Question about fills

[Mattatut 24]

I have been a member twice for steady options and couldn’t make it work because of my schedule and never being able to get the same fills. Question is, are the other products difficult to get the same fills as you all get?
 

I’m thinking of doing the bundle, but don’t want to spend the money if I can’t get the fills. I’m especially interested in Anchor Trades.

 

Also, I use Fidelity and I’m not switching as its just too much hassle and too many things tied together to go elsewhere. People in the past said that was my challenge in getting fills.
 

One last question, could you use Anchor for larger sums such as $500K? What about the others...besides steady futures...I have no interest there. Could you do $200k in each, besides SO as I know the fills would get much tougher if trading that many contracts. 
 

I’d like to stick a chunk of my portfolio into this and see what I can do with it instead of being at the whims of the overall market considering all the BS going on in the US right now. 
 

Thanks all. 

[Kim 7,943]

Anchor trades SPY options, the most liquid instrument on the market, so no issues with fills or scalability. PutWrite is similar, with very liquid instruments like XSP, IWM, EFA, and EEM. Absolutely no issues here as well. 
 

[Ringandpinion 1,657]

Among all the other things I've learned on SO, getting better fills has been one of them.  I use IB and TOS, fillls are about the same.  I almost never get into SO trades at the open for the official price, but I don't chase very much, not over 1% at first.  If I really want into the trade, I may chase a little more the next day.  Usually the price comes back to the official but sometimes not, I'm not in the BABA trade and I thought it would be a good one, but by the time I was willing to chase more than 1%, it was too late, might still come back.  But when I first joined, several people told me they were usually in trades before they became official and that they were doing SO style trades of their own.  THAT is what I wanted to do and am doing now.  Sometimes I'm in a trade already and the official comes out for a cheaper entry, Aaaacccckkkk!!!  But that's still the best way to beat the "better fills" problem.  Learn to do your own trades in the SO style and it won't matter if you can match the official trades.

 

@Mattatut Sounds like you need to really work on allocation and hedging.  I've read up a lot on both and if you have a big retirement chunk, you really need to diversify in and out of the market.  I cannot put my $ in the market as long positions.  I'm a "the wheels are coming off" personality, I can't believe our economic system has survived this long with all the blows it has taken before last year's Corona Zombie Apocalypse much less afterwards.  So I'm thinking more like a prepper these days.  I have absolutely no faith in any government or organization or group or ideology that we can keep things going as they are, so I try really hard to watch for when the Sword of Damocles will part the restraining hair and down it comes.

 

Moral of the story, give yourself time, and enjoy the education and community of SO, you'll figure out all the nuances of this kind of trading sooner or later.  If I've learned this much, you sure can.

[Mattatut 24]

2 minutes ago, Ringandpinion said:

Among all the other things I've learned on SO, getting better fills has been one of them.  I use IB and TOS, fillls are about the same.  I almost never get into SO trades at the open for the official price, but I don't chase very much, not over 1% at first.  If I really want into the trade, I may chase a little more the next day.  Usually the price comes back to the official but sometimes not, I'm not in the BABA trade and I thought it would be a good one, but by the time I was willing to chase more than 1%, it was too late, might still come back.  But when I first joined, several people told me they were usually in trades before they became official and that they were doing SO style trades of their own.  THAT is what I wanted to do and am doing now.  Sometimes I'm in a trade already and the official comes out for a cheaper entry, Aaaacccckkkk!!!  But that's still the best way to beat the "better fills" problem.  Learn to do your own trades in the SO style and it won't matter if you can match the official trades.

 

@Mattatut Sounds like you need to really work on allocation and hedging.  I've read up a lot on both and if you have a big retirement chunk, you really need to diversify in and out of the market.  I cannot put my $ in the market as long positions.  I'm a "the wheels are coming off" personality, I can't believe our economic system has survived this long with all the blows it has taken before last year's Corona Zombie Apocalypse much less afterwards.  So I'm thinking more like a prepper these days.  I have absolutely no faith in any government or organization or group or ideology that we can keep things going as they are, so I try really hard to watch for when the Sword of Damocles will part the restraining hair and down it comes.

 

Moral of the story, give yourself time, and enjoy the education and community of SO, you'll figure out all the nuances of this kind of trading sooner or later.  If I've learned this much, you sure can.

Thanks Ringandpinion....I’ve really wanted to learn more both times I had the service, I just didn’t have the time to. I’ve been a hospital CEO for 15 years and the job requires very, very long hours. 
 

However, in December I decided I wasn’t happy where I was and I had a family member who had the coronavirus bad and was really sick, so I resigned from my job. It may take 2 months to land another job or it may take a year. I’m sitting on over a million that isn’t in my retirement account and wanted to do something other than what I’m currently doing. I just, like you, feel that everything is really effed up and can’t believe valuations are where they are.
 

Even though I am a huge Fidelity hack I did move a chunk to JP Morgan last year and all they do is put it into their different funds. I’m in the balanced, international, tech, innovators and healthcare. But it’s amazing how they all seem to get beat up when tech does...it’s weird. I told my advisor I thought it wasn’t balanced enough and he’s just looking at the last 12 years and thinking it’s going to keep doing the same. I personally think we are pretty well screwed. Debt, inflation, socialist desires by our society to give, give give...all while we have the market at all time highs. How the heck can it keep going up?? So I’m going to leave JP Morgan, and move EVERYTHING back to Fidelity because I love their overall services. 
 

These services here are doing much better than I am, so I’m like why am I giving JP Morgan 1% when I can be here and make more....

Sorry, long winded, but that’s my story. 

And as for prepper...I hear ya, you should see my basement! Lol! 

[Kim 7,943]

The way I see it - the big advantage of Anchor is that you don't really have to worry about market timing. We all have our opinions about the markets and the economy, but the markets will do whatever they want, not what we think they should do. When you do a strategy like Anchor, all our opinions don't matter. We are in the market all the time, and we are protected against the market crash. Honestly, if I didn't know better, I would say that this is the holy grail of investing.

[Mattatut 24]

3 minutes ago, Kim said:

The way I see it - the big advantage of Anchor is that you don't really have to worry about market timing. We all have our opinions about the markets and the economy, but the markets will do whatever they want, not what we think they should do. When you do a strategy like Anchor, all our opinions don't matter. We are in the market all the time, and we are protected against the market crash. Honestly, if I didn't know better, I would say that this is the holy grail of investing.

TBH...that’s why I was asking about the amounts you can put into Anchor. It seems almost too good to be true...but obviously it isn’t. Perhaps I put most of my allocation into that strategy? First I have to unwind from JP Morgan....which is a royal pain in the ass and going to create some tax consequences....

[Ringandpinion 1,657]

@Mattatut I am fearful of heavy on long.  I really like the SO style of hedging individual positions.  I'm riding with the SS trades and keeping the SPY hedge in place, but they are essentially long positions so I'm not totally on board yet.  I keep waiting for the balloon to go up.  I really have been waiting for economic chaos for 30 years, I just can't see why the system holds up, probably because I am too much of a misanthrope. 

 

That said, I'm not going to cry in my beer about it, I try to enjoy every day I wake up.  I guarantee there will time for weeping later, why try to beat the rush to misery.  And as for my "prepper" nature, I started with a "hurricane" emergency kit years ago.  We had food, water and emergency power for a big storm.  Those supplies have grown and now we are empty nesters, so they will go a lot further.  If I could only sweet talk the wife into getting further from the big city (50 miles from Houston is not enough), I would feel better.  Then again, I'm approaching fossildom and don't really have that much of a long term to worry about. 😁

[Mattatut 24]

2 hours ago, Ringandpinion said:

@Mattatut I am fearful of heavy on long.  I really like the SO style of hedging individual positions.  I'm riding with the SS trades and keeping the SPY hedge in place, but they are essentially long positions so I'm not totally on board yet.  I keep waiting for the balloon to go up.  I really have been waiting for economic chaos for 30 years, I just can't see why the system holds up, probably because I am too much of a misanthrope. 

 

That said, I'm not going to cry in my beer about it, I try to enjoy every day I wake up.  I guarantee there will time for weeping later, why try to beat the rush to misery.  And as for my "prepper" nature, I started with a "hurricane" emergency kit years ago.  We had food, water and emergency power for a big storm.  Those supplies have grown and now we are empty nesters, so they will go a lot further.  If I could only sweet talk the wife into getting further from the big city (50 miles from Houston is not enough), I would feel better.  Then again, I'm approaching fossildom and don't really have that much of a long term to worry about. 😁

What part of Houston? I used to live in Beaumont. 

[Ringandpinion 1,657]

I live south of Houston in Angleton.  Lived on the water down in Freeport for 14 years and ran a business serving the petrochemical industry.  Sold the business in 2017 and moved 12 miles to the north to Angleton.  Nice area, Brazoria County is one big river bottom so it is filled with beautiful hardwoods, good soil and lots of things to do.  Buuuuuttttt, Houston is fast growing this way and the population has exceeded my density tolerance.

[Mattatut 24]

17 minutes ago, Ringandpinion said:

I live south of Houston in Angleton.  Lived on the water down in Freeport for 14 years and ran a business serving the petrochemical industry.  Sold the business in 2017 and moved 12 miles to the north to Angleton.  Nice area, Brazoria County is one big river bottom so it is filled with beautiful hardwoods, good soil and lots of things to do.  Buuuuuttttt, Houston is fast growing this way and the population has exceeded my density tolerance.

I can understand. I ran the big hospital in Port Arthur for years, lived in Beaumont, but got tired of the crime...my wide almost got car jacked in the Target parking lot with my kids in the back seat. I said F this! I’m out. 
 

I was offered one of the hospitals in downtown Houston, St. Joseph’s, you may know it...and turned it down. Didn’t want 2 hours in the car every day. 
 

Houston is just growing so fast....it’s incredible. 

[Ringandpinion 1,657]

Texas, as a rule, has been growing fast for the last 3 decades.  As other states make it more expensive to operate a business, Texas benefits with a business friendly environment, at least relatively so.  Texas still has all the BS red tape and nanny state crap to keep bloating the rolls with more bureaucrats.  It's just better than the other more socialist states, until all the arrivals from those states with failed economic policies institute said failed economic policies in Texas, which is happening.