11/10 Daily Summary

Got a great break Today, am very grateful the market backed off from Today's lows. I continued to condorize the position by rolling additional call spreads up. So far looking good, we'll see what Tomorrow brings, my plan for adjusting is loaded and I'm basically down to removing spreads if we keep moving against me, at this point with only a few days left it is all about risk management and staying on top of the gamma exposure. Cheers!
Gustavo

11/09 Daily Summary

Ok, needless to say my plan to condorize back-fired on me Today. I rolled the call side up and the market rolled over on its back and took some of my recovery back because of it. Now, on the bright side the call side is further out of the money and there is a lot of Theta going into these last few days of the week. I plan on keeping it steady for now unless we keep rolling down Tomorrow, at which point I may further adjust the down-side.

Sometimes it just happens that way, you have your plan, execute it, and the market does whatever it needs to do.. Part of the game I guess, it is time to condorize anyway, so I rather get hit by doing the right thing than get hit by not doing it and having the market fire up taking me out of the game.

11/08 Daily Summary

The position posted a great recovery Today! I'm very grateful for the market staying quiet this Monday, this allowed me to recover the P/L and I'm now in condorizing mode for the month. The goal for this week is to move my short contracts away from the Money, I'll have a short window of opportunity Tomorrow early AM to move my 2175 call spreads further out and shall do so as planned. I've moved one contract Today from 2175 to 2200 and plan on rolling the remaining ones to 2225. Sorry for the short posting, I'm basically wasted for the day, it has been a very long day at work... I'm moving closer to my job to cut back on commuting time and this will give me a few precious hours in the day to come home and stay with my family as well as update my trade plan a bit sooner in the evening. Cheers!

11/07 Game Plan

I'm grateful I am still managing this position. Here is my game plan for Tomorrow. I will be very, very happy if we pull back from here. Ok, a little hesitation for about a week would be nice just as well :)

New idea

A friend of mine passed on an idea that kept my mind thinking and thinking.. I figured he was onto something and it sure seems that way! His suggestion was to use a broken wing butterfly or another type of trade in lieu of the back-month long call as a way to hedge my deltas. This optional trade could have a profile that added theta instead of simply being negative theta and could also be set up not to hurt as much if we backfire to the down-side.

I've looked at a broken wing butterfly as an option, notice the two profiles bellow. The first is the front-month BWB and the second is a long back-month call. If we keep going up, the BWB will provide theta to the trade, while the long call will keep robbing me of theta. If we stay around the same level the BWB will not lose that much money, and if we back-fire they both seem to have the same rate of loss.

The key difference here is Vega and Theta. I have to do some more research and perhaps run a parallel Butterly next month with this option in play to see how it behaves in real life situation. For now it is just an idea to explore. Looks like a great idea though.. Thanks!

11/05 Daily Summary

Very brief update Today, after all, it is Friday and I can welcome the break! I've added an extra butterfly this morning to increase my position's Theta and help pay for the cut and roll costs from a couple of days ago. The market also did its job and stayed quiet, allowing the position to take a break as well. I do hope it backs off a bit or stays quiet Monday so I can take on the weekend's worth of theta. For now, relax and enjoy the weekend!! Cheers!

11/04 Daily Summary

Ouch! This morning when I saw we gap up to 2185 I felt a bit sick on my stomach.. Well, on the bright side I had moved those short calls Yesterday, so this saved me from hitting a wall right away.. The contingent orders triggered and I'm still in the trade. The up-side movement is tricky because the volatility goes down with it, so right now I'm vega positive which means I have up-side risk due to volatility compression.. I will roll one more time if we keep trading higher.

I want to add a butterfly Tomorrow morning because the current theta at these levels is not enough to bring in profits. However, I will have a super busy Friday at work, so I'm not sure if I'll be able to do so. I don't like opening trades on Friday either, so I may just have to sit on my hands and see what comes out of it. We'll see.