3 losses in a row ... trying an alternative plan

It wasn't a flat week for the SPX, not by half:

I was short the 2890 calls for the Monday and Wednesday expirations ... bad news as the close was at around 2905 Monday and 2915 or so on Wednesday. That's losses of X and Y ...

I've been using a different system with a couple of smaller accounts: going further out in time and just taking a fraction of the credit instead of holding to expiration. I'm going to try something similar in a (somewhat) larger account ...

If we go out to 21 DTE (Days to Expiration) and sell an iron condor 3 times per week ... then the return taking 1/2 the credit is about the same as holding to expiration for the 4-5 day expirations we have been using.

But look how much wider we can go, especially to the downside:

• 5 DTE: short the 2865 put
• 21 DTE: short the 2780 put

Tastytrade research finds that to get half the credit, you (on average) have to wait half the time. So putting multiple ones of these on, every 2 days, you start to close them for the profit in 10 days and therefore (on average) every 2 days from then on.

If you aren't showing a profit (or a full profit) after 10 days, close it anyway and move on. You'll have other profitable trades surrounding it ...

Here's the existing results ... losing string was broken today ...

Expiration	Underlying	Long put	Short put	Short call	Long call	Credit Received	Result
07/16/2018/	SPX	2680	2730	2810	2860	$3.60	Won 100%
07/18/2018/	SPX	2700	2750	2820	2870	$3.95	Won 100%
07/20/2018/	SPX	2700	2750	2835	2885	$2.40	Won 100%
07/20/2018 (a.m.)/	NDX	7260	7310	7410	7460	$5.99	Won 100%
07/25/2018	SPX	2705	2755	2835	2885	$2.40	lost 16% of amount at risk
07/27/2018	SPX	2695	2745	2825	2875	$3.50	Won 100%
07/30/2018	SPX	2720	2770	2850	2900	$2.60	Won 100%
08/01/2018	SPX	2730	2780	2870	2920	$2.15	Won 100%
08/03/2018	CMG	430	450	490	510	$1.01	Won 100%
08/03/2018	AMZN	1692.5	1722.5	1887.5	1917.5	$2.60	Won 100%
08/06/2018	SPX	2720	2770	2860	2910	$2.05	Won 100%
08/08/2018	SPX	2740	2790	2860	2910	$2.05	Won 100%
08/10/2018	RUT	1610	1640	1710	1740	$1.53	Won 100%
08/10/2018	AMZN	1737.50	1767.50	1885	1915	$1.79	Lost about 30%
08/13/2018	SPX	2760	2810	2885	2935	$1.65	Won
08/15/2018	SPX	2760	2810	2860	2910	$3.80	Won
08/17/2018 (a.m.)	NDX	7310	7360	7460	7510	$4.42	Lost 7.07%
08/22/2018	SPX	2720	2770	2860	2910	$3.95	Won 70% of possible
08/24/2018	SPX	2745	2795	2880	2930	$3.30	Won 100%
08/24/2018	RUT	1600	1650	1715	1765	$2.16	Lost 17.7%
08/27/2018	SPX	2760	2810	2890	2940	$2.45	Lost 23%
08/29/2018	SPX	2770	2820	2890	2940	$2.95	Lost 47%
08/31/2018	SPX	2795	2845	2925	2975	$2.55	Won 100%

That's 17 for 22: 77.97% ...