Grantx 

@ron99 is there a way to tell what the total market value at expiration is for a certain strike price? As an example, I found a site that shows strike value for AAPL stock: I am interested in futures market value though as I dont trade stocks. Thanks. ps Ill be slowly working my way through your thread. Trying to teach myself options trading. I've started on that book you mentioned in your first post.

Not sure why you want that data. What you you intend to use this for?

ron99 

Not sure why you want that data. What you you intend to use this for?

Curious that's all.

Off topic story about trader who made it big then blew up.

Quoting 

And while Aas suffered losses like most traders, since 2002 he’s posted a total taxable income of 3.5 billion kroner ($420 million).

Quoting 

Easily his best year was 2016 when he earned 833 million kroner and paid 227 million in tax, making him the top individual tax payer in Norway, where people’s returns are public documents.

A kroner is worth 12 cents US dollar. So he made about $100 million USD and paid $27 mil USD in taxes.

Quoting 

at 8:20 a.m. on Tuesday he was declared in default and put under administration. His portfolio was liquidated on Wednesday night.

Quoting 

Other clearing members -- banks, brokerages and utilities -- now will have to top up Nasdaq’s default fund that was used to help cover Aas’s losses to the tune of more than 100 million euros.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-09-15/phantom-trader-who-blew-a-hole-in-world-s-oldest-power-market?srnd=premium-europe

Moral of this story is, no matter how successful trading you are, if you are not careful, you can lose it all.

ES margin on futures and options is increasing 3.4% effective Friday Sep 21. https://www.cmegroup.com/content/dam/cmegroup/notices/clearing/2018/09/Chadv18-374.pdf

NG margin increasing 12.5%.

By mostly luck I don't have any ES put spreads on now. I had a slight gut feeling that things weren't going well but also I was trading something else.

I will backtest the strategy after this crash is over to see if it worked.

ron99 

By mostly luck I don't have any ES put spreads on now. I had a slight gut feeling that things weren't going well but also I was trading something else. I will backtest the strategy after this crash is over to see if it worked.

I have been selling Gold put credit spreads and it has been profitable( till its not) ROI% =4.5. Short-Long 3-8% OTM , DTE 100 days. When will you be getting back in to the ES trade Ron? Do you think the conditions are finally changing(concerning you trade strategy)?

Thanks

rajab 

I have been selling Gold put credit spreads and it has been profitable( till its not) ROI% =4.5. Short-Long 3-8% OTM , DTE 100 days. When will you be getting back in to the ES trade Ron? Do you think the conditions are finally changing(concerning you trade strategy)? Thanks

Good on the gold. It probably has hit a bottom.

When will I be getting back in? I have no idea.

Current fundamentals and political climate are not good for continued gain in the stock market.

ron99 

Good on the gold. It probably has hit a bottom. When will I be getting back in? I have no idea. Current fundamentals and political climate are not good for continued gain in the stock market.

I fully agree.

I stopped selling ES puts some weeks ago, and do not intend to start again before the elections in the US.

Best regards, Myrrdin

I wanted to see how the ES strategy, selling 2 puts 90-120 DTE that have a delta of -3.00 while buying 3 puts with a delta of -1.00 and using 6xIM would have worked this month during the large decrease in futures prices (-245 or 8.3%) over 22 calendar days.

I opened position on Oct 3rd. The date of the highest ES futures price. It was EW3f9p2270(-2)p1950(+3). 107 DTE. IM was $560. Net premium was 4.60.

Turns out the worst day was Oct 24th. But only 57.6% of 6xIM was used on that day. No where close to being on margin call. Drawdown was 24%. Not good, but it didn't knock me out of the position yet.

If I did the same ES spread position as in the post above but used 4xIM instead of 6xIM, it would have hit margin call on Oct 24th.