Closing (Margin): /MES Feb 28th 4200, 4220, 4250, 4260 CallsComments: Doing this all in one fell swoop, rather than in separate posts.
Closed:
February 28th 4200 Short Call for an 11.00 debit. (22.00 - 11.00)/.20 = $55.00 profit.
February 28th 4220 Short Call for a 9.00 debit. (16.50 - 9.00)/.20 = $37.50 profit.
February 28th 4250 Short Call for a 6.50 debit. (13.25 - 6.50)/.20 = $33.75 profit.
February 28th 4260 Short Call for a 5.75 debit. (13.50 - 5.75)/.20 = $38.75 profit.
Opened:
February 28th 4110 for a 27.00 credit.
February 28th 4130 for a 22.25 credit.
February 28th 4160 for a 16.25 credit.
If you're asking yourself why I'm selling at these particular strikes, it is to sell call against at a delta that is correspondent with existing legs' short put delta (e.g., the 4110, -23 delta short call strike was selected to sell against my 3770 +24 delta short put; the 4130, -20 delta short call against my 3740, +21 delta short put, etc.). When I finished doing this, I also figured I could afford to resolve having the extra short call unit on by just closing one of the extra short calls that was currently in profit. This leaves me slightly net delta long in the position.
Premiumselling
Opened (Margin): /MES February 28th 4190 Short Call... for a 14.50 credit.
Comments: Kind of had to do this on the fly with my phone app ... . Additive short delta adjustment. It was at the -15 delta at the time of fill. Will probably roll down some profitable short call now that I have an opportunity to survey the landscape from the desktop app.
Opening (Margin): /MCL March 16th 65/107 Short Strangle... for a 1.09 credit.
Comments: Here, delta balancing my March position by selling a +9 delta put at the 65 strike and a -6 delta call at the 107. I'll look to sell more "normal" strikes for my typical setup once I clean up the remainder of my Feb positions.
Opening (Margin): /MCL February 15th 77 Short Put... for a 2.13 credit.
Comments: An additive delta adjustment trade, which is a functional roll-up of what was my 74.5 short put. At this point, I'm fine with taking a loss on this very narrow short strangle, so long as I'm net up for the cycle on my /MCL trades, but would naturally prefer to scratch it out. Still keeping on the 67 short put for the moment, as it's providing a smidge of long delta.
Closed (Margin): /MCL February 15th 74.5 Short Put... for a 1.48 debit.
Comments: Doing a functional roll up with this leg, which I got paid 1.76 in credit for. I'm first closing this leg out for a .28 ($28) realized gain and then will re-erect a "delta appropriate" short put higher up the strike ladder to delta balance against my 84 short call.
Closing (Margin): /MES February 28th 3730/4230 Short Strangle... for a 38.00 debit.
Comments: Filled the two legs of this short strangle for a total of 44.75 in credits. Closing out here results in a realized gain of (44.75 - 38.00)/.20 = 33.75.
/MES position net delta leans slightly long at the moment.
Opening (Margin): /MES February 28th 3670/4200 Short Strangle... for a 40.50 credit.
Comments: An additive delta adjustment trade, selling the +12 delta put and the -19 delta call to pick up net -7 delta. Will mostly look to mix and match profitable put with profitable call to peel off units from here to 21 DTE.
Closing (Margin): /MCL February 15th 68/93 Short Strangle... for a .98 debit.
Comments: Although I've still got 30 days to go with this, taking it off in small profit without affecting net delta much (the 68 was at the +11 delta, the 93 at the -10), leaving me with the fairly narrow 74.5/84 to manage in the Feb cycle, along with a far out-of-the-money short put at the 67. I'll leave that short put on here since I still need its long delta at the moment.
Collected a total of 1.24 in credits for the 68/93, so closing out here for .98 results in a .26 ($26) profit. I generally like to wait for at least .50 ($50) to take these off, but am already up decently on my /MCL trades for the month, so feel okay with taking small profit here, simplifying the position, and freeing up the buying power to get ready to move into the next cycle.
Opening (Margin): /MES February 28th 3770/4260 Short Strangle... for a 41.75 credit.
Comments: Additive delta adjustment trade, selling the +18 delta put and the -13 delta call.
As before, looking to mix and match profitable short call with profitable short put to reduce size, while simultaneously attempting to keep the position delta neutral.
Opening (Margin): /MCL March 16th 61/109 Short Strangle... for an .85 credit.
Comments: An additive delta adjustment trade, selling the -4 delta call and the 8 delta put against my +4 delta put and -8 delta call. I probably really didn't need to do an adjustment here given the low delta of the sides I had on in March, but wanted to collect some additional credit, particularly since the time left in the February cycle is winding down.
Opening (Margin): /MCL February 15th 67 Short Put... for a .54 credit.
Comments: An additive long delta adjustment trade, selling the +10 delta put. February position still leans a smidge short here with 33 days to go.
I'm indicating that this is "long" here because the delta of the position is long, not because I think oil goes up from here.
Opening (Margin): /MCL February 15th 68/93 Short Strangle... for a 1.24 credit.
Comments: An additive long delta adjustment trade, selling the 68P at the +14 delta strike and the 93C at the -9, giving me net +5 in delta to flatten the directionality of the position. It still leans slightly short, just not as short as it was before.
Closing (Margin): /MES February 15th 3910/4080 Short Strangle... for a 108.75 debit.
Comments: I collected a total of 95.75 for the two legs of this short strangle. Closing it out here on abysmally low IVR for a realized loss of (108.75 - 98.75)/.20 = $50.00.
In spite of taking off these last two short strangles as losers, net realized gain on primarily February 15th cycle /MES: 236.25.
Closing (Margin): /MES 3850/4120 Short Strangle ... for a 78.50 debit.
Comments: I received 73.25 total in credits for these legs; closing out her results in a realized loss of (78.50 - 73.25)/.20 = 26.25 ($26.25). I'm fine with doing this here, since IVR has plummeted to almost 52-week lows, implying that there is a risk that IV could expand from here. If that happens, I'd rather be in a setup with further out-of-the-money sides.
Opening (IRA): SPY Feb/March/April 359/341/325 Short PutsComments: A 2023 starter position, which I'll add to at intervals. Targeting the shortest duration <16 delta strike paying around 1% of the strike price in credit.
February 17th 359: 3.70 credit.
March 17th 341: 3.50 credit.
April 21st 325: 3.35 credit.
Opening (IRA): SPY Feb/March/April 355/333/315 Short Put LadderComments: Laddering out on weakness ... . Generally, I do this stuff on Fridays, but have a road trip coming up and probably won't get to it. The <16 delta strike in January isn't paying 1% of the strike price in credit, so going with Feb, March, and April here.
Feb 17th 355: 3.57 credit
March 17th 333: 3.37 credit
April 21st 315: 3.26 credit