SPY – 07/19/2016

This is another trade you should not attempt. I traded this one in my virtual account to show how difficult it is to make a decent return with an EFT. I normally only do Iron Condors on indexes. The other thing I did here was a short term two week expiration which I do not recommend for Iron Condors. There are people that trade weekly or shorter term Iron Condors and make money, but I find it too difficult and you have to watch them constantly. Not the way I like to trade Iron Condors, if I have to defend one I am in a bad position already. With short term ones you will defend far to many.

With SPY trading at $215.80 I placed my Iron Condor by selling the 216.50 Call and covering it with the 217 Call. I also sold the 216 Put and purchased the 215.50 Put to cover it. Not a normally Iron condor set up with SPY at $215.80 but I thought it was going up.

In the end I did make money but it was more due to a drop in volatility than anything else. I sold the position at the best possible time and got lucky 14 days later. I made $310.00 not including commissions. If I traded this in my cheapest commission account I would have probable netted $260.00 because of the number of contracts. Still not a bad return but I have not found short term condors worth my time and effort as a whole.

Date	Sym	Action	Exp	Strike	Price	Cont	Type	Cost	Balance
07/16/16	SPY	BTO	8WK1	217	-$1.28	10	Call	-$1,280.00	-$1,280.00
07/16/16	SPY	STO	8WK1	216.5	$1.53	10	Call	$1,530.00	$250.00
07/16/16	SPY	STO	8WK1	216	$2.02	10	Put	$2,020.00	$2,270.00
07/16/16	SPY	BTO	8WK1	215.5	-$1.82	10	Put	-$1,820.00	$450.00
08/02/16	SPY	STC	8WK1	217	$0.45	10	Call	$450.00	$900.00
08/02/16	SPY	BTC	8WK1	216.5	-$0.55	10	Call	-$550.00	$350.00
08/02/16	SPY	BTC	8WK1	216	-$1.40	10	Put	-$1,140.00	-$790.00
08/02/16	SPY	STC	8WK1	215.5	$1.10	10	Put	$1,100.00	$310.00