From time to time I like to review some of my Best Practices for my own benefit, but also for the benefit of readers of this blog, and for subscribers to All Star Options. So let’s get right to it…
This past Friday marked an important monthly date in the regular cycle of options expirations. Friday marked the line in the sand where we crossed under 21 days until October expiration.
Why is 21 days until expiration important?
In short: because of theta and gamma.
For long premium positions, theta decay starts to become a major drag, and increasingly so with each passing day. For short premium positions, gamma has the potential to produce wild swings in your position equity. Neither of these scenarios are very appealing for obvious reasons.
Lets breakdown the risks and actions to take for a variety of common strategies. [Read more…]