Saturday, February 3, 2018

Nasdaq killed my goose!

Here I was, about to go 13 for 14 on the NDX trade:

But I got this email just before the close on Thursday:

NDX Weekly PM-settlement Reminder


They (Nasdaq) changed the weekly options from A.M. Friday settlement to P.M. Friday, making a 4-hour (or less) trade into a 10-hour one, which makes all the difference. Especially this past Friday.

What I should have done (at the very least) would be to get up at market open and close the NDX positions. Instead I waited a little later and closed most of the ones I had on and only let one in my personal account (fortunately just a one-lot) go to expiration.

The really annoying part is that this would have in fact been a winner if a.m. settled, as NDS (the NDX settlement value, which is calculated anyway even if NDX isn't using it):

6,871.33

And I'd sold the 6870 put, so this would have been a full winner, again. Rats!


The real carnage in the market started later in the morning:




Fortunately the monthly NDX options are still a.m. settled, so I can still get this trade in 1 of every 4 or 5 weeks. But my plan was to do it every week and I'll have to find one or more substitutes.

That brings us to TSLA, which was 3 for 3 coming into Thursday If I want to do the Kelly Criterion analysis for this one I need to start gathering data, so: 

$0.32   14.6%  (on a $2.50 wide iron condor)
$0.57   29.5%
$0.59   30.9% 
$0.73   41.2%

... but the last one failed ... If I average these 4 I get $0.5525, or 28.3%. 

The Kelly Criterion for this at a 75% win rate is negative (i.e. "no bet!") But if I change the rate to 80%, it suggests you bet 9% of your account ...

More next week ...





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