Opening (Margin): /MCL February 15th 68/86 Short Strangle... for a 2.65 credit.
Comments: An additive delta adjustment trade, selling the 23 delta put and the 18 delta call.
Premiumselling
Closing (Margin): /MCL February 15th 60/91 Short Strangle... for a .93 debit.
Comments: Mixing and matching profitable short put with profitable short call. 1.50 in credit collected for these two legs; 1.50 - .93 = .57 ($57) profit.
Opening (IRA): SMH Feb/March 170/154 Short Put LadderComments: My broad market positions are getting a little crowded and busy, so deploying some buying power into some sector ETF's, targeting the <16 delta strike paying around 1% of the strike price in credit.
30-day isn't bad here at 36.3%, but this isn't exactly as weak as it has been, so it's possible that a better entry could be had. Because of that, I'll look to potentially add should better opportunities present themselves.
The goal here is to collect premium and/or to reduce cost basis in shares that you might be eventually assigned and not necessarily to get ideal entries; there is, after all, some "slop"/room to be wrong with these. That being said, being patient and getting paid something decent for a lower strike is always a good thing, since a lower strike means a smaller buying power effect.
February 17th 170: 1.74 credit
March 17th 154: 1.54 credit
Opening (IRA): QQQ Feb 17th/March 17th 235/220 Short Put LadderComments: Squeezing in a couple of rungs here, targeting the <16 delta strike paying around 1% of the strike price in credit.
February 17th 235: 2.76 credit
March 17th 220: 2.36 credit
Opening (IRA): IWM Feb/March 156/150 Short Put LadderComments: Added rungs in IWM on weakness, targeting the <16 delta strike in the shortest duration paying around 1% of the strike price in credit.
I'm doing things a little differently than last year, where I basically sold the 45 DTE weeklies (assuming they were paying around 1% of the strike price in credit), but constantly had a lot of idle buying power, which is not the "maximal deployment" I was really shooting for, so am fiddling with doing things this way instead. Doing only two rungs here, since the <16 delta strike in January isn't paying 1%, and there isn't an April yet.
February 17th 156 Short Put: 1.66 credit
March 17th 150 Short Put: 1.77 credit
Opening (Margin): /MCL February 15th 60/84 Short Strangle... for a 1.74 credit.
Comments: Selling the 9 delta put and the 21 delta call here in Feb as an additive delta adjustment. Net position delta leans a smidge long ... .
Closed (Margin): /MES 3530/4240 Short Strangle... for a 25.50 debit.
Comments: Matching profitable short call with profitable short put here and taking off some risk running into CPI. $43.75 profit. Position net delta leans slightly short ... .
Opened (Margin): /MES 4690/4240 Short Strangle... for a 46.50 credit.
Comments: Additive, bullishly skewed delta adjustment trade, selling the 9 delta call and the 21 delta put. 46.50/20 = 2.325 ($232.50) credit. As before, will look to mix and match profitable put side with profitable call side to take off risk ... .
Opening (Margin): /MES March 17th 3410 Short Put... for a 22.00 credit.
Comments: Additive long delta adjustment here that I get for a credit that exceeds the buying power effect by a smidge. (22.00)/20 = 1.10 ($110) max. Net position still leans short.
Opening (IRA): SMH Feb/March 164/154 Short Put LadderComments: Adding a smidge to my SMH position with two rungs out in February and March, targeting the strikes paying around 1% of the strike price in credit.
February 17th 164: 1.65 credit
March 17th 154: 1.54 credit
Opening (IRA): SPY February 17th 350 Short Put... for a 3.57 credit.
Comments: Squeezing in another rung in the February monthly here, targeting the <16 strike paying around 1% of the strike price in credit.
Closing (Margin): /MCL February 15th 63/94 Short Strangle... for a 1.12 debit.
Comments: Pairing profitable short put with profitable short call ... . I sold the 94 short call for .79 and the 63 short put for .80 as part of short strangles I put on at different times, for a total of 1.59. Closing out here for 1.12 result in a .47 ($47) realized gain.
Still in the February 15th 66/91 for a 2.02 credit and the March 16th 55/103 for a .92 credit with the entire position leaning slightly long delta at the moment.
Opening (Margin): SPX January 17th 3705/2 x 3735/3755 BWB*... for a 1.45 credit.
Comments: Doing something a little bit funky here for me, targeting the current zero gamma level at around 3935 with my short options and erecting my longs out from there.
Metrics: 1.45 credit on buying power effect of 8.55 with a max profit potential of 21.45. Delta 1.18; theta 4.46. A "perfect landing" would be at 3735 at expiry, but will take profit quickly if the opportunity presents itself. (Hitting a "perfect landing" is extremely rare, since it needs to be right at short put strikes right at expiry).
* -- Broken wing butterfly. The 3705/3735 side is narrower than the 3735/3755 side to create a profit zone without any upside risk.
Opening (IRA): IWM Feb/March 154/145 Short Put LadderComments: Squeezing in rungs where I can, targeting the <16 delta strike paying around 1% of the strike price in credit.
February 17th 154: 1.61 credit
March 17th 145: 1.45 credit
Opening (Margin): /MES February 17th 3530/4080 Short Strangle... for a 48.75 credit.
Comments: An additive delta adjustment trade ... . 48.75/20 = $243.75 credit received. Because the remaining short strangle that I had was short the 19 delta put and short the 14 delta put, I sold the 14 delta put and the 19 delta call to delta balance, resulting in a net delta neutral position.
Closing (Margin): /MES February 3540/4160 Short Strangle... for a 38.75 debit.*
Comments: Mixing and matching profitable short call with profitable short put for a small realized gain ($35.00), leaving me with the 3590/4120, which I'll probably proceed to do an additive delta balance setup on here.
* -- The credit and debit amounts take some getting used to. For example, a short strangle that routes for a 50.00 credit actually has a max of only 2.50 ($250) (i.e., 1/20th of what the table says you'll receive in credit).
Opening (Margin): /MES February 17th 3590/4160 Short Strangle... for a 46.00 credit.
Comments: Additive delta balancing. $230 max on buying power effect of $790. 29.1% ROC as a function of buying power effect at max; 14.6% at 50% max. Total credits collected off $478.75.
Will look to mix and match profitable call with profitable put and/or take the entire cannoli off in profit.
Opening (Margin): /ES June 16th 4950 Short Call... for a 3.10 credit.
Comments: After having taken profit on my short call delta hedge, re-erecting another, farther out-of-the-money one here, but in longer duration.
Opening (Margin): /ES May 19th 1800 Short Put... for a 2.95 credit.
Comments: Adding a short put rung back in, targeting the <50% of current price strike paying around 3.00 in credit.
Opening (Margin): /MCL1! March 15th 103 Short Call... for a .42 credit.
Comments: An additive short delta adjustment here, selling a call against my March short put. I'm not getting paid much, but get this buying power free and can always roll it down to bring in more credit.
Total credits collected: 4.53.
Opened (Margin): /ES May 31st 1700 Short Put... for a 3.30 credit.
Comments: Opening another short put rung on weakness ... .
Opening (Margin): /MES February 17th 3540/4120 Short Strangle... for a 49.75 credit.
Comments: Selling the 16 delta on both sides for my first trade of the year.
Although this routed for 49.75, the max profit on this is actually 1/20th of that or 2.4875 ($248.75) on buying power effect of around 7.05 ($705). 35.3% ROC at max; 17.6% at 50% max. Will look to roll in untested side to adjust delta.
Opening (Margin): /ES April 21st 2100 Short Put... for a 3.55 credit.
Comments: After having closed the March 31st 2000 short put for a small profit, adding back in a rung to delta balance, which I get nearly buying power free.
