Get started

Premiumselling

Opening: NVDA May 20th 290 Short Call... for a 1.95 credit. Comments: Selling an additional call against my badly inverted NVDA short strangle to flatten net delta. Total credits collected of 72.43 on a 60-wide inverted. Delta/theta 9.34/37.57; 16.26 extrinsic. I'll look to adjust the extra short call going forward via roll if necessary, since I can't do much currently with the inverted, both sides of which are in-the-money. Conversely, I'll look to sell a put against the 290 if the underlying whips back the other way. This seemed like the best and simplest option among my choices, which were to roll the short call deeper into the money, short stock, or do some other short delta setup (e.g., a skewed straddle or strangle with similar short delta metrics) to allow for theta in the setup to decay in relatively flat delta. Fortunately, I don't exactly have tons going on in the margin account right now, so I'm okay with tying up the additional buying power to give me a shot a scratching this beast out in this cycle.
NASDAQ:NVDA
by NaughtyPines
Rolling: XBI May 20th 75/105 Short Strangle to June 76/110... for a 1.09 credit. Comments: A different way to do a delta adjustment when your setup is in profit ... . Locking in the realized gain of the May 20th setup while returning the position back to net delta neutral and improving break evens. Total credits collected of 2.35 (See Post Below) plus the 1.09 here, for a total of 3.44 relative to a current value for the June 17th 76/110 of 2.72, so I've realized gains of about .72 ($72) so far. IVR/IV is still pretty decent in here at 53/42.6%.
AMEX:XBI
by NaughtyPines
Closed: QQQ April 22nd 354C/356P... for a 14.10 debit. Comments: Well, there's my "more than a buck." Total credits collected of 15.64. Closing out here for 14.10 results in a realized gain of 1.54 ($154) with 14 days to go. Here's the blow by blow: Opened: QQQ April 22nd 290/361 for a 5.85 credit. Rolled: QQQ April 22nd 290 Short Put to the April 22nd 341 for a 3.95 credit. (Defensive roll, cutting net delta in half). Rolled: QQQ April 22nd 341 Short Put to the April 22nd 348 for a 1.15 credit. (Defensive roll, cutting net delta in half). Rolled: QQQ April 22nd 348 Short Put to the April 22nd 356 for a 1.95 credit. (Defensive roll, cutting net delta in half). Rolled: QQQ April 22nd 361 Short Call to the April 22nd 354 for 2.74 credit. (Defensive roll, cutting net delta in half). As you can see in 20-20 hindsight, I probably could've just left the original setup alone and been better off. The April 22nd 290/361 -- the original, unadjusted setup -- is marking at 2.88 at the moment, so I would've hit 50% max at some point. That being said, I generally operate on the assumption that you never know if the position will continue to move against you or not and that it's best to adjust sooner than later.
NASDAQ:QQQ
by NaughtyPines
Rolling: QQQ April 22nd 361 Short Call to the 354 Short Call... for a 2.74 credit. Comments: Inverting slightly here with 14 days to go. Total credits collected of 15.64 on a two-wide inversion (the April 22nd 354C/356P). Delta/theta 17.58/40.95, 9.48 of extrinsic. I don't usually hang out in these much past this point, opting instead roll out for duration and then doing adjustments from there on the rolled out setup. Here, my "landing pad" is quite huge at this point (break evens of 340.36 on the put side/369.64 on the call) and would like to get something more than a 1.00 out of this after working the crap out of it. (I've done a total of four adjustments to it; 3 on the put side, one on the call). As usual, I'll either end up regretting closing it out for something smaller or be pleasantly happy with closing it out for something more.
NASDAQ:QQQ
by NaughtyPines
Opened: IWM May 20th 176/229 Short Strangle... for a 1.19 credit. Comments: A bit of an experiment here, selling the 90 day duration 2 x expected move strikes in shorter duration. Using the June 30th expiry (86 days) as the basis for this setup, I looked at the strikes nearest the 16 delta in that duration, and then sold premium in those same strikes in the expiry nearest 45 days. The benefit is a higher probability of profit setup, with the trade-off being less credit received. I'll look to manage it, however, like any other short strangle -- rolling in untested sides, taking profit at 50% max and/or rolling to a delta neutral setup in longer duration for a realized gain and a credit.
AMEX:IWM
by NaughtyPines
Rolling (IRA): SPY May 20th 365 Short Put to June 17th 393... for a 3.08 credit. Comments: Cleaning up the remainder of my short put ladder a bit after closing out or rolling a bunch of stuff in April expiries. With the May 20th 365 only worth .83 (i.e., way greater than 50% max), rolling it out to June. Total credits collected of 23.91 (See Post Below) plus the 3.08 here for a total of 26.99 relative to the June 393 short put price of 3.94 or so, so I've locked in gains of about 23.05 ($2305) so far. I'll return to selling shorter duration stuff of around 45 days' duration if <16 delta strikes start paying again. Currently, the strike paying around 1% of the strike price in credit is at the 420, paying 4.24, and that's at the 19 delta.
AMEX:SPY
by NaughtyPines