I know he has DeCarley, does that mean some brokerages have advantages over other brokers?

They have different rules they adhere to, but that doesn't mean it is an advantage for one broker or not.

You can always call in the order to OX, and I think they allow you to trade 0 interest then.

Question for you: why not just find a comparable option that has open interest, and then trade that?

That helps. My understanding of SPAN is it tests 16 different combinations of price and vol movement to come up with the value. In that case while it is not the max of one side, it is not the sum either.

But I am still confused by TOS. They appear to do the SPAN calculations for the strangle:

So this says the Min risk is 660, and the Buying Power effect 780. Given these are no where near 229 and 400, it looks like they are adding them. I'm going to have to ask them to clarify. Just want to make sure I am not asking dumb questions.

CLF5 65P, bid 0.02, ask 0.04, 70P bid 0.04, ask 0.08.
Right now, CLF5 is about 91.7, I want to 24, 25 OTM of the price to be safe, so, 70P feels a little risky, 65P feels too little meat.
I have watched CL for quite some time, I got my first trade yesterday at 0.01 CLZ4 65P (most of you don't even consider or maybe take profit at that price:-). I am trying to get the second trade. I always feel CL or NG risky, so I want to be as much as OTM possible.

What is your net profit going to be on those CLZ4 65P? $5? Is that really worth the unlimited risk involved? Your ROI may be over 2%, but you'd have to sell a bunch (20!!!) to make $100. 20 contracts gets unwieldy really fast if prices go against you...

I sold 4 @0.01, IM total 145.2, excess 290.4, delta 0.00, DTE 55, ROI about 5% (still getting free trades in OX). You are right, I will be more cautious, just could not find the right strike. I am still in the testing mode. What CL position you have now if you don't mind?

Thanks Chris.

I've been using Dudetooth's excel sheet. Frankly its the finest VB programming I've seen (VB is very icky).

I'm still reading, but I read 15-20 points for CL on the puts. Also, he'd never touch anything > 75 or less than 120.



I get this concept, but how far out are you talking? The 70Puts 55 days out are 0.03, and the 70 Puts 84 days out are 0.08. So assuming the market is relatively stable, there should be roughly 0.05 of profit within ~30 days of selling the puts 84 days out. Does that sound correct?

The implied volatility has been on a steady march higher and it's accelerated recently. Pretty dramatic, even in the forward months (March shown). Seems odd ... shoulder season, fairly tight trading range for the last two months, building stocks back up at a healthy clip, no hurricanes and so on. Last year the same time period saw IV flat as a board until right after Thanksgiving. Any ideas? I know the storage report is in the a.m. but IV has moved higher right through those for the last couple of weeks.