A template for Iron Condors

Written on June 17, 2008 by OptionsRopeaDope

Iron Condors have been my bread and butter trades for a long time, and I think I will always do the “low probability” variety each month. My rules are fairly simple - aim for placing the short strikes at a 7-9 delta, shoot for a minimum of 10% of a credit, and manage as necessary. Nevertheless, in pursuit of gaining a better understanding of the forces impacting condors (such as, they perform best when volatility is decreasing), and more importantly, to keep myself out of hairy situations unnecessarily, I developed this template to use prior to opening a trade.

 

Symbol   
Current Price  
Current IV  
IV Percentile - last 12 months  
IV Percentile - last 6 months  
Technical Support/Resistance  
Opening Strikes  
Deltas of Shorts
% distances from underlying
Opening Credits  
Initial Margin Req.
Break Evens  
Srikes w/current delta of 20/-20  
Prob of expiring w/o adjustments  
Profit Traget  
Max Loss  
Earnings/news catalyst before exp?  
Risk Graph  

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    2 Comments »

    Comment by Bob
    2008-06-17 16:34:35

    Thanks for sharing the template.
    I would like to know which website or resource you use to get the following values

    IV Percentile - last 12 months
    IV Percentile - last 6 months

    Cheers
    -bob

     
    Comment by OptionsRopeaDope
    2008-06-19 15:21:05

    Bob,

    I get that information from Think or Swim - on the charts tab I add implied and historical volatility studies, and bring up the 6 month and 1 year charts.

    You could also get the information from ivolatility.com .

     
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