Let’s define the iron condor option trading strategy. It’s a way of attempting to profit from the options contracts market when the market does NOT move. Of course options traders try to utilize strategies that can take advantage of movements in the market. Many times – and maybe most of the times – there is not a lot of movement and the underlying just trades in a range, leaving the options being traded to expire with no value on expiration day. These types of trading range markets are ideally suited for the iron condor option trading strategy.
Creating the iron condor can be thought of as merging one short and one long strangle paired together at two outer strikes. ‘Strangles’ can be both bought and sold and it is a trade where both a put and a call option is purchased some distance away from where the underlying is trading at. When you sell a straddle – quite a bit of premium credit can be brought into the account as you are selling options that are right ‘at the money’ – opposed to when you sell a strangle the premiums are quite less since you are selling options that are farther away. A different way to imagine the iron condor option trading strategy is to think of it as 2 credit spreads – a bull put spread and a bear call spread. Your paired positions are the condor’s wings.
Let’s imagine that the SPX is at 1300 and you buy the June call option at 1370 for a premium of $2.50, and simultaneously you buy the June put option for $4.50. If you are working with an options friendly broker – the required margin will be the difference between the two strikes – or the difference in the spread. In our imaginary scenario you’ll need $1,300 for this spread.
Here is how it looks:
1380 at $2.45
1360 at $4.55
What this shows is that that the credit you bring in is about two dollars.
$15 dollars minus $2 dollars = Thirteen – then times this by one spread (100 contracts) equals about $1,320.00 dollars.
Just as long as the underlying stays below the short strike levels the entire credit that was pulled into the account can be kept – which can be a very good short term return.
The above is one wing of the iron condor, and it’s the call spread. To create the full fledged bird and your full iron condor options strategy, you would simply add a put spread in the same way.
The iron condor performs great in the right market conditions and there are option income traders who use this strategy exclusively to generate a monthly income. However, of course there are risks involved.
Some important things to consider when trading the iron condor is knowing which underlying to utilize – along with understanding when and how to properly place, adjust and exit the position. Especially the proper management and adjusting. It is possible that this trade can produce big time losses if you don’t take the time to completely learn and understand this trade and if you don’t create a trading plan that you are willing to follow. Ask me how I know!
Ted ‘Spread’ Nino is an option selling fiend – addicted especially with trading the iron condor . Visit his iron condor website to see his super uncomplicated method of playing this option strategy for reliable returns – and additional fantastic option income ‘stuff’.