Back on April 9, we published a bonus trade for our members that allowed them to participate in the rally that ensued, but with absolute downside protection. We brought in a $0.20 credit upon opening the position, and you could sell it to close today for about $0.32, which means this trade returned $0.52, for a 28% return on capital risked. Not too shabby.

The broken call condor was constructed like this:

+1 SPY May 141 call
-1 SPY May 142 call
-1 SPY May 144 call
+1 SPY May 147 call
for a net credit of $0.20

Since we took in a credit on this trade, there was literally no downside risk: if SPY fell to 130 or 120 or 0, we’d still keep the $0.20 credit. A monster rally above 145 would’ve meant trouble, but was also relatively unlikely given …

If you know what an iron condor is—which, if you’re reading this, you probably do—you also know that it isn’t the only options strategy out there. It’s worked very well for us, consistently providing close to 10% average monthly returns—but a lot of our subscribers have expressed an interest in, shall we say, a bit more variety. Sure, our bonus trades mix it up a little, but we thought it was time we started talking about other kinds of trades on a regular basis. That’s why we’re introducing Calendar Options. Condor’s Complement So what’s the best way to complement our iron condor positions? We like the idea of profiting no matter which direction the market takes from week to week, especially with so much economic uncertainty out there right now. So we’re going to stick with the delta-neutral theme for our ...