The Options Thread

This guy's good, if you want entries as they occur: https://twitter.com/michaellistman Also, a bunch of good info if you're willing to go back in time and read his informational posts ... . He's got bigger balls than I do and/or is just plain more patient/confident in outcome and takes spreads to max profit, while I'm more likely to just money, take, run at 50% max ... .

Slowly catching up here ... . I've been enormously lax.

Here's what I've got on now; it isn't much:

VXX Feb 2nd 27.50/30.5 long put vert:

https://www.tradingview.com/chart/VX...-PUT-VERTICAL/

Comments: Just your standard fare first OTM short put, three-wide in the weekly ... .

VXX Feb 16th 27/29 long put vert (2x2):

https://www.tradingview.com/chart/VX...-PUT-VERTICAL/

Comments: Intended to be an "exemplar trade" to demonstrate how to scale to account size with a narrower spread, but a larger contract number ... .

VIX April 18th 14/17 long put vertical:

https://www.tradingview.com/chart/VI...-PUT-VERTICAL/

Coments: Intended to be an "exemplar trade" to demonstrate how to take advantage of medium-term (M4-M7) contango drift using VXMT as a guide.

This week, I'm basically waiting for the Feb 9th weekly to open up to do my standard first OTM/3-wide weekly long put vert in VXX ... . Given where VXX is sitting now, they'll either be Feb 9th 27.5/30.5's or 27/30's where I can get filled for a 2.30 debit/contract or less (.70 credit or more if you're working the short call vertical end of things).

Naturally, I'll keep my eye out for VXST/VIX ratio pops to >1.00 or VVIX pops to >110 to add in spreads higher up the ladder, but those pops have been sporadic and short-lived ... . My guess is that if a pop is going to occur, it'll be around the end of the year/first of the year, as big dicks dump crap piles for tax loss and do the "2018 repositioning dance" ... .

Opening: VXX Feb 16th 28/31 long put vertical for a 2.28/contract debit:

https://www.tradingview.com/chart/VX...-PUT-VERTICAL/

Frankly, was somewhat surprised that this appeared to have a 2.27 mid at open, since 28 is right at the money, and the market doesn't usually accommodate that kind of fill unless the short put is deeper ... .

I was going to wait for the February 9th's to open, but I have a "spot" within the nooks and crannies of my February 16th 27/29 2x2 long put vertical to squeeze this in here and if someone's going to fill me for 2.30 or less on a three-wide, well, who am I to question ... .