#SPX0dte Sold to Open $SPX 5805/5825-5965/5985 condors for 1.40, IV 27.16%, deltas -.06 +.06

Waited a bit after open before selling.

#SPX0dte Sold to Open $SPX Jan 2nd 5815/5835-5985/6005 for 1.25, IV 28.35%, deltas -.06 +.06

#SPX0dte Sold to Open $SPX Dec 27th 5920/5940-6050/6070 condors for 1.018, IV 20.18%, deltas -.06 +.06

#SPX0dte Sold to Open $SPX Dec 26th 5945/5965-6080/6100 condors for .95, IV 20.12%, deltas -.07 +.06

#SPX0dte BOUGHT to open $SPX Dec 23rd 5825/5845-5990/6010 condors for 1.20, IV 25.92%, delta -.05 +.06

After getting whipped around last Thursday and Friday I’m trying some long strategies this week. Although I got out of both with small losses, my short puts on Wednesday finished fully ITM, and my short calls Friday went fully ITM intraday before retracing and finishing ATM. I also remember a Christmas Eve a few years back that had a massive drop, even though only a half day. With Downside Warning in effect and $VIX elevated, I was playing my normal strategies too loosely last week.

#SPX0dte Sold to Open $SPX Dec 20th 5725/5745-5930/5950 condors for 1.25, IV 35.48%, deltas -.06 +.06

Government shutdown deadline in the news today, as well as more data at 10am ET. This condor is nice and wide but I will still watch it closely. Expected move (my stops) is currently 48.30.

#SPX0dte Sold to Open $SPX Dec 19th 5795/5815-5985/6005 condors for .95, IV 34.84% deltas -.07 +.05

The drop from morning highs indicated it may not be a highly directional day.

#SPX0dte Sold to Open $SPX Dec 18th 5960/5980-6110/6130 condors for 1.35, IV 25.65%, deltas -.07 +.05

I liked the width and premium enough to sell this even though I’m not certain there will be a lot of decay before the FOMC press conference. Based on last time, there won’t be a huge reaction given everyone knows this will be another .25% cut.

#SPX0dte At the bell, sold to open $SPX 5990/6010-6095/6115 condors for .90, IV 14.86%, deltas -.10, +.02

Opposite of yesterday as far as delta skew. At 9:25 the deltas were -.06 +.05. What a difference the open makes.

#SPX0dte Sold to Open $SPX Dec 16th 6000/6020-6090/6110 condors for 1.05, IV 12.00%, deltas -.05 +.09

Filled at the open… pre market deltas lied to me… this was -.06 +.07 at 6 minutes before the open. Bumped up to 1.20 after my fill but then fell back to .80. These narrow ones are pretty sensitive. Upside stop is close, at 6073

#SPX0dte Sold to Open $SPX Dec 12th 6015/6035-6105/6125 condors for .70, IV 12.03%, deltas -.08 +.04

Pretty low premium for a narrow condor, but it filled on the down move.

#SPX0dte Sold to Open $SPX Dec 11th 5985/6005-6095/6115 condors for 1.00, IV 14.54%, deltas -.05 +.06

#SPX0dte Sold 1 minute aftyer open: $SPX Dec 10th 6005/6025-6095/6115 condors for 1.00, IV 13.21%, deltas -.11 +.03

#SPX0dte I have been testing a new strategy and just completed my second attempt at doing it live.

Recently we’ve seen fairly significant moves in SPX toward end of day. For a couple weeks I’ve been watching ATM strangles with 5-point centers. Once these drop below 6 or even 5 bucks (after 1pm ET), it is a fair bet to BUY one and then wait for a move. The idea is to cover the full cost of the trade plus some profit on the first move, then try to get as much as you can extra profit from the other side.

Today I bought $SPX Dec 9th 6060/6065 strangles for 4.70 at 2:17pm ET.

I had to wait over 20 minutes for a move, and in that time it dropped to 3.85. Loss of less than a dollar… if it had gone more than a dollar in the red I may have stopped out. But then the spike down happened and my put option sold for 6.00. So I was 1.30 in profit. Now I can choose to wait for a total bounce and perhaps even get a double. On some test days this DID happen. But when I saw no immediate strong bounce, I closed today’s for .90. Sure enough, SPX took a further drop so .90 was nice to catch. Had I been willing to sit with the risk longer, I could have sold put side for as much as 7.00 (at least so far), but I think these trades are best when goal is 1.00 to 2.00 in profit. For this one I got 2.20.

On Friday I bought a strangle for 5.60 and got the down move almost immediately. It didn’t go very far and started to recover, so I sold put for 6.00. With .40 profit I decided to wait for a full recovery and sell call if it got to 4.00. It didn’t; the drop continued so it expired.

#SPX0dte Sold to Open $SPX Dec 9th 6035/6055-6115/6135 condors for 1.05, IV 12.00%, deltas -.09, +.07

Fairly narrow with aggressive deltas but only way to get premium. Overnight moves pretty mellow, so looking for a sideways goong into Wednesday’s CPI.

#SPX0dte Sold 6065/6095-6100/6130 condors for 10.10, IV 12.09%

Tight leash…. this has been a chase as premium dropping pretty rapidly.

#SPX0dte Sold to Open $SPX Dec 5th 6035/6055-6115/6135 condors for .95, IV 12.37%, deltas -.10 +.05

Bullish leaning. Quiet overnight, so hopefully we stay sideways because this is a tight range. All attention seems to be on BitCoin topping 100k.

#SPX0dte Nine minutes after the open, sold to open $SPX Dec 4th 6005/6025-6095/6115 condors for .95, deltas -.07 +.07, IV 13.97%

Probably need to go back to pre-market sale on this trade, given the low premium and narrow widths. Premium drops very quickly after the open, and it probably will be this way through the holiday.

#SPX0dte With some volatility before the open and a spike in $VIX I avoided being aggressive on a wide condor and then missed some fills after the open. I’ll wait until after JOLT at 10am to look for a trade.

#SPX0dte Sold to Open $SPX Dec 2nd 5975/5995-6075/6095 condors for 1.00, IV 14.67%, deltas -.06 +.07

Before market the deltas on this were -.08 +.04. Lots of bulls buying arond the open.

#SPX0dte Filled on the open: $SPX Nov 27th 5950/5970-6055/6075 condors for 1.05, deltas -.08 +.05, IV 16.34%.

Filled right after bell, but then premium quickly went up to 1.25 on the first dip, then quickly retracted back to 1.05.

#SPX0dte Sold to Open $SPX Nov 26th 5920/5940-6040/6060 condors for .85, IV 17.22%, deltas -.04 +.07

#SPX0dte Sold to open $SPX 5965/5995-6000/6030 condors for 12.15, IV 15.43%

Another day opening with pretty dramatic swings and insufficient premium to risk a wide condor. This is centered above current SPX price but what looks to be a consolidation point.

#SPX0dte Sold to Open $SPX Nov 22nd 5910/5890 put spreads for 1.20, delta -.13, IV 21.96%

Aggressive delta on premise we will have another up day in line with the week’s trend.

#SPX0dte Sold to Open $SPX Nov 21st 5830/5810 put spreads for .75, IV 28.50%, delta -.06

Fortunately waited until long after the open this time. I was modeling condors premarket, all of which would have been stopped out in the first 10 minutes. After yesterday’s bounce and overnight rise, I doubt we’ll have a drop low enough to threaten this. But I won’t leave it unattended.

#SPX0dte Sold to Open $SPX Nov 20th 5855/5835 put spreads for .75, IV 19.94%, delta -.07

Another morning with pre-market dip, today with $TGT earnings miss and more Ukraine news. Selling only put side to avoid another bounce crushing call side. Will add call side if opportunity arises.

Already looks like I sold this too early…

#SPX0dte Sold to Open $SPX Nov 19th 5770/5790-5915/5935 condors for 1.10, IV 24.01%, deltas -.05 +.05

Getting a decent enough width to risk with lower deltas in this morning’s news-driven market.

#SPX0dte Sold to Open $SPX Nov 18th 5790/5810-5925/5945 condors for 1.10, at 1 minute after open. IV 20.95%, deltas -.07 +.05

#SPX0dte On the sidelines so far, given the downtrend this week and overnight. Will probably try something if no big moves materialize.

#SPX0dte Sold to Open $SPX Nov 14th 5915/5935-6030/6050 condors for 1.10, IV 17.62%, deltas -.06 +.07

Sold right at the open, but NOT a good fill. I set limit too low, should have been 1.20 and waited a few seconds.

#SPX0dte Sold to Open $SPX Nov 13th 5950/5980-5985/6015 condors for 15.65, IV 17.09%

#SPX0dte Sold to Open $SPX Nov 12th 5925/5945-6040/6060 condors for 1.15, IV 17.46%, deltas -.05 +.08

Trying different tweaks on this trade. For a few years selling this about an hour before the open gave good advantage, but in the last several months that seemed to disappear, with little or no decay occurring in that hour. Placing a limit order after the open is like a moving target as things move pretty quickly. So today I saw that in premarket the mid price was between 1.05 and 1.12, so I set the order for 1.15 to be submitted AT THE OPEN. It took a few seconds but the spike higher in the first minute filled me. When we reached that height again five minutes later the price was down to .95. So volatility at the open can net more premium, at the risk of a strong spike becoming a big move.

#SPX0dte Sold to open $SPX Nov 8th 5905/5925-6025/6045 condors for 1.00, IV 17.5%, deltas -.05 +.07

I placed this order about 1 minute after the open but it didn’t fill until the spike higher at 9:34… i let the fill price come to me. Waiting until after Michigan data before trying anything else.

#SPX0dte Volatility pretty quiet compared to recent fed days. Watching premium drain out so I’m taking a shot that we’ll see enough decay in the morning for a trade. Sold this with SPX about 6 points above center.

Sold to Open $SPX 5920/5950-5955/5985 condors for 20.00, IV 25.09%

#SPX0dte BTC $SPX Nov 8th 5695/5725-5730/5760 condors for 29.20. Sold Monday for 28.00. Now that this is hugely OTM I’m closing now when puts still have some value, rather than wait for a full 2-dollar loss.

#SPX0dte Sold to Open $SPX Nov 6th 5810/5790 put spreads for .90, delta -.08, IV 35.44%

Even though we making new all time highs by the minute, still too hesitant to sell a call spread yet.

#SPX0dte Sold to Open $SPX Nov 5th 5630/5650-5775/5795 condors for 1.20, IV 23.41%, deltas -.06 +.06

#SPX0dte One minute after close on Monday was filled on a speculative trade. It’s the highest premium I’ve ever sold a 30-point condor for, so risk is total of 2.00 for max gain of 28.00. More likely, if we’re still close to this price level on Friday, I would close for 5.00 to 10.00 profit. I had an order in for a few days for an ATM Nov 8th trade at 28.00, but it didn’t fill until yesterday.

Sold to open $SPX Nov 8th 5695/5725-5730/5760 condors for 28.00.

#SPX0dte Sold to Open $SPX Nov 4th 5640/5660-5790/5810 condors for 1.10, IV 23.01%, deltas -.06 +.06

Looking at a chart for this condor the price has been lowering all night so I’m going to enter before market, since today has no major economic moves. IV seems high just because what’s coming the rest of the week.

#SPX0dte Sold to Open $SPX 5765/5785-5800/5820 condors for 1.00, IV 22.25%, deltas -.05 +.06