My new Jul 13 DIA Iron Condor Option Position

Dear fellow options traders,

On 21/5/13, I've established a new DIA Iron Condor position using The ‘Uncle Joe’ Iron Condor Trading Plan.

Basically, the technique is to establish a iron condor options position which has at least 50 to 60 days till expiration, instead of the normal 30 days till expiration options.

Advantage :
1. better premium collected

Disadvantage :
1. higher capital outlay for setting up such a position.
2. because the position has a longer period till expiration, you may likely adjust the position during the life span of the iron condor.

But the iron condor course provides many techniques (a total of 10 techniques) on how to adjust the iron condor position to minimize further losses and could also turn the position around.

Sold 8 contracts of DIA Iron Condor. Capital outlay = $1,600. Possible credit = $679.

I will apply the adjustment techniques when necessary when the live price starts to threaten the determined maximum pain point.


Yours Truly,

Tony Chai
Options Trader (Singapore)

Update on my May/June 13 IWM Double Calendar Option Position

Dear fellow options traders,

On 19/4/13, I bought 8 contracts of IWM Double Calendar. Capital outlay = $1,432. Possible credit = $1,111.

The stock market kept moving up in a bullish trend. I have adjusted the double calendar position once.

However, the price surpassed my determined maximum pain point and I was hoping the price would retreat. It didn't.

*** You can subscribe to the free newsletter in the above link to understand how to determine your maximum pain point level - the price level that you really need to consider adjusting your iron condor position.

Thus, I decided to close the original plus the adjusted IWM Double Calendar positions on 15/5/13. This incurred a loss of $1256 plus commissions of $112.

If I had held on my position till the option expiration on 17/5/13, I would have lost more because IWM has reached a new high of 98.99. 

Yours Truly,

Tony Chai

Update on the DIA Iron Condor option position

Dear fellow option traders,

Here was the iron condor positions established on 19/4/13 :

Sold 8 contracts of DIA Iron Condor. Capital outlay = $1,088. Possible credit = $512.

The US stock market kept moving up. The Dow Jones Industrial Average reached 1,4973.96 points on 3/5/13. The SP 500 kept touching record high and reached 1,614.42 points on 3/5/13.

My DIA 138/140 bull put spreads reached their contingent buy back level and were closed on 30/4/13.

But I've made a few bad adjustments, in particular :

I was following this iron condor adjustment technique to buy some calls on the losing side of my iron condor. But I've mistakenly bought back some of the sold sides of my original bear call credit spread (ie. the 148 Calls) instead. It was a mistake but another great lesson learned as always.

Following the same iron condor course guidelines, I've placed some additional adjustments to minimize the loss incurred from the wrong adjustments. The course thus helps guide me to decide what to do when things go wrong with my iron condor option trade.

Thus when the market kept going up, I closed my DIA iron condor on 7/5/13 when there were minimal damage (at one point I was losing hundreds). I lost $48. But the wrong adjustments and remedy adjustments incurred a total commissions of $145 for the whole position.

I hope to be profitable in my next iron condor trade.


Yours Truly,

Tony Chai

New IWM Double Calendar and DIA Iron Condor

Dear fellow option traders,

On 10/4/13, the S&P 500 closed at a record high of 1,587.73 - eclipsing the record reached on March 28, when it climbed above the Oct 9, 2007, milestone of 1,565.15. It has since drifted down to 1555.25 points on 19/4/13.

Here are the 2 new positions established on 19/4/13 :

Sold 8 contracts of DIA Iron Condor. Capital outlay = $1,088. Possible credit = $512.

Bought 8 contracts of IWM Double Calendar. Capital outlay = $1,432. Possible credit = $1,111.

Yours Truly,

Tony Chai
P.S. You can test drive one of the latest iron condor course here!

Update of my option trades - IWM Double Calendar and SPY Iron Condor

Dear fellow options traders,

Updates for the option positions established on 15/3/13 :

On 15/3/13, I've sold 5 contracts of SPY Iron Condor. Capital outlay = $625. Possible credit = $375.

On 1/4/13, the limit order to buy back the SPY Apr13 151/149 at $0.10 put spread was activated.

What's remained was to wait for the limit order for the SPY Apr13 158/160 call spread to be triggered. But by 13/4/13, which was 2 days before expiration, the limit order was still not activated. I thus have to buy back the SPY Apr13 158/160 call spread at a loss of $14 per contract.

Thus, the total loss for the SPY Iron Condor position was actual breakeven but I've incurred $60 for the commissions for setting up the positions and closing the positions.


Update for the 5 contracts of IWM Double Calendar bought on 15/3/13, where capital outlay = $695. Possible credit = $480.

This was another painful lesson learned. When the price of the IWM was moving down from 12/4/13, I've set up the limit orders to sell my adjusted double calendar position established on 4/4/13 and my initial double calendar position that was established on 15/3/13.

The limit order for the adjusted double calendar position was activated but the limit order for the initial one was not.

The significant lesson learned was, the initial IWM double calendar position was in profit with at least $200 on 12/4/13, I should have just closed out the position quickly instead of depending on the limit order to do the job.

What ensued was that I watched the IWM price tumbled from 93 to 89 from 10/4/13 to 18/4/13 and my initial IWM double calendar position turned from a profitable position to a loss of more than $200.

Thus, on expiration day, I bought back my initial IWM position, for a total loss of $310 plus $100 commissions.

Lesson learned from this IWM double calendar position :

When you have registered a profit about a week or a few days before expiration, close the position. Do it manually if you have to. Don't rely too much on the limit order if you want to close out a position quickly.

The other lesson learned was, HOPE is a dirty word in trading. When your position has crossed your tolerable sell out price point, close the position at a smaller loss. Don't hope for the position to turn around, especially when there is insufficient time at your side (ie. days within expiration date).

Yours Truly,

Tony Chai