EU Bailout - Cyprus impose bank levy

Dear fellow traders,



Yours Truly,

Tony Chai

How to find the capital outlay for putting up a double calendar option trade

Dear fellow option traders,

To find out the capital outlay of putting up any trade, for instance, the double calendar - in the TOS (ThinkorSwim) platform :

1. Go to Monitor tab, select account statement.

2. Change the date view accordingly to the date that you wish to locate a specified trade

3. Select the trade that you want to check the capital outlay, right click on it, select "Analyze Duplicate Trade"

4. You'll be brought to the Analyze tab. Look at the "Price Slices" section. In the "Live" price row, look at the amount indicated under the column of "BP Effect". This will give you the capital outlay required for putting up the position, in this case, it's a double calendar position.

You will realize that for a double calendar position, the other way to know the capital outlay required would be to multiply the debit used to buy the double calendar position and multiply this amount by the no. of contracts.

Hope you find the above information useful.

By the way, the customer service at the ThinkorSwim platform is excellent. They are very knowledgeable in their trading platform and can provide you with very comprehensive steps explicitly.

Good Trading,

Tony Chai

Progress of option trades so far

Dear fellow option traders,

Here were the 2 trades that I had established last month :

Sold Iron Condor with DIA. 5 contracts. Have adjusted once. Bought back the Mar13 143/145 Call spread and extend the upper price range by selling 5 nos. of Mar13 144/146 Call spread.

On 11/3/13, bought back the Mar13 137/135 Put spread at $0.05.

As for the Double Calendar established with IWM on 16/2/13 with 5 contracts :

I sold the double calendar position at $2.01 for a profit of $170 (excluding commissions).

At the same time, established 2 new positions on 15/3/13 :

Sold Iron Condor with SPY. 5 contracts. capital outlay = $625. Possible credit = $375.

Bought Double Calendar with IWM. 5 contracts. capital outlay = $695. Possible credit = $480.


Yours Truly,

Tony Chai