temper

Hi Mikael, Sam, thank you for you inputs. Looks like I will need to look closer at that strategy after all.

The idea was more general: shorting volatility and betting on IV collapse is not the best idea as of now. Anyway link to webinar if anyone interested. http://www.smbtraining.com/blog/recording-noted-author-jeff-augen-introduces-the-weekly-short-butterfly-trade?inf_contact_key=a2bdef3b04cb7cb460300ac6e1a661a0b8df56eae0f29d4034061ffbeb62cc30

Actually there was webinar with Jeff Augen on OptionTribe. He mentioned short straddle strategy does not work any more, as market changed over tome. In general he adviced to go short butterfly, because stock tend to be volatile at the expiry unnerving ppl with short straddles and often accept losses. He mentioned short straddles used to work, but that's not the case now. I have not researched that idea further though.

Would October one not overlap with next earnings release before expiry and keep value better?

Looking at vxgog looks like there was significant drop today in IV (15.98 currently, which seem to be extremly low). Anyone any ideas why this would be the case? Could Friday expiry have effect on the subdued implied volatility? Other ideas?

quite provoking series from SA http://seekingalpha.com/article/1007921-android-is-dead-part-1-why a bit of googling about developers experiences with android shows aaple might be better ecosystem than android. Quite a surprise to me tbh. but maybe somebody better tech oriented would tell.

Am I looking at wrong book or is it now over 100$? down from 150...

Would love solution with my own laptop. But this is a day time job, need to be somehow discrete that I am trading not working. open office does not help on that either. As WiFi is avilable for work on whole site I presume that is behind firewall as well so no TWS. And no, IT will not help me trade during my work and will not open ports. Presume back to mobile apps solution.

Xfanman: Got what you say. TWS will not run behind firewall unfortunatelly, even as a desktop version. Tjlocke99: Yes, working full time and looking at the trades can be very creative. Working from Europe so at least part of the session could be avilable to me. Makes closing orders just before earnings a bit easier. I tried use limit orders to get into trades, but recently that means more often missing the trade than getting it. Especially when stock is moving. Will not necesserily wait for new iPhone: we tend to get things a bit later than in US. Thanks for all your replies.

Hi All, Thanks for replies. Xfanmann: I presume desktop versions are for apple only not windows? RobertB: not that techie person, but thanks for the lead, will do some search on that one. Will need to get a decent smartphone then. Looks like iphone would be the best one for that.

Is anyone using Webtrader for placing orders? I am working, so half of the day (and start of the session) behind firewall. And Webtrader is so slow that makes placing orders almost impossible. Can't imagine say rolling IC with this one. At times I am getting information that some script is running and making PC very slow. Has anyone had similar issue or could that be just my PC? Is mobile version of IB flexible enough to place/amend orders? Has anyone experience with other brokers while behind firewall?

Do not have other trades open as of now, If volatity stays low Monday would opening calendar September/July be a good option? That would be additional position to a straddle. Original idea was to take advantage of SPY movement and eventual volatility increase. Keeping August strike seemed to be safer from negative theta point of view. Calendar seem to be good idea though.

Tried similar idea Aug strangle, but market got out of my limit price in last minutes of trading. Hope Monday volatility stays low still. Kim, in that environment would July be better choice over longer term options?