Tuesday, September 8, 2009

09/08 Daily Summary

The estimates for Tuesday were a lot better last Friday. :)

Now, seriously, I need to review to see if it was because of my adjustments, or if it is simply the fact that by end of day Friday most market makers are already pricing the weekend, leaving TOS with an over-optimisc view on what it will be on Tuesday, maybe even a combination of both.. This is the 3rd or 4th time where I see a discrepancy between the estimated and actual over the final weekends

I was watching Dan Harvey's mentoring Today and he mentioned he goes for 10% on his Iron Butterflies. I was going for 20%, well, that being said, the positions still look good, so I plan on hanging around unless we drop in profits to around 10% This will give me a good exposure to what happens on the final week, as it is the first time I get in the "end game" with good money in the bank.

What happened to the IBM Calendar? I'm not sure.. if it continues that way I may need to take it off

Position's Details:
09/08 IBM Calendar
09/08 RUT Iron Butterfly
09/08 MNX Iron Butterfly

09/08 IBM Calendar

Not sure about what happened with the trade, the vols seemed to have increased from last Friday to Today, but the trade lost money.. I'm skeptical and looking to exit if we keep like that.
Previous Posting:
09/04 IBM Calendar

09/08 RUT Iron Butterfly

Very similar to MNX, I had a small drop in P&L as we moved higher and I started moving spreads around to protect the current profits. Notice one key difference: Theta! It is a lot higher in the RUT position, that's because I added capital earlier in the trade, this is still working for me.
Previous Posting:

09/08 MNX Iron Butterfly

There was a small drop in P&L Today as the market moved up and I started moving spreads around to protect the current profits. My goal is to stay in the trade as long as conditions are good.

I've started to manage inventory, by that I mean avoid having short contracts In The Money, to fix that I use Debit Spreads to perform what Dan Harvey Calls a Vertical Roll: Moving the short further out of the money. This gives a degree of protection to the trade by reducing the gamma and still provides for Theta to continue comming in.

Previous Posting: