Monday, February 8, 2010

Opened CSCO iron condor

I've opened an iron condor on CSCO intended to gain some premium off of its long-running sideways movement. The trade executed with the stock at $23.54 and earned 42 cents credit.

The stock options are structured so that the trade shows a maximum profit at expiration on March 19 if the price of the stock is from $23 to $25. Those are the strike prices of the options I sold. The insurance options I bought are $1 either side of the shorts.

Schematically, it's p22/-p23/-c25/c26.


The iron condor is profitable if the stock ranges down to $22.56 or up to $25.44. The high end exceeds any high seen since the spring of 2008. The low end is within a recent area of congestion and is right at the level of support set in July 2009.

Assuming the sideways trend continues, it seems like a fairly strong set of boundaries.

Earnings were announced on Feb. 3, so there's no cause of volatility visible now. There is always the possibility of a surprise besides earnings, of course. So as always with a live postion, I must be on my toes.

Maximum loss exceeds maximum gain by 16 cents per dollar.

For more, see today's Watchlist.


New to Private Trader? Check out the Reader's Guide.

New to private trading? Here's a look at How to Become a Private Trader.


Topics:
Cisco Systems networking.

No comments:

Post a Comment