07/15 SPY Double Diagonal

Where is the love?? :) Taking such a large move in the first few days is never pleasant, I had the same experience last month with my 50-Day condor, except the condor bit the dust, the double-diagonal is still in play. I'm less than a standard deviation from the up-side adjustment, and I'll adjust if we get there.

There is one thing here: The Recommendation is to close the position when it hits your short strike within 7 days. For me, I preffer to adjust and stay on the trade, see if the underlying backs off. One way or another, I'm keepign my stop on a 1:1 ration with my expected profits. Not letting my losses run



Position's History:
07/14 SPY Double Diagonal
07/13 SPY Double Diagonal *New*

07/15 RUT Iron Butterfly *Stopped*

RUT took a dive just like SPX with this strong market move. I had the option to exit with 20% loss around 10 AM EST Today, like I did for SPX, I left the trade open just to see what it would look like at the end of the day, I want to compare Yesterday's profile with Today's results..

For all considerations, the trade is closed at max loss + some.

Position's history day-by-day:
07/14 RUT Iron Butterfly
07/13 RUT Iron Butterfly
07/09 Daily Update
07/08 Daily Update
07/07 RUT Iron Butterfly
07/03 RUT Iron Butterfly
07/02 RUT Iron Butterfly
07/01 RUT Iron Butterfly
06/30 RUT Iron Butterfly
06/29 RUT Iron Butterfly
06/25 RUT Iron Butterfly
06/24 RUT Iron Butterfly
06/23 RUT Iron Butterfly

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07/15 SPX Iron Butterfly *Stopped*

Not happy to report the trade bit the dust Today. No way to survive such a strong move in the last week with that much Gamma. That's why the folks at Sheridan Mentoring are strong about beign SUPER careful during the expiration week.

Well, I had the option to exit around 10 AM EST at max loss. It would be my clue to shut down the trade. I left the position open just to see what it will happen to it, but as far as this experience is concerned, the trade is over at max loss + some (commissions and slippage).

Position's history day-by-day:
07/14 SPX Iron Butterfly
07/13 SPX Iron Butterfly
07/09 Daily Update
07/08 Daily Update
07/07 SPX Iron Butterfly
07/02 SPX Iron Butterfly
07/01 SPX Iron Butterfly
06/30 SPX Iron Butterfly
06/29 SPX Iron Butterfly
06/25 SPX Iron Butterfly
06/24 SPX Iron Butterfly
06/23 SPX Iron Butterfly
06/22 SPX Iron Butterfly

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07/14 Daily Summary

Today was a nice quiet day, I added the remaining contracts on my SPY Double-diagonal. I wanted to wait until Wednesday, but I'm not sure I'll be able to trade at the end of the day Tomorrow, so I did it Today.

The paper trades are doing a lot better after one day of little movement. I have started to simplify the position and am pushing it for one more day in the expiration week. I watched a web-ex session in Dan Sheridan's site with Dan Harvey and Gary Lee. Gary took an iron butterfly and just observed it day-by-day, it was great to see how these trades are a lot stronger than I originally thought, I over-adjusted and Gary made no adjustments, his profits were huge and mine are not yet here.. Of course, the market stayed in a range-bound environment, otherwise the story would be a lot different :)

Positions Summary:
07/14 SPY Double Diagonal
07/14 RUT Iron Butterfly
07/14 SPX Iron Butterfly

07/14 SPY Double Diagonal

I added the second half of the trade Today. By waitting I was able to get a slightly better price than Yesterday, nothing major, but worth the wait.

There is little to do in the short term, my double diagonal adjustment strategy for the first week on the trade is to use a debit spread to roll the shorts CALLS or PUTS if we get to either one of the short strikes. Once the first week is over, I will perform the adjustment if we get between the short strike and the expiration break-even. I've added the adjustment levels to the volatility cone.



Position's History:
07/13 SPY Double Diagonal *New*

07/14 RUT Iron Butterfly

The position is profitable Today, very small profits. If this was a real trade, I'd be tempted to take some of the spreads off the table, See how Gamma is pretty big.

I have started to simplify and reduce the inventory by removing long puts and extra calls I had in place and are no longer adding theta to the position.



Position's history day-by-day:
07/14 RUT Iron Butterfly
07/13 RUT Iron Butterfly
07/09 Daily Update
07/08 Daily Update
07/07 RUT Iron Butterfly
07/03 RUT Iron Butterfly
07/02 RUT Iron Butterfly
07/01 RUT Iron Butterfly
06/30 RUT Iron Butterfly
06/29 RUT Iron Butterfly
06/25 RUT Iron Butterfly
06/24 RUT Iron Butterfly
06/23 RUT Iron Butterfly

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07/14 SPX Iron Butterfly

I have started to simplify the position, getting rid of the excess inventory, flattened myself out and did whatever I could to increase theta as much as possible. At this point, all it needs is one more range-bound day. In retrospect, I certainly over-traded this position, I'm going to run a few more simulated trades and stay with a smaller size for AUG.

We're back at B/E on its way to profitability. Staying in the trade through Expiration week is not the most optimum thing to do because of the Gamma exposure, so far the gamma has not yet exploded, let's see how it goes Tomorrow

Position's history day-by-day:
07/14 SPX Iron Butterfly
07/13 SPX Iron Butterfly
07/09 Daily Update
07/08 Daily Update
07/07 SPX Iron Butterfly
07/02 SPX Iron Butterfly
07/01 SPX Iron Butterfly
06/30 SPX Iron Butterfly
06/29 SPX Iron Butterfly
06/25 SPX Iron Butterfly
06/24 SPX Iron Butterfly
06/23 SPX Iron Butterfly
06/22 SPX Iron Butterfly

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