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Based on numerous requests, I would like to describe a process of placing a trade on Interactive Brokers platform. First, it is important to understand that getting good fills is critical in short term trading. Trading is a business. As in any business, prices are involved, and our profitability of success will always depend on our ability to get good fills. Every business revolves around this cost equation. If getting good prices was so easy, there wouldn't be any markets/any business... There are several ways to do it. Here are the steps I'm using. 1. Add a new Quote Monitor. 2. Add a security you want to trade. 3. Open a combo trader for that security (right click on the row, then select Combination/Options Combos. 4. From the combo trader, select the appropriate strategy, then expiration and strikes. 5. Click OK or Add. You will see the appropriate combo with the individual legs. 6. Observe the combo mid based on the individual legs (it might be not the same as the mod of the combo). 7. Click on the ask to buy or the bid to sell. Change the order value - I usually start slightly below the mid to buy or above the mid to sell. Change the number of contracts. 8. Click on T (Transmit). A preview window will open. Make sure the order is correct for all legs, then click Transmit. 9. Once the order is transmitted, you can wait few minutes - if not filled, start increasing the bid gradually. 10. Once filled, the combo row will show the number of contracts. To close it, right click on it and select Trade/Close Position. Let me know if you have any questions.

I would like to describe the process of making an adjustment, using our current YUM trade as an example. We started with the 70 straddle. As the stock moved higher, I made the following adjustment: Sell to close YUM October 18 2013 70.0 call Buy to open YUM October 18 2013 72.5 call Price: $1.31 credit. Basically what we are doing here is selling the 70/72.5 vertical spread. So this is what we need to do: 1. Open a combo trader for YUM (right click on the row, then select Combination/Options Combos. 2. From the combo trader, select vertical strategy, then expiration and strikes. 3. Click OK or Add. You will see the appropriate combo with the individual legs. 4. Click on the ask to buy or the bid to sell. In this case, we want to sell the vertical since we are selling the 70 strike and buying the 72.5 strike. Since we are selling it, we will get a credit, and we want to click on the bid and increase the value to get as much credit as possible. Rest of the steps are similar to the opening order. After you are filled, the adjusted position will be a 70/72.5 strangle. You will need to re-create the position in order to close it as one single trade.