Closed (Margin): SMH September 16th 220/260 Short Strangle... for a 4.57 debit.
Comments: Collected a total of 7.44 with one put side adjustment to delta balance. (See Post Below). 2.87 ($287) profit with 28 days to go.
Premiumselling
Closed (Margin): QQQ September 30th 304/345 Short Strangle... for an 8.21 debit.
Comments: Collected a total of 10.10 in credits with rolls. (See Post Below). Closing out here results in a total realized gain of 1.89 ($189).
Closed (Margin): ARKK Sept 16th 44/57 Short Strangle... for a 2.23 debit.
Comments: Opened this for a 2.92 credit. (See Post Below). Taking profit with 28 days to go in lieu of adjusting the setup to delta balance. .69/$69 winner.
Opening (Margin): /ES September 30th 3210 Short Put... for a 3.10 credit.
Comments: Targeting the strike that is ~75% of current price and is paying around 3.00 in credit. Will look to add should we get further weakness, higher IV (which isn't so great here at 20.3%).
1.55 max (due to the 50 x multiplier in /ES) on buying power effect of 16.34; 9.5% ROC as a function of buying power at max; 4.7% at 50% max.
Closed (IRA): SPY October 21st 362 Short Put... for a 1.73 debit.
Comments: Opened this for a 3.70 credit. (See Post Below). Taking profit at >50% max; 1.97 ($197) profit with 66 days to go. Still laddered out at the moment in November, December, and January.
Closed (IRA): QQQ September 23rd 285 Short Put... for a 1.27 debit.
Comments: Filled for a 2.93 credit. (See Post Below). Out here at >50% max; 1.66 ($166) profit with 38 days to go. Still have September 30th 289's, October 21st 268's and 300's on.
Opening (Margin): IWM September 30th 178 Short Put... for a 1.80 credit.
Comments: Not a great place or a great IV environment to be doing this, but looking to offset some of my IWM short delta. Previously, I did a covered call, but I don't need that much long delta here at the moment, so am doing a lower delta out-of-the-money short put and will add at intervals if necessary. Delta/theta 15.18/5.
Opening (IRA): QQQ September 30th 289 Short Put... for a 2.95 credit.
Comments: Targeting the <16 delta strike in the shortest duration paying around 1% of the strike price in credit in the exchange-traded fund with the highest 30-day IV to emulate dollar cost averaging into the broad market. Take profit at 50% max or greater and/or roll out for duration and a credit.
This would be more ideally put on in weakness and higher IV, but I'm willing to take some risk while I wait for a better IV environment to present itself.
Rolling (Margin): XOP September 16th 118 Short Put to 123... for an .81 credit.
Comments: Small delta adjustment here in my short strangle. Total credits collected of 7.04. Resulting delta/theta -20.58/17.32.
Rolled (Margin): QQQ September 2nd 306/330 Short Strangle... to September 30th 304/345 for a 1.96 credit.
Comments: (Late Post). Realized a small gain (.54/$54) and recentered risk with 22 days to go. Rolled out to the 25 delta and collected a total of 8.14 (See Post Below) plus 1.96 or 10.10 so far.
Closed (IRA): SPY September 16th 376 Short Put... for a 1.47 debit.
Comments: (Late Post). The highest of my remaining SPY short put rungs, for which I collected a total of 12.57 in credits. (See Post Below). Total realized gains: 11.10 ($1110).
Closed (IRA): QQQ September 16th 280 Short Put... for a 1.13 debit.
Comments: (Late Post). Rolled this a few times, collecting a total of 9.60 in credit. (See Post Below). Closed it out today for 1.13, resulting in a total realized profit of 8.47 ($847).
Opened (IRA): SPY December 16th 325 Short Put... for a 3.41 credit.
Comments: (Late Post). Part of a longer-dated strategy to emulate dollar cost averaging into the broad market, targeting the <16 delta strike paying around 1% of the strike price in credit. This is also an effort to stay more maximally deployed while I wait for shorter duration to be more productive from a premium-selling standpoint.
Your basic choices are to (a) wait for a more productive IV environment in shorter duration; (b) force in strikes in shorter duration to get paid; or (c) sell longer duration. I'm kind of opting for (c) while I wait for (a) here.* However, I'm perfectly fine with those who want to do (b), keeping in mind that it's likely that they'll have a few more trade management headaches along the way, since those "forced in" strikes will be closer to at-the-money than what I'm doing here so are statistically more likely to be tested.
Generally, I'll roll from month to month at 50% max, looking to deploy in shorter duration should we get weakness and an uptick in implied volatility.
Currently, here are the shortest durations in which the <16 delta strike is paying around 1% in broad market:
QQQ: September 23rd (49 DTE), 285 strike, 14 delta, paying 2.96.
XLK**: AH showing wide bid/ask.
IWM: September 23rd (49 DTE), 171 strike, 15 delta, paying 1.76.
SPY: October 21st (77 DTE), 362 strike, 13 delta, paying 3.75.
EFA: October 21st (77 DTE), 58 strike, 15 delta, paying .62.
DIA: December 16th (177 DTE), 275 strike, 11 delta, paying 3.05.**
* -- December would not be my first choice of expiries out of the box. However, I already have rungs on in September (376), October (362), and November (340).
** -- XLK (Select Sector SPDR Trust Technology) is "QQQ lite" and enjoys a close correlation with the broad market (3-month SPY correlation of .97), so have included it here. Additionally, its 30-day IV is comparable to the QQQ's at 26.5% versus QQQ's 26.7% with the added advantage of being a little bit less buying power heavy than either the QQQ's (321.75/share) or IWM (190.80/share).
*** -- The October <16 delta isn't paying, and there is no November yet.
Opening (Margin): XOP September 16th 118/145 Short Strangle... for a 6.23 credit.
Comments: High 30-day IV at 49.0%. Selling the 25 deltas on both sides. 6.23 on BPE of 13.99. 44.5% ROC at max as a function of buying power effect; 22.3% ROC at 50% max. Delta/theta -.24/14.96.
Opening (Margin): ARKK September 16th 44/57 Short Strangle... for a 2.92 credit.
Comments: High IV at 59.3%. Being a little more aggressive and selling the 25's here. Delta/theta -2.55/7.07.
Opening (IRA): SPY October 21st 362 Short Put... for a 3.70 credit.
Comments: Part of a longer-dated strategy to emulate dollar cost-averaging into the broad market, targeting the <16 delta strike the shortest duration expiry paying around 1% of the strike price in credit.
Opening (IRA): QQQ September 23rd 285 Short Put... for a 2.93 credit.
Comments: Selling premium in the broad market exchange-traded fund having the highest 30-day IV, targeting the <16 delta strike in the shortest duration paying around 1% of the strike price in credit.
Rolled (IRA): QQQ September 16th 278 Short Put to October 21st... 268 short put for a 1.23 credit.
Comments: This wasn't quite at 50% max yet, but thought I'd take the opportunity to do some housekeeping since I could realize a gain, strike improve, and receive a credit here by rolling for duration.
Total credits collected of 14.09 (See Post Below) plus the 1.23 here for a total of 15.32 relative to a price of around 2.83 for the October 21st 268, so I've realized gains of 12.49 ($1249) so far.
Closed (IRA): SPY October 21st 333 Short Put... for a 1.67 debit.
Comments: Taking profit at 50% max. Put this on for 3.35 credit (See Post Below). 1.68 ($168) profit.
Rolled (Margin): SMH September 16th 192 Short Put to the 220... for a 2.47 credit.
Comments: Rolling up the untested side to delta balance. Total credits collected of 7.44; delta/theta -12.93/19.76.
Rolled (Margin): QQQ September 2nd 270 Short Put to the 306... for a 2.47 credit.
Comments: Rolled up the untested side to delta balance. Total credits collected of 8.14 with a resulting delta/theta of 18.13/28.26.
Rolled (Margin): NVDA to September 16th 4 x 170/220... for a 61.64 debit.
Comments: Had to do this roll piecemeal, but ultimately paid a 61.64 debit in total to recenter to the 25 delta strikes. Up to today, I had collected a total of 71.75 in credits, so my break even is currently 10.11 total (2.52 per contract). I had wanted to take this off before earnings, but it's too big of a loser for me to just walk away from going to keep on plugging away at it.
Closed (IRA): SPY September 16th 365 Short Put... for a 1.80 debit.
Comments: Had been rolling this one for a bit, collecting a total of 12.17. (See Post Below). Bailing here results in a total realized gain of 10.37 ($1037). Still have September 376's, October 333's, and November 18th 340's on.
