Yeah, I agree about the short calls. Will probably buy those back when the market opens. The puts though... both are obviously well in the money and will need to be closed before Jun24. If volatility increases between now and the Brexit vote - which ...

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What, the puts? They're Jun24/Jul01 $17 VXX calendar spreads.

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Good idea, TF. My Jun17 $17 calls I sold are now in profit by 70c per contract, so I might just buy those back tonight I'll leave the Jul01 $17 long calls on for now in case of Brexit. Not sure what do with my $17 puts though. The spread is ...

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A fascinating peek into a professional trader's mind, C. Thank you very much for posting this. I think this is one podcast I definitely will find the time to listen to. The stuff he said about drawdowns makes me glad I'm not a full-time trader, and ...

Diversified Trend Trading Approach

Sorry, you're right. I thought he died penniless but he actually had $5m left when he shot himself. This was about $100m less than what he gained in 1929. $5m was still a heck of a lot of money in those days, but I think he considered himself a ...

What are the big Ideas in successful trading?

How many traders reading this thread, or even on the whole forum, were able to make big profits from the recent bear move in EUR.USD? It didn't even cross its SMA-50 on the daily from about 1.37 to 1.10! That's $27,000 per lot with no effort and no ...

What are the big Ideas in successful trading?

Yeah, I get that too sometimes. I guess we all feel like "wood-chipper time" if we trade long enough. Don't worry, things can only get better (eventually)

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That's an annual rate of return of about 1.4%. Not exactly a get-rich-quick method, is it? I'm sure that better opportunities present themselves from time to time but, like you said, the algos probably catch a lot of them. Oh well...

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Thanks for this, but just to be clear... I didn't sell the put, I bought it! This is to protect my profits in the ETF trade should oil turn south after OPEC. For example: url True, but I didn't want to risk trading a leveraged and volatile ...

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Yes. I'm British but have been here about 14 years. Do you live in Hong Kong? I stopped over there in January... great city!

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Have any of you guys ever managed to trade a conversion or a reversal? On paper this looks like free money, but like any arbitrage trade I guess they are rarely available to the retail trader.

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Agreed. I don't normally trade oil but couldn't stop myself when prices became so low. I thought, what the hell, a small position as a long term investment... why not? But they keep sending me all this crap paperwork for some reason (first time it's ...

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Rather than take some off my USO long position at $12, I decided to play it with options instead. Bought a Jul-15 $11.50 Put in case of any nastiness after next week's OPEC meeting, and reduced its price a little by selling a Jul-15 $14 Call. I ...

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Funny you should say that... I was just reading about Karen the Supertrader last night on tastytrade and how her strategy slowly evolved into simply selling strangles on the indices. Amazing! There are a few videos about her too, but to be honest ...

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Thanks for your honest reply ZS. It's very encouraging. I think that the proper use of options can result in an edge, but they are often misunderstood by beginners - especially the concepts of volatility, mispricing and time decay. I also think it ...

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Brilliant! Thank you very much for doing this, C.

Diversified Trend Trading Approach

Witty and informative C, as always. Keep up the good work mate

Diversified Trend Trading Approach

Here's hoping! I've been long USO a while now (ETF, not options). Keep wondering whether to take some off or not. Maybe at $12. Congratulations on your trade TF!

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I'll have to study that AAPL trade later. Work beckons unfortunately. Thanks for everything and catch you later.

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We are very alike. I'm also trading 5 figures, and also invest in real estate. Most of my spare cash is invested in balanced portfolios of stocks, bonds, gold and cash. I use the cash as margin for trading. So far it's working out well, but if ...

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