Discussion Forum

I enjoy what you guys are usually up too. Such clever work and exposure! Keep up the superb works guys I’ve added you guys to blogroll.

Valuable info. Lucky me I found your website by accident, and I’m shocked why this accident did not happened earlier! I bookmarked it.

I’d like to say just buy the bloody market and be done-because it has really taken the wind out of our sails this last year. The few opportunities there were,(2) I missed, being such a rubbish trader. A few good trades mitigated this but I am on track to have my worst year since 2010, probably- unless FTSE expires at 7700 for Jan.

according to CQG 15k lots traded in last 15 mins…

is that reasonable volume ?

eurostoxx closed on lows tho !

should have known these ‘erberts would ramp up FTSE for end of year’s figures as there is NO volume to speak of. Hoping for reason in 2018(unlikely) and some volatility- almost certain when events overtake the dumb money’s apathy and ignorance of actual value. Meanwhile this trade has gone horribly against us- about time! We will make adjustments as and when required but this is probably going to run to expiry.

2016 and 2017 have been horrible years for traders but we have shown that when we trade smarter, with options, we can make good profits without the cold sweats and sleepless nights

Tried to place this for a credit of 2 yesterday- close but no cigar and as the calculator shows the vol is just obscenely low. One big retailer has now been caught cooking the books. H&M having a torrid time.Who else is faking it? Is this the time for the ‘credit card max out’ coming to an end? Personal debt is shocking, and unaffordable as bloated egos continue to seek comfort in buying random tat. The best gift is time, freely given. The plastic junk bought to placate, or salve a guilty conscience is an empty gesture.

http://www.metalsnews.com/Metals+News/BusinessInsider/The+Business+Insider+The+Money+Game/HEADLINE1192749/The+mysterious+trader+known+as+50+Cent+has+lost+197+million+betting+on+a+stock+market+meltdown.htm
Salutory lesson- don’t let your perception cloud your trading brain-trade what is there,and what you want to get from it

Oops! Looking at wrong data- the 7400 straddle hit about 110, NOT 180 -that is the Jan figure

SO! Another hefty winner with the 7400 straddle- it made 180+ so you’d more than doubled your money*********,and it was limited to premium paid- no margin required.
The condor? My weapon of choice-silly me-that has gone to almost nothing. You could have taken both trades but frankly I would not have done that as the straddle would have made coin if the condor also made money. At this time of year the volumes are wafer thin and the clowns, sorry money managers, like to ramp things up to make thewm look like they are smart.The only time we don’t get a Santa rally is when the market is hit by a dose of truth. The market NEVER drops on lies, only cold hard facts-and those are become as rare as a Blue Whale. Allegedly
********* see next comment- I’ll leave this obvious error

Having missd an opportunity last week it has been a process of biting my lip as nothing leapt up and said….. “TRADE ME!”

OK so another winning trade- currently can be closed out for about 96- so that’s a return of 20 on an investment of 75. You do the math. The oh so clever money managers have seen the FTSE up about 3% in a year- I’d really love their job! I’d only have to work for a couple of days a year

Nice trade TP. This is effectively a double calendar – one for puts and one for calls. If the FTSE stays around 7400, this should be very profitable. The downside for calendars of course is the underlying movement. The further away FTSE is from 7400 on the 15th Dec, the less the profit.

Trade 59 hit 12 today-you could have left a limit order in at say, 10 and multiplied your money 4 times-but we want 150 don’t we?

cheap low risk trades are not a bad idea-you only need to win 1/10

This is a risk-reversal. It would be nice to give some margin required calcs – the %age profit is not simply 27/1 = 2700%, but instead it would be (27/whatever-the-margin-was) * 100.

Love the website TP, and the trades.

I like it TP. I normally trade these on the SPX, as there are weeklies, and so theta is greater.

This could be a real monster pay 2.5 to get 150? Are you serious?

This trader could have made serious coin but otherwise distracted on Friday.This is why we use LIMIT ORDERS when we are busy!

This has made a tiny profit to date but we run calendar trades to expiry where possible to use up all the time value

easily made 30- super nice trade

A really strange time as volatility is 50% lower than ‘normal’

https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-stocks/ftse-rises-as-sterlings-decline-boosts-exporters-idUKKBN1DD168
This is the kind of garbage trotted out by the respected institutions- sorry but I think it is nonsense-the market will do whatever it wants to -it’s just a market

Exactly..still time for it to make money!

trade 55 still has a week to run of course…..

the good news keeps coming as QE tested the debt waters and they found it was goooood- no repercussions for the top 1%, the other 99% are JAMs- Just About Managing and so will not upset the status quo. Politically I am not aligned to anyone but in my heart I’m socialist

So now we have the Dec 7400 put at 51 and the Nov 7400 put= 18(x2)= 36. therefore this is a very nice profit having paid 3, you could close out for 15. Of course this needed some margin so it’s not a simple 400% but probbably more like 10% in 4 days. Once a month -that’s a big healthy profit-better than your ISA at 1.2%

Apologies for any previous errors-hope this trade sparks the imagination

Apologies- I got the numbers wrong for Trade 53- it was a genuine credit of 12 to close

Missing trading opportunities is almost unforgiveable- I was seriously otherwise engaged in a noble cause so what’s a grand or so amongst friends?

Actually the puts must have hit well over 40 on Wednesday so this could be a win-you’d just have sold the put and let the call run- 8.5 on Friday,so 48.5 on 39 is a nice return, though unintended! And they tell you options are risky!

Earlier today- the trade hit 12 (30, and 14×3) as vol picked up a bit-we can book this as a winner methinks-sorry I missed a chance to screenshot

https://seekingalpha.com/article/4115801-can-hold-market-long?auth_param=1e747s:1cuup15:80f7e266c45fd1b3b4c23af299dfbb0e&uprof=44&dr=1

The F has gone absolutely nowhere for well over a month now-this is like nothing I have seen -but perhaps my memory fails me. Stand by for some earth shattering event-something has to give….or does it?

It made a modest profit and even doing nothing was an option(excuse the pun).

The strangle is losing money already- the market has stopped being a market so we might take a 50% loss on this. I am no longer able to assess market conditions as none exist in the proper sense.

I would not expect this trade to do very much but any big move would see it make a healthy profit. Now most of the hedge funds have shut up shop as there are no more dips. We just have long only funds pounding the index higher day after day-while real earnings are almost mythical, inflation- predicated on wage increases is nothing. Debt is more than it was in 2008- both government and personal -any return to realistic interest rates will kill the global economy faster than you can say “Despot”

close of play on friday the 7650 call= 4.5 and 7350 put =3.5- this was really not a trade to sit on. However- next week may be fun as it’s the 30th anniversary of the ’87 crash-which means nothing other than so many traders have never known a serious market event-the heavy bias to the long side rest solely on free money-and sometimes the money tree hits a lean spot

curiously this trade could be closed out for a credit of 2.5 after getting a credit to open it. You’d need a hefty account to make this pay though.

Interesting percentage chart!

Same here…short like crazy!

I’m short this market but low volatility makes is too horrible to sell anything with downside risk as vol WILL explode at some point

I don’t have the numbers with me but …this trade bought for 19, was a close today at 35.
that’s 84% profit in old money, and the trade is still young. This is where you could close out part/ some, or all of the trade-the permutations are many.

Not sure how this will go,and maybe it’s all a bit hurried as time has not been on my side lately- that is by choice, there is life outside the markets.
I was told about this at a trading seminar courtesy of London Trading Group: ‘only 1% of people offering trading course in the US had a track record’. We have a track record you can see for yourself-we are free and offer nothing but a passion for options.

Sorry a financial crisis is not funny but Ed Balls certainly is! Amazing how failed politicians who have cost their nations so much have the temerity to carry on. Imagine we’d traded the country’s gold reserves and lost the lot,…. oh wait

It looks like the market is going nowhere so one choice with this trade which is now losing money, is to swap around and convert it into a regular ratio back spread. How? I hear you ask. We have to buy back the short put- 7250 currently trading for 42.5, and sell 4(four) 7050 puts at 4×14= 56.A credit of 13.5.We have doubled our trade size but margin is unlikely to be an issue. So we are now long at 7150 x2, short at 7050×4, which gives us risk at 6950. This is 350 points below the market, which is almost 5%. Nothing seems to phase this market, from war to crises to valuations. Everything is a bubble now.
Another choice might be to double up on this trade which is now worth about 3. We paid 7.5 initially so if we doubled our stake our aggregate prices is now (7.5+3)/2=5.25.
But which is best????

Sometimes we have to take debit trades, as the reverse of this trade would make no sense.

The market continues to frustrate, to delight, to give us hours of musings. It’s important not to lose sight of what it is- a bunch of opinions. Nothing more. HSBC is the biggest component by marketcap of FTSE-how many failed loan accounts are on its books? Nobody knows.

[…] Previous week’s Trade 47– sold a put to buy a call butterfly – closed out early for profit 17.http://optionsinvesting.co.uk/trade-47-3rd-friday-month/ […]

Another way to summarise- to open the trade was a credit of 1 and to close it (12-4) a credit of 8. Happy days