Tuesday, May 8, 2012
ZB Scalp
Yesterday I didn't have the courage to short ZB on a gap open and I missed the trade. So I set my trade alert for yesterday's high near 144'20 and was prepared to short today if we hit there. I was able to follow through this time and took it off later today for a very small scalp of $340. I wasn't sure if I wanted to short outright or via a put spread so I ended up doing both. I bought (2) 145/144 put spreads at the same time for 0'32 so felt comfortable taking some profit now and I've got until May 18 to possibly make or lose $1,000 more. My tentative plan is if we finish over 145 and I lose 100% of the debit spread then I'm ready to short outright at levels near all time highs. We were at the top of the channel on the daily chart at the time of execution and the blue lines are my entry and exit on today's trade.
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Which brokerage do you use to trade ZB options? My ZB position is with Ameritrade/tos but they don't offer options on futures. I asked them about this in January and they said it would be available by April, called last week and they say they don't know when it will be available.
ReplyDeleteI'm with Think or Swim.
ReplyDeleteThat is ridiculous - I'm on tos through Ameritrade and they say I can't do it, even though they claim that the integration was complete about a year ago and there should be no difference between original Ameritrade and TOS accounts.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure what's going on there, doesn't make sense. Must be some sort of legal/compliance issue. Threaten to sign ACATS over to Interactive Brokers and see if they jump.
ReplyDeleteHere is my online chat from today with some fool over there:
Delete15:20 deep: I've asked about trading options on my ZB futures before and have been told that TOS doesn't have it. I just spoke to a guy who says he has his account at TOS and does it all the time. What's up with that? I thought Ameritrade and TOS were supposed to all be the same now.
15:21 PeterS_YV: Currently we do not permit the trading of options on futures. We are looking to have them soon. but no time frame is set
15:22 deep: So how come this guy I know is doing it on his TOS account.
15:22 PeterS_YV: What is his name and account #?
15:23 deep: Jason Haas, I don't know his account number, we write on the same trading blog. I've seen his trades online, it is allowed in his tos account he says.
15:25 PeterS_YV: you may wish to confirm with him
15:25 deep: I may wish to confirm what?
15:26 PeterS_YV: we do not permit it. and you are saying that you are reading this in a blog. not much more i can add to that
15:28 deep: I understand what you are saying, but I've known him from the blogworld for more than a year and seriously doubt he is making this up. I would like to follow up with you on this.
15:30 PeterS_YV: Sorry , there is nothing to follow up on. We currently do not offer trading of options on futures. there is no time frame on when it will be available. When it is confirmed , we will send out a notice
15:33 deep: I will bet that you are wrong and he is doing it on tos by some mechanism of which you are not aware. I will send this discussion to him and provide the follow up. Ciao.
15:34 PeterS_YV: perhaps he is LEGACY TOS client. they did have options on futures. But at this time we do not offer that type of trading.
15:37 deep: I believe he was with TOS from a long time ago. We were also told many months ago that TOS Ameritrade and legacy TOS were completely integrated. In fact I had a discussion on one of these chats and I asked if there was any reason for me to open up a TOS account and was told not to as Ameritrade TOS and Legascy TOS were going to be identical. Obviously this is not the case, and we now know why you were WRONG when saying that tos does not offer options trading on futures.
15:39 PeterS_YV: Please understand,. much like someone having a negotiated commission rate, not everyone is automatically entitled to have the same. With that in mind. As i have stated before. we do not provide options on futures. if you wish to discuss this further , please feel free to call in to the futures desk directly. 800 672 2098
Well this is sad, I wonder if legacy even has any weight. Judging by this I won't be surprised if they take it away from me in the future.
ReplyDeleteThe 145/144 long put spread expired worthless today so lost -$1,000 there. I'm still short one contract at 144'26 so down -$3,000 there. I have to roll contracts on Tuesday and haven't decided if I'm going to roll, just take the loss, or buy a put spread. I'll wait to see what Tuesday brings. I'm currently in a similar position as I was last Fall when ZB started its ascent. Which is if I wasn't already short at these levels I would be getting short here, so I basically just keep leaving the short on. But to be honest at this point I'm hoping to scratch the trade for a push. I was playing for a rejection near the all time highs and not only has that not happened but we've taken out new highs and stayed there for a few weeks, so I'm wrong and just need to decide where to go from here.
ReplyDelete