliers about data security issue.

ABNB

Take a look at this trade

ABNB
STO Jul 90 PUT
BTO Jul 140/160 CALL spread
Credit 5.35

QCOM

QCOM is down 8% today
STO QCOM Dec24’20 135 PUT @1.36

It would be scary to be in this position.

I came across this video. Thought to share it here.

Lost $30,000 on a $1-Wide Credit Spread – TSLA (Options Traders MUST Watch This)

Calculating risk associated with a collar trade

A friend asked me a question about risk and collar trades. I provided an answer, but then started doubting if the answer was correct.

Example:

BTO 100 shares of XYZ stock
BTO 1 Jan 2020 $100 PUT
STO 1 Jan 2020 $100 CALL
The entire transaction was done for $100 debit.

I said that if the position is held until expiry, there would be not risk (not counting fees).

Is that correct or did I miss something?

COST

COST announced today that its Board of Directors has declared a special cash dividend on Costco common stock of $10 per share, payable December 11, 2020, to shareholders of record as of the close of business on December 2, 2020.

LABU STO LABU Oct16’20 35…

LABU
STO LABU Oct16’20 35 PUT @1.10

I got this message from…

I got this message from IB

Tue Aug 25 09:09:11 2020 EST
As per Nasadaq’s System Status page- Nasdaq PHLX, NOM, BX, ISE, GEMX, and MRX have made all AAPL and TSLA options non-tradeable.

XLE at the close STO…

XLE at the close

STO XLE Oct16’20 30 PUT @ 0.43
STO XLE Dec18’20 30 PUT @ 1.10

WDC STO WDC Oct16’20 30…

WDC
STO WDC Oct16’20 30 PUT @ 0.72
STO WDC Jan15’21 30 PUT @ 2.01

SPY #shortputs STO SPY Sep30’20…

SPY
#shortputs
STO SPY Sep30’20 270 PUT @2.35

TQQQ STO TQQQ Sep18’20 60…

TQQQ
#ShortPuts
STO TQQQ Sep18’20 60 PUT @1.20

#PreferredShares A lot of preferred…

#PreferredShares
A lot of preferred shares are down with the market and pushing yield higher.
Some of the perpetual shares from big names are up to 8% yield.
Do you have any opinion on getting preferred shares at a discount?

Saudis Plan Big Oil Output…

Saudis Plan Big Oil Output Hike, Beginning All-Out Price War.

How would this affect DRIP?

Saudi Arabia plans to increase oil output next month, going well above 10 million barrels a day, as the kingdom responds aggressively to the collapse of its OPEC+ alliance with Russia.
https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/saudis-plan-big-oil-output-225511711.html

#onlyspreads