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.
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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
Opening (IRA): QQQ March 31st 220 Short Put... for a 2.42 credit.
Comments: Adding rungs to my QQQ where I can, targeting the <16 delta strike paying around 1% of the strike price in credit. There is no April yet, so going with the quarterly.
Ordinarily, I would go with the shortest duration contract of around 45 days' duration, but that would be the January 27th, where the <16 delta strike at the 250 is paying 2.33 (i.e., <1% of the strike price in credit). Similarly, the SPY January 27th 360 (currently 15.6 delta) is paying 3.15; the IWM January 27th 160 (currently 14.1 delta) is paying 1.43. Consequently, I'm going with longer duration for the moment, although there's nothing to prevent one from selling higher, more aggressive shorter duration delta to get paid.
Opening (IRA): QQQ Jan/Feb 260/245 Short Put LadderComments: A 2023 starter position, targeting the shortest duration <16 strike paying around 1% of the strike price in credit. I still have some Dec on, as well as a couple of covered calls, so am only adding a couple of rungs here.
Jan 20th 260: 2.69 credit.
Feb 17th 245: 2.47 credit.