Started out the day in some SPX calendar pain, at the lower breakeven. I couldn't take it any longer, as I was out of Morphine, so I closed it at a 25% loss. I also closed out of my RUT butterflies for a combined 10% gain. Finally, I legged out of my 550-560 call spread from my July iron condor for a dime. I actually had two high prob RUT ICs on. You may recall that one was down -10% on the first day due to a bunch of errors, but ended up +6.6%. The other went much smoother and closed up +9.0%.
I was also able to buy back half of my August RUT HP IC spreads for $0.20. Not bad since I just opened up this trade on 7/1 and sold them for $0.74, capturing 73% of their value in 5 days.
Lastly, I was a little concerned about my short vega on my MNX double diagonal. So to help that out, I embedded a 145 calendar. Here's how the combined position looks:
I also plan to increase my position in this MNX double diagonal, at the appropriate strikes in the next couple days.
Posts
Hi, Chad! I found your blog through a Google search for "iron condor". Thanks for posting these example trades; they're very interesting.
ReplyDeleteI see that you are in Dan Sheridan's mentoring program. I wonder if I could ask you a bit about that. I went to his "Real Trading" one-day seminar a few months ago, and have been trying to apply his techniques, with mixed success. I'm interested in the mentoring program myself, but I'm hesitating a bit because the time and cost involved appear to be substantial.
How have you found the mentoring program? Have you been doing it for a long time? It looks as though you're trading in reasonably large size now -- 30 ICs on RUT, for instance. If I may ask, are you doing this for a living? If so, how long did it take you to get to the point where your results were consistent enough and monthly returns were high enough to permit you to do so?
Thanks for any experiences or insights you'd care to pass along! Cheers, and best wishes,
Martin
"I'm hesitating a bit because the time and cost involved appear to be substantial"
ReplyDeleteTrading isn't easy. There is no shortcut to success. If you want to succeed, you will need to spend A LOT of time working on it. In my opinion, you can shorten this time by having a good mentor. I've been trading options exclusively for 3 years now (2.5 years with Sheridan Options Mentoring), and I still have plenty to learn. I think his program is by far the best value on the market, bar none. If you are serious about trading options, and want to make a business of it, you definitely owe it to yourself to start with a good foundation.
I am not yet doing this for a living. It is my goal, but I'm not there yet. 2008 was a very difficult year, most especially for delta neutral option sellers. I need to put 2008 behind me, get back to the market having a "normal" volatility, as well as increase my trading account size and contract size (get back to trading 100-lots instead of 40-60 lots) before I could considering doing this for a comfortable (6-figure) living. Realistically, you need an account size such that a 30% annual return on the entire account is what you want to live on. For most people, that doesn't match the funds they currently have allocated to trading options.
I hope that helps Martin.
Chad
Thanks for the comments, Chad; that certainly does help. The more people I talk to, the more I'm thinking that the DS program is the way to go. I've attended other courses in the past, and learned a lot. But Dan's students are the only ones who seem to be making a living at it, or are at least close.
ReplyDelete(And I sympathize about 2008! I know what you mean.)
Cheers,
Martin