Rolled SVXY 6/16 125 puts to 6/23 for credit of 1.00. Originally sold for 0.9 last Thurs.

STO 7/7 SVXY 95 puts for 0.85

Rolled SVXY 6/16 125 and 130 puts to 6/30 115 for credit of 1.2 and 1.15 originally sold for 1.04 and 1.10.

STO SVXY 7/7 100 put at 1.00 These were all IRA trades.

Tomorrow will roll some WDC 88 and 87 puts that are ITM out and down and expire tomorrow that are part of ladder trades. There is still a lot of time value in them because they are ATM and will wait until most of the juice is sucked out of them. There are times better to roll early but other times be greedy and get as much time value out of the option that you can. This is one of those times, have plenty of cash and margin to cover if someone is dumb enough to take early assignment and I will gladly take their money if they want to give it up early.

My SWKS positions may take little more work but still have 2-3 weeks left to decide what to do with them. Dropped 11 points in 4 days! Falling knife trade now?

Cheers and hope everyone has a good expiration tomorrow. The vol.is finally fun!

STO July 21 SWKS 95 puts at 1.20

BTC TSO 6/30 put at 0.23, sold as part of a ladder at 1.03.

I may have been a little premature on SWKS, did not have time to look at the chart, down 2% today off all time highs. Oh well, will take assignment or roll it…….for those that like the falling knife trades the premium is spiking on it.

Only had a few minutes at lunch but managed to snap off a few trades
Establishing new ladders in SWKS. STO jul 7 puts at 0.95 and Jul 14 105 puts at 1.00.
STO WDC Jul 21 82.5 puts at 1.3.
BTC 6/23 83 puts at 0.30, sold at 2.04. Was not quite a roll, did not see the 83 puts hanging out until I had sold the next week.
SVXY in the money covered calls will expire today at full profit. Both IRAs, 1 made $850 the other $700. Not bad for 1 week work.
I am going to hold off further SVXY trades until we get a bump in volatility.
Rolled WDC 85 puts this week to next week for 0.68 credit. Small IRA account.
I am going back to individual names for a few weeks until the VIX pops up again or ETFS with good vol.
However with the cash that is freed up on the covered calls may set up Jade lizards or just puts on XBI on Monday.
Even with a loss on the oil trade, an excellent week and help everybody else has a good expiration and good weekend!

BTC Jul 41.5/53.5 strangle at .59, .60, .61 and .62. Market makers kept making me go up a penny each contract.

BTC Aug 39/57 strangles at 0.62.

Loss of $550 on 8 contracts. It would have eventually worked out, but I forgot I am on vacation next week, will have limited computer access and don’t want to babysit positions while kiteboarding at the beach.

Maybe try again when the next series comes out in 2 weeks or if we get some vol restart my /ES strangle ladders. They are easier to manage because of weeklies but each contract requires $6000 to support it.

Now have some margin to play with for trades tomorrow.

Rolled TSO Jun 23 81 put to Jul 21 85 put for 1.2 credit. Sold for 1.04 originally

So sell puts on DUST and calls in NUGT?

Have the SVXY/UVXY sorted out, thanks again those trades work well.

Made a slight adjustment to the /CL strangles. So I finally had a break from seeing patients at lunch and did not realize oil was down 2.4 and my profitable trade 2 days ago now shows a paper loss. I am still well OTM but only have 7k margin left to play with so made adjustment.

Rolled the Aug 17 /CL 55 call down to 53.5 booking a $440 profit plus the $320 from 2 weeks ago previous roll and brought in another $170. If am doing the math right that is $930 profit against the $880 paper loss on the Aug put contracts. As long as it stays above 41.5 for another 2 weeks should be 30-50% profitable. Just need a little more decay and to stop moving downhill.

The Sep 17 57/39 strangle is being left alone, it is only down $320 on paper because of less gamma risk. That should decay 50% in 3-4 more weeks as well.

Will keep you posted although probably easier and more profitable just to set up SVXY ladders like the rest of the group.

However, I get tax benefit by trading the futures options.

STO /CL Sep 17 39/57 strangles at 0.50. Plan is to close in 3-4 weeks. Still have my previous 41.5/55 strangles and pocketed some profit on the call side when I rolled down from the 57. 1-2 more weeks on that should produce some $, theta is over $200 a day so at some point the decay will catch up with the vol.

Next cycle opens in 10 days and will roll the oldest into new ones.

As long as nothing drastic changes in the next 2 hours I have:
TSO 80 and 80.5 puts expiring. Originally sold for 1.05.
There are some WDC 82 and 83.5 puts expiring sold for 1.1 to 2.4 but that was off a roll as a recovery but get to pocket the original credit now.
I also have some SVXY puts expiring from 100 and 125, sold for 1.25 and 2.5.
Don’t have specifics other than that, currently trading 6 accounts and I only have one open at the moment.
Should free up some cash for trades next week.
Everyone have a good weekend!

s

Closed out May with best month trading ever! Previous best month was way back in Oct. of 2013 or 2014, whenever there was that big vol spike. This month was also my most consistent, partly because of some of the vol and contango trades you showed me. 2.5 times my monthly salary, previous was 2 times monthly salary.

Unfortunately, most of that is in retirement accounts so can’t touch it for another 13.5 years but every little bit now will help then. Maybe get the jet instead of the single engine plane or have a ski house and a beach house, haha, unlikely on either but doesn’t hurt to dream.

rolled 6/9 WDC 83 put to 7/14 put for credit of 0.96.

Following my own rule and rolled it when the premium dropped below 0.20. Sold for 1.85 about 3-4 weeks ago as part of the ladder.

Expiring tomorrow provided no big drop in TSO 80 and 80.5 puts that were sold at 0.99 and 1.05. Already have the next 4 weeks laddered so will deploy the margin somewhere else on Monday.

Really appreciate everyone showing me the SVXY and similar trades. Today is my usual trading day so was looking around and saw how fat and juicy the premiums are on the SVXY calls. Not something want to trade naked on the call side so am trying a weekly ITM covered call. Covered call SVXY for 6/9 145 with stock at 156 and change. Bought for 143.25. Just a 4 lot to see how it plays out, $698 profit on a 4 lot in 1 week if assigned. If not will roll. At the time the same 4 lot on puts would only generate $420 so there is a call skew on these but looking at it at the time I am writing this it is getting close to parity so not sure this would work all the time, just another tool.

Also STO 7/7 TSO 79 puts at 1.05 and now have a 3-4 week ladder on TSO. Some expire tomorrow then weekly after that.

Rolled WDC 6/2 87.5 puts to 6/9 88 puts for credit of 0.57

BTC 6/2 87 puts at 0.03, sold last week for 0.51. Now have 3-4 week ladder here as well.

Might have a few quick trades tomorrow depending on what expires OTM.

Hope everyone has a good expiration tomorrow, going to enjoy a 50-60 mile bike ride in the nice weather now!

There is a reason I do not trade directionally. As I was getting ready for work, /CL hit bottom and I would have shorted at the lows if I had not been busy.

Non directional or only slightly directional trading is where I need to stay. Does anyone have a monkey or dog we can train to bite my arm when I start thinking about directional trades?!

There is a long term elliott wave support level at 48.6. If it looks like it is punching through there with some momemtum I will short 4 /CL futures to gain an extra pop on the way down. Next support levels are 47.41 and 46.8 as lesser levels then another strong level at 45.73.

The strangle is at 41.5 and 57 so there is plenty of room on ether side but sometimes taking a directional trade can improve ROI.

Won’t do that unless 48.4 does nit hold, support from the over night session.

STO 6/23 TSO 81 puts at 1.04. Setting up 3-4 week ladder. This stock keeps its premiums about 1-4 weeks out when vol is low in overall market.

STO 7/7 WDC 84 puts at 0.97 adding a week to the ladder, this thing is in booster phase so following it up.

STO IRA 6/17 SXVY 130 puts at 1.22 following below with a slight tweak.

My /CL trade from late last week decayed $400 over the weekend. Will keep open another week or so then start managing. When the next series gets to 60 DTE will add another strangle.

10 minutes to go and looks like my TSO positions will all be assigned at 83. Cost basis was down to 77 and change so good return after 12 weeks of rolling after being assigned at 87.5.

Will leave a lot of margin and cash for trades early next week. Now if we can just get some volatility.

Hope everyone has a great long weekend!

Hey guys, quick poll. I have a TSO position that was assigned at 87.5. After 11-12 weeks of rolling (lost count) have the cost basis down to 77 and change. Currently short the 83 calls and stock at 83.09 so should be assigned at end of week.

I can A. roll the calls for more cash, right now generating about 1 dollar a week per contract
B. Get assigned and the cash will free up a ton of margin for other trades

I am profitable either way but right now I am not seeing a lot of premium in other names, especially on the weeklies. I am leaning towards B but have not really been able to find a weekly with the same premium.

Thoughts or anyone else seeing good premium in weeklies that I have overlooked?

small account only 3 contracts.

STO June 9 WDC 83.5 puts at 0.90
Reestablishing put ladder. I actually did not think they would go through, gapped up this morning but on pullback the orders auto filled.

STO Jun 17 TSO80 p at 94 in IRA

BTC Jun 16 SVXY 110 put at 4, sold at 1.4 so loss of 2.6.

Some weird calculations going on in my portfolio margin account. Everything is cash secured and only using about 20% margin total but had a margin call so had to close that trade at a loss just to get rid of the margin call. Only a $520 total loss so something easy to do to stay in my other trades which should make some $ in next 1-2 weeks.

Hope everyone is trading/doing well and enjoying the volatility!

only at 1.25 close to the close. There may be more down side tomorrow, who knows?

Rolled another WDC Jun 16 85 put to Jun 30 83.5 put for credit of 0.15.

Trying to avoid tapping into margin calls. I have others I can easily cover if needed.

Rolled jun 9 84.5 puts to june 23 83 puts for credit of 0.12. Had to do it early, my margin decreased by 8 k today so did this so I can stay in the svxy trades. They will probably be juicy later this week!

New to the vol. game. Will they split svxy when it reaches a certain level like they do with VXX and UVXY?

Because of contago seems to me like even if volatility remained flat over the long term SVXY should go higher.

Sorry to post this here but I seem to have lost your email.
I have never had much success rolling credit spreads. Hard time getting enough credit to make it worth while or even a scratch trade. I know you do it successfully.

Do you tend to roll to the same strikes or will you try to move up or down as long as you can get a credit or break even? Does it only work on close spreads or can there be a fairly large spread between options (1 point on SPY or 10 on SPX or can you go say 5 point SPY and 50 SPX)?

On SPX or spy, how many days do you have to go to get extra credit? Average next week or roll to the next month?

Next time you roll an ITM credit spread can you post the entry, exit so I can see what strikes and times you are using?

Thanks and enjoy being here, great forum! Chris

So i have been watching how you guys trade the volatility products. What happens in an Aug 24, 2015 type event where VIX quickly spikes to 100? Can you hedge those products? Say go long or short stock or can you only cover with other options?

I lost more money that day than ever trading but was largely a function of size. My accounts I was able to hedge actually did ok but one very large account was wiped out because options xpress would not let me hedge, said there was “too much risk” to hedge and locked my account so I could not trade. Needless to say we do not have any money with them any more and I do not recommend them, their risk dept. did not seem to understand that by hedging the risk was controlled.

But seriously, how easy is it to hedge those products? Most of the move 8/24/15 occurred Sunday night into Monday morning so you could hedge with futures over night but by the time the market opened Monday morning it was already limit down and I know a lot of people could not place trades.

Just curious, I think a military conflict with N.Korea could obviously cause a spike like that.

BTC WDC May 12- 85 put at 0.125. Sold last week for 0.74.
Rolling that Jun 9- 84.5 put for around a buck.

Keep the ladder rolling. So far 3 contracts have paid out 3k in 6 weeks.

Also once an option is anything less than .20 I think about closing or rolling. I have had too many trades whip a profit to loss if I had just closed them a few days earlier. We have all been there and done that but holding out another week or few days for pennies, the proverbial picking up pennies in front of the steam roller.

That’s all I have for the week, everyone have a good weekend and hear from you Monday!

STO May 12 85 puts at 0.58
STO May 19 85 puts at 0.72
still have the may 26 and June 2 84.5 and 83 puts that were sold before earnings at 1.07 and 1.33.

If reverses will roll or convert to jade lizard.

Decent premiums, just 3 contracts last month with a 4 week ladder paid $2635 but that included the spike from earnings last month. Don’t expect it will do as well this month but still consistent.

Seems to carving out a new higher range.

Closing WDC May 26 77.5 puts early. They are down to 0.19 and originally sold for 1.15. They would probably go out worthless in 25 days but I can use the margin to open new positions.

Have a rare moment at lunch and looking at potential trades. Seems like the vol dried up after the earnings yesterday. Best thing I can find to do at the moment is set up put selling or jade lizard ladders on individual names. Starting 21 or 28 DTE add a new position each week. 3 I am looking at are TSO, WDC, GILD and possibly EXPE. Seem to have the best bang for the buck over the next few weeks as the premiums are still high, about $1 for delta 30 options. VIX is too low for /ES strangles.

STO 3 next week GILD 66.5 puts at 0.65. Looks like it found a bottom at 66 and my dynamic trend wave indicator (one of the few tools I bought) is on a 4 hour buy signal which is usually good for a 1 week trade.

Rolled AAL 41.5 puts this week to May 12 for .81 credit
BTC IWM 135 puts this week for 0.02 sold for .77
STO EXPE May 129 May puts for 1.25
Rolled EXPE this week 125 puts to May 5 129 puts for 0.78 credit (market makers being greedy with earnings this week)
These are all retirement accounts so small size but still $1225 profit for the week and I will take it.

Vix is too low to sell indexes so sticking with individual names with better volatility and premiums. Apparently the markets only go up anymore.

So it looks like most of the traders on this site have had similar trading journey’s. Start out trading some funds and stocks when younger. Realize it is a 50-50 game most of the time. Then try to trade directionally but really hard to predict the future all the time. Then get into options for the leverage and income and then finally realize the house always wins and selling options is how the professionals make big and steady money. Sure, may have to pay out the occasional lottery ticket but in the long run the casino/insurance company always wins. Good to be on the right side of the trade and glad to be here!! I will be picking some of your brains on these volatility trades.

A true jade lizard should have no upside risk. Could not do that with my WDC because I was at the top of the chain and the strikes were 2.5 wide. However, a good alternative to strangles in an IRA or non marginable account. You sell a put that is cash secured, then sell a call credit spread. If the credit exceeds the strike difference you have a strangle with no upside risk.

Another option with covered calls if you think the price will keep going up, sell a call credit spread. That way you cleect some credit but if the market takes off you can get a nice pop in your equity because you are net long call options.

Just random musings but I am sure some of you have tried these with good results. Jade lizards seem to be good for earnings. Manage them at 50% profit just like strangles.