Last week SPY-options implied volatility dropped by almost 15%, which, along with the share price climbing above the center of our risk curve, was a drain on both unrealized return and projected profit at expiration. However, following the strategy rules for managing volatility risk with our entry trades is paying off: at Friday’s close, the unrealized return on our February trades was up from the week before. In post-session options-trading, we were showing about a 3.8% unrealized return on total…
We’re adding to our February portfolio by opening a second double-calendar, as follows:
Day limit orderBuy to open 2 SPY Mar 135 callsSell to open 2 SPY Feb 135 callsBuy to open 2 SPY Mar 129 putsSell to open 2 SPY Feb 129 putsfor a net debit of $2.38 or better.
Note that 2 contracts is our base position for double-calendars. Trading whole-number multiples of the base-position size ensures that adjustments will not result in…
Leaving aside the newly opened February/March Double-Calendar, our portfolio of open positions is currently showing a return (realized and unrealized) of approximately 5.4% on total capital risked. That represents a Model Portfolio return of about 3.3% after accounting for the cash we kept in reserve for hedging our January portfolio and entering February trades.
As the trading week drew to a close Friday afternoon, our January positions had a slightly bearish net delta…
With SPY near $127, we’re neutralizing portfolio delta and selling some additional premium by rolling the short December 125 calls up to the 128 strike, with the following order:
Day limit order
Buy to close 2 SPY Dec 125 calls
Sell to open 2 SPY Dec 128 calls
for a net debit of $1.76 or better.
Note that the 2 contracts specified above represent our entire short position in the Dec 125 calls.
Analysis: Given the moderate,…
As our portfolio vega and (negative) gamma grow (the latter to a decreasing degree each day, because the short strikes are spread out far to either side of the current underlying price), so does theta—the profit we accrue from decay in the value of our short positions. Let’s look deeper into that statement:
Calendar-spread vega (change in net value with respect to implied volatility) increases with time, accelerating into front-month expiration.
Short-gamma positions—ones that lose value at an increasing…
After a flat Friday, our unrealized loss on total capital at risk, as of the closing bell, had narrowed to about 2%. Since we’re keeping a tight rein on risk and are almost 2/3 in cash right now, the current paper loss as a percentage of our Model Portfolio is less than 0.7%.
Members who’ve been with us for a few months or more know that it isn’t uncommon for our portfolio to be showing an unrealized loss at this…
As planned, we’re rolling a portion of our current November butterfly hedge into a delta-neutral iron condor, as follows:
Day limit order
Buy to close 1 SPY Nov 119 put
Sell to close 1 SPY Nov 125 put
Sell to open 1 SPY Nov 132 call
Buy to open 1 SPY Nov 138 call
for a net credit of $1.84 or better.
Note that 1 contract per leg represents the number of contracts we’re long…
As suggested earlier, we’re repeating this morning’s butterfly trade, only bigger this time:
Day limit order
Buy 2 SPY Nov 125 puts
Sell to open 4 SPY Nov 119 puts
Buy to open 2 SPY Nov 113 put
for a net debit of $1.28 or better.
Note that the 2 contracts specified above for the wings represents double the size of this morning’s trade and the same number of contracts initially allocated to each leg of…
We’re opening the following position to hedge our upside delta and vega risk:
Day limit order
Buy to open 2 SPY Oct 130 calls
Sell to open 4 SPY Oct 124 calls
Buy to open 2 SPY Oct 118 calls
for a net debit of $2.81 or better.
Note that the 2 contracts specified above for the wings represent the number of contracts allocated to each leg of our core, double-diagonal position.
Analysis: The resulting risk…
We’re adjusting the SPY October 93/103/113 put butterfly hedge to create a theta-positive position with delta closer to neutral. We’re accomplishing this with the following iron-condor trade:
Day limit order
Buy to close 1 SPY Oct 103 put
Sell to open 1 SPY Oct 113 put
Buy to open 1 SPY Oct 127 call
Sell to open 1 SPY Oct 125 call
for a net credit of $0.97 or better.
Note that the 1 contract…
Monday, January 23, 2012
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