#SPX0dte Sold to Open $SPX Jun 26th 5440/5470-5475/5505 condors for 14.55, IV 15.28%, at 8:12am ET

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#SPX0dte Sold to Open $SPX Jun 24th 5405/5425-5505/5525 condors for 1.05, deltas -.06 +.06, IV 15.65%

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#SPX0dte As posted below, at last night’s close I sold to open $SPX Jun 21st 5395/5415-5530/5550 condors for 1.15, IV 14.91%, deltas -.07 +.06. This morning, IV is 21.92%, and a similar delta condor is going for the same or more. The night-before entry didn’t help me. It may be the 9:45 PMI data, but traders knew that was coming yesterday too. Overnight moves were minor.

#SPXah Last night at 9:07pm PT sold to Open $SPX 5445/5475-5480/5510 condors for 18.35. At the overnight low (about 1:40am PT) it got up to 19.43. Now as we are currently rising in premarket, it is 17.70. I will close this before PMI. High to low swing overnight was over 20 points, so I’m glad to see it only got a buck in the hole. However, the IV remains high this morning so decay has been minimal.

#SPX0dte Sold to Open $SPX Jun 20th 5435/5455-5540/5560 condor for 1.05, deltas -.07 +.07, IV 16.05%

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#SPX0dte #SPXah I started “#SPXah” hashtag for this. It is basically the same IB/condor trade we have been doing same-day but placed around 9pm Pacific and closed before the next day’s open. I recently discovered that SPX options can be traded from 5:15pm to 6:15am PT, whereas before I thought it was only 3a-6:15a.

(I’m usually post times in ET but using PT time here since that’s where I live)

Overnight moves CAN be large, but lately we’ve been in a period with the market making its moves during market hours and the overnight being fairly calm. I tracked the price of the condors with a 5-pt middle and 30-pt wings from 5:15pm onward. I have seen little decay in the price between 5:15 and midnight, so waiting until 9pm to enter the trade. To exit trade before 5:30am, when data releases typically happen, we can usually only expect .85 t0 1.50 in profit.

The premium does NOT move very much with minor swings. It seems we need at least a 20 point move before we hit a 2-dollar stop level. So in the first two live trades I’ve done, I entered bracket orders to take profits at 1.10 and stop-loss at 2.00. I had one loss and one win.

The chart below shows the 10 days tested, with notes. For two weeks potential profit is +3.76.

You must monitor the /ES chart for movement, but look at the $SPX option chain to determine the centered strikes, looking at the puts and calls that are each closest to .50 delta.

I’m thinking best approach is to make sure the first 4 hours (5:15-9:15pm) have no major market moves from the close. If earnings or something have caused volatility, skip the trade as it is more likely to keep moving overnight. Also, may be best to avoid large events occurring the expiry day, even though test trades on both Jobs and CPI reports worked, because the premium sold was so high that the IV drop made up for the move in the index.

Check out the chart and let me know if you have questions.

#SPX0dte Overnight trade worked this time. At 12:14am ET, Sold to Open $SPX Jun 18th 5445/5475-5480/5510 condors for 16.45. Closed on bracket order at 8:02am for 15.30. Profit +1.15, 7%.

I will explain more in comments later.

#SPXah (SPX after-hours)