indiana*josh

No, I don't think they will. You now own zero of that particular IC (unless you were to re-open the necessary spread to complete the set again). What I would do is delete the IC from your quote monitor (since you don't have it anymore) and add a new combination consisting of the options that you do still have (i.e. the call spread, assuming you closed the puts). That way, you will be able to create orders in the future when you want to close the remaining spread. If you click on the Portfolio tab in the quote monitor, it will show you all of the individual options in which you still have a position, regardless of whether you opened them as part of a combo.

When you opened the IC, you actually opened positions in 4 distinct options. If you create a new combination consisting of 2 of those 4 options (say, the put spread), and close it, you will have closed your position in those 2 options. In fact, the quote monitor will show your position in the IC as being 0, because you no longer hold all 4 of those options. (Which can be misleading, because you still hold the other 2.) The various spreads and ICs are just convenient ways of thinking about certain combinations of options in the abstract, but your positions are always in the individual legs themselves. Hope that helps.

The way I do it is by building the call spread and the put spread as separate vertical spreads and adding them to the quote monitor. Then, I place GTC orders to close each spread individually when it reaches my target.

I find mobileTWS cumbersome to use, so I only use it when I have no other choice to place a trade. It seems like it would be almost impossible to rely on it as a primary way of trading. I would like to know if and how others here use the OptionTrader tool. I've used it a few times, but it seemed like I was always having to go back and forth between that and the main quote monitor screen, so now I mostly just use the latter. I do use multiple monitors - one for trading, and two more for my real job.

You have to do it through Account Management at the IB website. Dig through the menus on security and it's there somewhere. Let me know if you can't find it and I will take a look. Maybe I should look into this app people are describing - that sounds like a better setup than a plastic card.

It is cumbersome, but since I mostly trade at my desk, it's not too bad. To reduce the hassle, I scanned both sides of the card and pinned a shortcut to the image file directly to my Windows start menu so that it's very quick to open it up and view the card on the screen while I am logging into TWS in the morning. That also allows me to leave the card in my wallet so it's always there if I am out and about. That said, when I travel and plan to use the mobile interface, I usually disable the security card temporarily. It's very cumbersome to use with a phone because the on-screen keyboard often covers up the numbers I need to look up on the card. Also, when I switch between apps on the phone, it will require re-authentication sometimes when I switch back. I am probably taking on some additional risk by disabling it, even temporarily. But not as big as the risks created by my lousy trading habits.

+1 to what the others have been saying. I've been in similar circumstances when I didn't stick to proper position sizing and allowed a bad trade to get much worse. Better to walk away before it wipes you out. Even though you haven't realized the loss by exiting the position, the loss is already real. It's already happened. I'll also echo what luxmon said: If you weren't already in the position, would you enter that position now? I often find it helpful to frame my thinking that way. If you decide to hold, it's essentially the same as opening the position now (apart from the trading costs). Good luck!

Just curious - is anyone still in this position? The trade has lost most of its value since most of us entered. Is anyone thinking to roll out to a further expiration?

Thanks for the update, Chris. I'm still hanging with you!

I just added at 3.05.

I was kind of thinking the same thing.

I just keep the SO forum open in a browser tab and hit the "View New Content" button (upper right) periodically throughout the day to see only what has been posted since the time I checked. Yeah, it's something you have to remember to check on a frequent basis, but so is email. I probably look at it every hour or two. I also use pay close attention to the Twitter updates so I don't miss a trade alert. Those go straight to my phone.

If you're worried about losing your deer, maybe keep her in a cage?

Thanks, Bret. What I ended up doing was putting my total gain/loss on form 6781. I was using Tax Act and could not figure out a way to import my 100+ individual transactions, nor could I get it to accept an attachment (even though it will take attachments for Form 8949 for regular stock/option transactions). So, even though the IRS instructions say to list every individual 1256 transaction if they are not reported by your broker (which they aren't), I did not include the detailed info in my return. I guess they'll ask for it if they want it, and hopefully I'm too small to be worth the IRS' time. Just out of curiosity, where did Turbotax ultimately put all that information on the PDF of your return? Are all individual 1256 transactions listed on form 6781, or did it create some sort of supporting schedule? Thanks, Josh

Thanks for all the replies so far. One other related question: Are you actually itemizing each trade on form 6781, or just putting the totals? And if the latter, are you including IB's 1256 gain/loss worksheet as an attachment to your return? I'm using Tax Act Online and cannot figure out how to bulk upload transacations for form 6781 (even though it let me do so for my form 8949 transaction), nor can I figure out how to include IB's worksheet as an attachment. Does TurboTax make any of this any easier? It's a lot more expensive, but maybe I should switch to that product instead. (I may just do a paper return - I'm not sure all this complicated tax software is really making my life easier.) I appreciate any responses on what others are doing. I think many of us who follow SO are in this same boat, so let's help each other!