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.

Q: Sir why call option premiums are higher the put?

A: It usually happens when there is big difference between spot & future.

Example

BN Spot: 35110
BN Future: 35300
BN Synthetic Future: 35150

It depends on our perception of what is ATM & accordingly match the calls & puts.

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/

@javia_savan You answered it yourself 🙂
Adjustment cost is way too high for bnf. Sometimes bnf does exceed nifty in vol crush, but nifty overall is more consistent.

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.

Short Strangle

Net credit with a sideways stance

A thread 🧵

#options #trading

1/ Short Strangles

As the name suggests, you need to sell options in this strategy

It involves 2 legs:

Short OTM CE

Short OTM PE

2/ Stance

You expect the market to trade within a narrow range. A narrow range means low volatility and hence lowering option premium due to theta decay

3/ Net Credit Strategy

Shorting options means that you will receive premium

Ex Nifty spot 16200

To create Short Strangle

Short 16300CE @92

Short 16100PE @132

Total premium received = 92 + 132 = 224

4/ Maximum Profit

The max profit is the premium received at entering the strategy, possible when the market expires within or at the selected strikes

In the Ex, expiry at or between 16100 or 16300, means options go worthless due to theta decay and you receive 224 points per lot

Option trading is tough but here’s what can make it easier for you

8 option strategies that you can use in any market (sold as a ₹ 50,000 course !)

1/ Bullish: Put Spread (Vertical Spread)

This means shorting a near OTM Put Options and buying far OTM Put Options to hedge.

Let's consider, I am bullish on Nifty (Spot: 17900).

So I will short 17800 PE and buy 17600 PE as hedge.

Payoff and other details is attached below.

2/ Bullish: Put Spread (Cross Calendar Spread)

It means shorting a near ATM put of current expiry and buying OTM put option of next expiry to reduce margin.

Let's consider, I am bullish on Nifty (Spot: 17900).

So I will short 17800 PE (22/09) and buy 17600 PE (29/09).

If you are unsure of the view then cross calendar spread can be used as profit is good in between the range.

Decay in the far OTM option for next expiry will be less than current expiry options so that will be again a benefit.

3/ Bearish: Call Spread (Vertical Spread)

This means shorting a near OTM Call Options and buying far OTM Call Options to hedge.

Let's consider, I am Bearish on Nifty (Spot: 17900).

So I will short 18000 CE and buy 18200 CE as hedge.

Payoff and other details is attached below.

In this thread, I'll walk you through my set up, absorb it as much as you can.
The instrument that I trade in are Nifty (NF) options
Thanks to @AdityaTodmal @niki_poojary for contributing in making this

How to set your charts:

Lets try to understand what to sell when 50EMA, VWAP & RSI works in different scenarios

What options to sell and how to place the SL

Important to have a birds eye view when trading in NF options as many stocks influences its movement