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)
So as the premiums decay, we need to gradually reduce the distance of wings.

Now on to ADJUSTMENTS. When the index moves it is important to also move with it in this strategy. This is because if we don't then the initial credit received will reduce drastically. (6/n)
An example. Nifty is trading at 13500. You sell 13500 straddle & buy 13800-13200 strangle. If Nifty moves 200pts up, your sold straddle will have lesser theta value & your strangle will have higher as 13800 cal will increase. So your overall credit will drastically reduce. (7/n)
So if market moves one direction, one sold option becomes ITM (means less credit) & one wing comes closer to ATM (means higher debit). So the overall theta received becomes less or even nil. That's a practical problem which is why adjustment is required to receive max theta.(8/n)
For how to do adjustments, best way is to treat Ironfly as a straddle with added protection. So try to keep the straddle near to ATM & when the wings are tested only then adjust them. This way you'll always have maximum credit received which is important in this strategy. (9/n)
What i have explained is a neutral approach on how to trade Ironfly with max credit received. Many try to trade it by exiting the losing leg & keep a TSL on the winning leg. Personally I'm not a fan of this way but that's because I don't want to trade direction like this.(10/n)
Many advocate Ironfly as an easy 4% strategy. It's not. Requires expertise in when to adjust & how much the wing size should be. With experience such issues can be dealt with. Overall it's a good strategy specially for those who want to take less risk with limited capital.(11/n)

More from Sarang Sood

Hello! Welcome to my profile.

This is Master thread of all the useful tweets (imo) that i have shared in the past. Going through them may provide some knowledge on options, volatility, greeks & trading psychology. Will keep updating in the future.

Thanks for following 🙏

👇👇

https://t.co/PKoiCFSrXJ


https://t.co/Qd3VpXcBlN


https://t.co/5AtqFPYFgA


https://t.co/imMobLg7fv

More from For later read

I shared this on my FB page and asked, can ya really blame him?

I was half kidding. I also assumed someone would think of what I did pretty quickly and waiting for the comment to mention what I assumed was obvious.

The timing. I was sure someone else had thought of it.


But no one did. 20+ comments in people discussed the morality or bad sense or libertarian perspectives. Someone even said I’m thinking about doing that. No one said what I thought was obvious. Have you thought of it? Is it obvious to you?

Here’s a clue...recognize it?


How about this?


The author discusses it with Mike Wallace in 1958

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A THREAD ON @SarangSood

Decoded his way of analysis/logics for everyone to easily understand.

Have covered:
1. Analysis of volatility, how to foresee/signs.
2. Workbook
3. When to sell options
4. Diff category of days
5. How movement of option prices tell us what will happen

1. Keeps following volatility super closely.

Makes 7-8 different strategies to give him a sense of what's going on.

Whichever gives highest profit he trades in.


2. Theta falls when market moves.
Falls where market is headed towards not on our original position.


3. If you're an options seller then sell only when volatility is dropping, there is a high probability of you making the right trade and getting profit as a result

He believes in a market operator, if market mover sells volatility Sarang Sir joins him.


4. Theta decay vs Fall in vega

Sell when Vega is falling rather than for theta decay. You won't be trapped and higher probability of making profit.