Since IRONFLY is the flavour these days, sharing my own thread. It has GREEKS incorporated which automatically reduces wing size & risk.

P.S. No one specifically invented ironfly & it's adjustments. A good trader can figure it out on his own. I've been doing it on & off for yrs.

A THREAD

Topic: HOW TO TRADE IN RISING PREMIUMS SCENARIO

Option sellers specially Straddle sellers feel that rising premiums give them excellent opportunity to make easy money. So what they are seeing is the theta aspect of options & ignoring the delta/gamma/vega forces.

1/

With rising premiums come high delta moves. There is a reason why premiums are all increasing up in the first place. High uncertainty & fear is what's controlling the markets during such times. So a volatile 200 point move in nifty is always on the cards.

2/

Adjusting during such delta moves involves high slippages. Such costs go in our system & are irrecoverable. So if the ATM straddle is around 400 & after 200 point downmove, the next straddle is at 450 & the loss is not just 50points but compounded much more.

3/

Also there are chances that there is no decay throughout the day. So a straddle seller has to take that heavy risk of carrying it forward & chances of gap openings are high during such times. If converted into Ironfly, then the cost of the wings is too expensive.

4/

Thus cutting down the initial credit significantly.

There will also be very few instances when premiums don't fall till expiry day. So with each delta move the cost of holding a straddle gets accumulated & pressure keeps mounting for the stubborn option sellers.

5/

THREAD ON DELTA (The most important GREEK)

Many traders don't indulge in understanding GREEKS because they think they are very complicated.

There are 4 primary greeks:

Delta
Gamma
Theta
Vega

In my experience, understanding DELTA is enough to take benefit of greeks.(1/n)

Delta measures the rate of change of options price based on the directional movement of the underlying.

So this means we can know in advance (theoretically) how much an option will move with the underlying & so we can prepare our strategies accordingly. (2/n)

Value of delta varies between 0 & 1 for calls and -1 & 0 for puts. This figure tells how much an option price will change, when the underlying moves 1 point. So example a delta of .2 of call indicates that for every 1 point change in the underlying, the price will move .2 (3/n)

For option writers who want to trade in neutral strategies like straddle, strangle, ratios, calendar etc, delta can be very helpful. So be it any complex strategy, knowing the NET DELTA can give you an idea of how your strategy will perform in different scenarios. (4/n)

Net delta is just the sum of the deltas of all the bull options (call+ & put-) minus the bear options (call- & put+).

So if we can track this, we will always be in the know of how much exposed our position is. It makes it easier then to adjust our position. (5/n)

10 mistakes in my 14 years of trading as an option seller 🧵

1. Staying neutral all the time. Majority of the years i have been a neutral option seller. I now realise that having a little sense of direction would have given me an added advantage with better utilisation of capital & also leverage (till the time it was available).

2. Too much importance on adjustments. Initially like most of the new option sellers, i had this notion that i can perfect my adjustment skills for any market conditions. Ofcourse i was wrong. Market is supreme & we need to respect it at times.

3. Not giving importance to greeks. For initial 6 years i didn't even know the existence of greeks. Since i started using them, option selling has become rather less complicated on the contrary of what most people believe.

4. Having too much confidence on the certainty of theta decay. Enough is said about it already. Theta decay is not an edge.

Understanding HIGH & LOW VIX

VIX at 16: If you check today's IV behaviour, they were not spiking much even with decent delta move in BNF. The movement was subtle, giving some time to adjust. So someone having good adjustment mechanism can stay in the game longer.

1/

VIX at 20: The same delta move will be more fierce, coupled with rise in premiums. When premiums rise with movement, then the adjustment cost increases exponentially. The premiums can fall back at EOD, but the damage is done if caught in the spike.

2/

After talking to few traders, their backtest result was in favor of high VIX of 2020, rather than 2017-19. The key flaw in the backtest were the adjustments which are not easy to calculate. Combination of high theta & fixed SL during high VIX, the IV crush is cashed at EOD.

3/

Neutral option sellers who don't adjust & have fixed SL on a static straddle will not be able to benefit highly in low VIX. The straddle which moves away from ATM will increase no matter what. But if we keep on rolling our strikes, then we get good realisation of theta.

4/

I have made majority of my profits in option selling when VIX was at 13-15, mostly just relying on my adjustments. Since 2020 with high VIX, adjustments stopped working because of increase in the frequency of delta + IV spike combos & so had to shift to directional trading.

5/

THREAD ON IRONFLY

These days the most preferred strategy for option sellers due to improved margins is IRONFLY. It's essentially a short straddle with long strangle. Long strangle acting as 'WINGS', which help in capping the unlimited risk associated with a short straddle.(1/n)

You can also view the position as a combination of Cal & Put credit spreads, if that makes it more easy for you.

There are 3 important things to understand while trading this strategy:

1) Initial size of the Wings
2) Risk Management
3) Adjustments

(2/n)

Since we are selling an ATM straddle, the 1st question is how far our wings should be? Ideally i sell .50 delta straddle & buy .20 or .10 OTM strangle, depending on my view on volatility. So the distance of wings depends on the IV setup. Higher the IVs, greater the distance.(3/n)

If you don't understand greeks, then ideally with 30 days to expiry (dte), wings should be around 300pts either side. If your trading in weekly then it should be not more than 200pts. Higher the premiums, higher the distance as we have more cushion of theta. (4/n)

It is important to understand that we need to reduce the distance of wings with time so as to manage our RISK in gap openings or sudden volatile move. So for eg. if you started with 300pt wings with 30dte, the wings wouldn't give the same protection when there is 7dte. (5/n)

Thread on
"Intraday Banknifty Strangle based on OI data"

(System already shared, today just share few examples)
(1/n)

-Trade timing after 9:45

-Check Banknifty change in OI data at 9:45, and identify the highest OI built up in call side and put side

-We will sell both strikes with combined premium as SL on both legs.
(2/n)

28th June 2021

BN open-35440
At 9:45 trading at 35350
Highest OI in call side at 35500 CE and 35000 at put side
Strike selection 35500 CE- 35000 PE
(3/n)

29th June 2021

BN open-35323

At 9:45 trading at 35112

Highest OI in call side at 35300 CE and 35000 at put side

Strike selection 35300 CE (232) - 35000 PE (150) Combined premium 382 , Both legs SL 382
(4/n)

30th June 2021

BN open-35030

At 9:45 trading at 35002

Highest OI in call side at 35000 CE and 35000 at put side

Strike selection 35000 CE(176)- 35000 PE(213) Combined premium 389 , Both legs SL 389
(5/n)

A THREAD:

BEST OPTIONS STRATEGY FOR CONSISTENT INCOME -

OPTIONS WHEEL STRATEGY

Everything to know about this strategy I'm posting in this thread.

(1/12)

Step 1: Stock Selection

1. For this strategy you're going to have to choose some stocks that you think will be doing well in the future/long term.

2. Stock must be in an uptrend.

3. Stock options should be liquid enough to trade in.

4. List of stocks attached

(2/12)

Step 2: Which option to sell?

1. Sell put at a support according to charts.

2. Sell put at a strike far away from the spot where you think the probability of the stock falling will be very very low.

3. Sell put at a price where you're willing to buy the stock at.

(3/12)

Step 3: What to do when in profit/loss?

1. If in profit you can just roll up the puts thereby increasing the ROI or shift to other stocks to make more profit.

2. If in loss take delivery of the shares equivalent to the lot size in cash market.

(4/12)

Step 4: What to do after taking the delivery?

1. Sell calls to lower your cost price of the stock. For eg, you took delivery of Reliance at 1900, sell 2100 CE which is about 10% away.

2. Keep doing this till your CE expires ITM and then give delivery of your stock away

(5/12)

Ever wonder how traders get in stocks before they explode? 🧐

Or find options that move 1,000% in a single day/week?🤯

I made a thread going over exactly how I find these stocks BEFORE they take off 🚀
👇👇👇

So, let's start with the software I use…

Finviz!! Finviz is a free website that I use to scan for stocks.

They have a lot of other cool features as well, but I only use their scanner.
👇

Head on over to finviz and go to the screener

Click on the “All” tab on the top and put in the criteria in the next tweet
👇

This is the first scan that I use for bullish swing setups
✅Quarter +10%
✅Week Down
✅Vol over 400k
✅Optionable
✅Price > $20
👇

The next scan I use is the opposite of the first one.

Simply change:
✅Quarter +10% to -10%
✅Week Down to Week up

This is my bearish scan for swing setups. 👇

How to avoid blowing up your account trading OPTIONS
(A thread)

1. Becoming consistently profitable trading OPTIONS takes practice and discipline.

2. Trading Options is similar to trading stock, YOU are in control of your profits per movement (up or down) in the underlying.

3. Buying a CALL- You pay a Premium price based on the STRIKE price you choose. With a call you get paid when the stock moves up

4. Buying a PUT- You pay a premium price based on the STRIKE price you chose. With PUTS you get paid when the underlying stock price goes down

5. Premium price goes up when the trade moves in your favor (call betting upside, put betting downside movement)
6. The goal is to buy a premium and resell it for a higher premium when the trade works
7. Like basic stock trading, you want to scale in and out of your position

9. People see cheap premium and tend to pick those, not knowing in reality they are risking more!
10. Don’t let the premium price dictate which strike you chose.. the higher the premium, the less risk/ volatility that trade will see!

11. When day trading options, you are essentially trading DELTA
12. Delta is what your premium will pay per dollar movement in underlying.
Ex. Delta .5 pays 50c per dollar movement in underlying
So if original cost =50$ premium,
1$ move up in underlying pays .50 or 100% trade

🔫🚨MY EDUCATIONAL CONTENT IN A THREAD🚨🔫

Here's a little thread I put together with some of the strategies I utilize every day in my trading.

1. @unusual_whales Intraday Analyst
2. Scalping
3. Scaling Out
4. Watchlists
5. Indicators

(1/5) This is a PowerPoint presentation I put together using @unusual_whales intraday analyst to find trades.

(2/5) My Scalping Strategy

(3/5) Scaling Out

(4/5) Building Watchlists