I’ve been filled on my closing orders to buy back the current RUT(652.86 +2.10) position for $0.15 debit.  I realize that I may have left some profit on the table here – however getting my money out of the market to avoid expiration risk was worth it to me.  I have seen the RUT gap down by 15-20 points on expiration Friday and simply didn’t want to erode away those profits.

I view this as a cost of doing business profitably in the long term.

As of this morning, I’m still holding tight on the current RUT(652.86 +2.10) play.  As it sits right now, my order is out there to close this position for a credit of $0.15.  I don’t have any plans to cancel that order.

So far this morning the market is cooperating and moving up.  We will see if that continued.  As the days tick away, time value disappears and the short options lose there value.  That helps my position out nicely as I’m getting closer and closer to a fill each day.

Assuming the market remains strong today, I fully realize that I’m very likely giving away $0.15 per contract.  However, I’m still not convinced that this market is going to hold through the week. What I do not want to see is a major drop on Friday that exposes me to extreme expiration risk.

Personally, that risk is larger than $0.15 per contract.  I’d like to keep my cash and move onto next week.

Anyhow, good luck.  I’ll keep posting my thoughts as the week develops.   Trade smart!

Well its the last week of the March option cycle, and I’ve got a couple of nice fat cushions on each of my positions. This morning the market opened up, as I write this is the SPX is up 5.53 and the RUT is up 7.43; currently they sit as 1287 and 733 respectively. And that’s just fine with me!

My two positions this month both have a nice 40+ point cushion on the top.

• The RUT position is a 660/670 780/790 Iron Condor
• The SPX position is an 1175/1190 1340/1355 Iron Condor

I’ve started to look for early exit points on each of these trades and will pull the trigger if the market continues to shoot up this week. The end of last week marks the beginning of a possible rally in the market, however I don’t think it quite has the steam it needs to be successful. While it was a nice 100 point pop for the DOW, volume was very light and there wasn’t any bad news.

Expiration week is always an exciting time, it’s a time to keep your eyes peeled and your ears to the ground. The settlements on Friday will determine the profitability of these trades, so the momentum going into those days will be critical.

Its expiration Friday! This is one of those days in the month were you either love it or hate it. For me, expiration Friday is usually a pretty good day. This month I came out 100% profitable – but that’s not very hard when you only have one trade going for the month.

Position recap:

• Feb 2006 RUT 630/640 750/760 Iron Condor
• Opened: Sold on 1/20/2006 for $0.75 Credit

• Closed: Expired Worthless!

All looks good so far. The Russell opened up around 733 and has been choppy all day. My 20 point cushion looks like its going to hold nicely. Looks like that should yield a nice return of about 7.5% over about 28 days… Not to shabby!

Looks like its time to start looking for another March Position!

Update: The RLS was at 734.81 today. The trade worked out perfectly!