Rolling (Margin): XOP October 21st 165 Short Call to 160... for a .51 credit.
Comments: Smidge of delta adjustment here. Total credits collected of 6.68. Resulting delta/theta of 13.99/17.18 with the setup marking at around 6.22. I rolled this once for duration already, so probably should just take profit here and move on, but wanted more than .46 ($46) out of it. We'll see if that bites me in the hinder or not ... .
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Opening (Margin): /ES October 31st 2700 Short Put... for a 3.10 credit.
Comments: Adding a smidge more to my ladder on weakness. Targeting the <75% of current price strike nearest 45 days until expiry paying around 3.00 in credit. 1.55 max on buying power effect of 14.49; 10.7% ROC at max; 5.3% at 50% max as a function of buying power effect. As before, I'll look to take off the most at-risk strikes first at the earliest possible juncture and allow the remainder to ride.
Opening (Margin): /ES January 20th 1800 Short Put... for a 3.05 credit.
Comments: A little bit long-dated for some, but putting this on while I'm waiting on other stuff to "ripen." Targeting the <75% of current price strike paying around 3.00 in credit. A basic bet that we don't see 1800 by January or that the option reaches 50% max before then.
Opening (Margin): /ES December 16th 2100 Short Put... for a 3.40 credit.
Comments: Targeting the <75% of current price strike paying around 3.00 in credit. 3.40 on buying power effect of 13.19; 25.8% ROC as a function of buying power effect at max; 12.9% at 50% max. I would have used November, but have short puts at the 2300 and 2400 strikes already (which is where I would've wanted to camp out).
A basic bet that we don't see anywhere near 2100 by December mopex and/or that the option reaches 50% max way before then.
Rolled (IRA): IWM October 1st 161 to the November 18th 163... short put for a 1.10 credit.
Comments (Late Post): Rolled this out at >50% max to the strike in November paying around 1% of the strike price in credit. I might usually just take profit and close this out, but still need small cap long delta for a bit here while I manage my IWM short delta hedge. Total credits collected of 1.62 (See Post Below) plus the 1.10 here for a total of 2.72 relative to a price for the November 18th 163 of 1.71, so I've realized gains of 1.01 ($101) to date.
Closed (IRA): SPY October 21st 356 Short Put... for a 1.66 debit.
Comments: Opened this for 3.65 as part of a four-leg ladder. (See Post Below). Closing just the October rung of that here at >50% max. 1.99/$199 profit.
This also has the added effect of reducing my long delta a bit, so in that sense it's a subtractive delta adjustment trade at the same time. If you're big on keeping your portfolio net delta "happy," you want to first look at doing adjustments subtractively (i.e., taking off offending delta), only doing additive adjustments (i.e., putting on a new setup to delta balance) if subtractive adjustments haven't quite done the trick.
Closing (Margin): /ES October 21st 2550 Short Put... for a .95 debit.
Comments: Filled this for a 3.05 credit. (See Post Below). Out here for (3.05 - .95)/2 = 1.05/$105 profit. Taking off a little risk in advance of FOMC/Triple Witching. I'll naturally re-up if we get weakness plus an uptick in implied volatility.
Closing (Margin): /ES September 30th 3080 Short Put... for a 1.35 debit.
Comments: Filled this for 3.10 (See Post Below). Closing it out here for a little bit more than 50% max. (3.10 - 1.35)/2 = .875 ($87.50) profit. Reducing risk with FOMC in 13 days (where I'll look to add on weakness/uptick in implied volatility).
Rolled (Margin): SMH October 21st 235 Short Call to 225... for a 2.20 credit.
Comments: Rolling down the untested side of my short strangle, the short put leg of which is at the 205. Total credits collected of 11.87 with a resulting delta/theta of 12.67/21.50. Unfortunately, there are only five wides available in the October monthly at the moment, so it's hard to be surgical with adjustments.
Opening (Margin): /ES November 18th 2400 Short Put... for a 3.10 credit (arrow indicated).
Comments: Would prefer to do this on weakness plus an uptick in implied volatility, but I'm not getting any younger here. 1.55 max on buying power effect of 13.90, targeting the <75% of current price strike paying around 3.00/1.50 (due to 50x multiplier); 11.2% ROC at max as a function of buying power effect; 5.6% ROC at 50% max.
At its core, a bet that that we don't see 2400 by opex.
I've gone ahead and shown all my open /ES positions here, since part of the calculus in making the decision to take a rung off at less than max is its risk relative to other strikes I have on. For example, the nearest to at-the-money strike is currently the September 30th 3210, so I've got my eye on potentially taking that rung of before everything else since it's closer to at-the-money.