Welcome to NexusFi: the best trading community on the planet, with over 150,000 members Sign Up Now for Free
Genuine reviews from real traders, not fake reviews from stealth vendors
Quality education from leading professional traders
We are a friendly, helpful, and positive community
We do not tolerate rude behavior, trolling, or vendors advertising in posts
We are here to help, just let us know what you need
You'll need to register in order to view the content of the threads and start contributing to our community. It's free for basic access, or support us by becoming an Elite Member -- see if you qualify for a discount below.
-- Big Mike, Site Administrator
(If you already have an account, login at the top of the page)
I fully agree. It is important to find the right balance between the number of options on the one hand and the risk to get into the money on the other hand. I personally prefer options with a value of at least 200 US$.
I had the same discussion with my broker, and the limit was increased. I often trade future spreads, and here you obviously hold significantly more futures than trading outrights.
Best regards, Myrrdin
Can you help answer these questions from other members on NexusFi?
Since this is the most popular options thread on nexusfi.com (formerly BMT), I wanted to announce an upcoming webinar:
Tip
Hi guys,
It is my pleasure to welcome back Carley Garner of DeCarleyTrading for a webinar on Tuesday, March 24th @ 4:30PM ET.
Carley wants to discuss alternatives to naked option selling and engage in a debate about credit spreads.
The topic of the webinar is "Option Selling: With, or without insurance?" and the bullet points include:
- Credit spreads and/or Iron Condors
- Calendar option spreads
- Advantages/Disadvantages given particular scenarios
- Opportunity costs, cost calculations, and margin comparisons
- Understanding the true risk of trading credit spreads and condors
- Determining whether or not credit spread trading is right for you
At 19:50 they talk about selling a "Calendarized Strangle" (their words not mine) to both make a directional trade on the CLK/CLN spread and to sell CL vol at these high levels.
At 21:00 they talk about selling "CL Backwardated Ladder Puts" to both make a directional trade on the CL and to sell CL vol.
It was kind of funny seeing somebody as accomplished and revered as Tom Sosnoff get confused about the naming, and sign on the spread.
If anybody watch's it and has questions, post them here and I will do my best to answer them (I trade a lot of CL spreads).
I have sold FOs through TradeStation. They clear through RJO and have SPAN margin. The trading platform is a bit clunky but should be fine for straight option selling.
So either sell options at IB or TOS at higher margins
or
Need to have a custodian in the middle and pay annual fees to open an IRA account at a FCM that provides SPAN margin
IB just announced effective Apr 15th triple margin on futures in IRA accounts. No lower day trading rate either.
Most custodians charge about $300 annual fee. Your account will make more money at SPAN minimum margin and paying the $300 and higher commissions than it will with IB's sky high margin and no fee and lower commissions.
Here is the reason that IB is doing this and OX isn't allowing futures and options on futures trading in an IRA at all. If you blow up your IRA account, you can't send in a bunch of money to cover the losses because of the annual contribution limit for IRAs. So they are at risk.
According to mail from IB today: Effective April 15 - Margin requirements for Futures in IRA accounts will increase to 3x current. Also noted on IB site under Futures Margin " IRA accounts not afforded intraday margin rates". I assume that means …
Read that whole thread. There is a letter from IB explaining that they will be raising margin. Looks like April 15th is when it will happen. That letter also says no naked short options on futures.
Ive read much of this thread and have Cordier's book which is a fantastic read.. for my IRA (without a custodian) where I cannot be short naked, wondering if anyone has success selling vertical spreads and get enough premium for it.. and do you follow the same rules? same delta for the short? or willing to go higher delta since its a spread? or widen the spread to get more premium knowing you will close it together
I will be frank.. with equity options, i dont get much out of verical spreads or diagonals etc.. to much adjustment needed for too little premium..
hence really liking selling naked far OTM and researching into it.. or a ratio spread.. but both those are tough in a IRA without a custodian
I want to create and check some options spread construction with historical options prices. Does anybody know where can I get historical data of options prices?
Thanks
