JUANEBAT

What all that means is ...that if you have a large enough account , or margin . AND you feel that your sold option is gettting close to be in the money , is better to cover it and let it be assigned , rather than closing it buying back Doing so you keep the original credit , and no slippage loss (BID-ask) , no commision Then you close the position that is against you at no loss . :doh:... Moderated Message: I have not seen this discussed in details in any book so far or in any forum .and mostly the prevailing concept is buy it back to close, don't be assigned ....in my opinion is not the best way .....but would like discuss it further for reassurance as it can be very productive money management issue to prevent disater

I am a newbie with only a couple of years trading options. But my bias is that expired options historical data have a very little potential to be of any value to predict the behavior of current active options. It may require a lot of effort for no valuable or meaningful information AM I wrong ? Even in active options I see often ilogical disparity in the price behavior just one stirke price ahead ... Example while the price of the same expiration date of Sina when up 0.10 cents , the price when down for the one line above and one like below... How come ? I will try to post the picture of part of the option chain . Again , remember I do not know much

Thanks pathfinder. To summarize , the points I wanted to make are. 1.- Avoid excessive fear to be exercise . Sometimes is very good to be exercise . (Next monday went up , and did make money ! 2.- When you sell OTM options either naked or covered , to be exercise near the money or at the money is better than to buy back to close the position.(You don't loose your premium) It do not means to let a naked put or call go too far against you , but what I do is when it is getting " in a dangerous zone " , I cover it ...with a long position for a call , (With stop loss also) or with a short position (sell short ) in case of a put ..but rather if market condition warrants try not to buy back , especially if covered and guided by the delta , gamma and thete and intuition. 4.- All of the above is work in progress , but as I have tendency to excessive fear to loose.... selling OTM so far is working... In order not to be hook up to the computer all the time ...I will try and experiment more with automatic conditional ordes like OTO and OCO..... 5.- Also everything go on cycles ... OUR moods, our psycology change, traders mood , many of us are bipolar which is fine, or perhaps a little paranoid, or even worse, which is normal , but affect how we react to danger and to the the market, I look frequently to 10 years chart to remind me what happens when we were in a very similar graphic like the one's we are today .. I repeat in a different way what I already said because I realize my syntax can be confusing:crap:

For me time and sales , good only for scalping or day trading /playing gaps . But the supply and demand change every second

I was suggesting buying back the put as a risk management technique opposed to letting the option expire and being assigned - that was the only point I was trying to make. Depending on the critera used to exit he could/would still lose money buying it back; but not nearly as much as being assigned a dropping stock The opinion of buying back as a risk management technique is valid, but in other hand the fact that the breakeven point is the strike price minus the premiun collected is often not fully appreciate, at time of assigment . SO lets says if you had a credit of $1000.00 and you buy back TO CLOSE A short OPEN POSITION , you have to give back the credit to pay for the increase in price of the option .plus the spread BID_ASK , plus commision ..while if assigned you keep the premium and buy the underlying at strike price and sell at actual current price. ( Hopefully with a lost of less than $1000) If you do the math , especially in OTM options , and based on that math you sell short same number of shares , before being assigned , then you are ahead beign assigned ..as opposed to buying to close The drawback is that is needed a relatively large account or margin to sell short . Did I explained myself well or my terrible syntax is bearish. :

I take time planning the trade. Select stocks with high historical volatility , good premium and with potential to enter in a period of relative calm . (A lot of uncertainty here) Look at the chart , and see the true range of price, trend support and resistance and no pending earning , better if starting in a consolidation phase. With as little spread as possible ...good vol and liquidity Usually I am rather neutral on the direction of the underlying I sell short term , sometimes weekly or no more than a month. Only high liquid and shortable if possible or if not shortable at least with if an ETF reverse Delta less than 0.30 , better less than 0.25. The risk/reward is really bad a lot of risk for relatively small reward. But the chance to be right in one side is 100% for a profit of usually $300 to $400 , the risk in the side that goes against me , is controlled with strict rules , not too soon , not too late . If market condition, momentum etc indicate that the call is approaching danger zone, like increasing delta, poor decaying, news, etc. Immediatly I BUY the stock, size according moneyness of the option, sentiment or other factors but never less than half (500 shares if 10 contract sold) , . Unless the price of the underlyng is going away too fast I don't buy to close , because doing so I convert paper loss in real loss , and getting exercised I keep the premium and hedged over the weekend in case keep going against me. Does it make sense..."the highlighted part " or I am wrong.. TELL ME!

Once an Option is expired , at least at Fidelity the symbol becomes invalid. I doubt the history can be retrieved. I can not see the usefulness to do so. You can before expiration take snap shots with screen hunter of options charts and option chains . Sorry I could not help much