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Diagonal in SPY using weekly options


Before I put this trade on I only have the 114/110 July '10 put spreads. So I feel like I am covered to the downside. I wanted to add a play that was neutral to slightly bullish, in case the market finally finds a bottom and catches a bid. But I wanted two conditions met. First is I wanted very little risk to the downside as this would eat into my profits from the put spreads that I own and second is that I wanted a wide range of profitability with some cushion beyond the current range of about 105-111 or about 60 handles on the /ES futures.

Lets break down the trade. I bought 5 110/111 call diagonals for a debit of $0.09. I sold the Jun2 '10 110 weekly options that expire this Friday and bought the front month 111 call options. This gives me a profitability zone of 104.64-112.28 by Friday expiration for the weekly short calls. My max profit is around 110 on the spy which would yield a profit of about $530 bucks. My maximum loss which would not occur until about 119 on the SPY would be about $545 on the upside. As I do not see this market taking off in a big way between now and Friday I am comfortable with this risk. In all reality I am looking at making about $200 on this trade.

The weekly options should decay quickly or quicker than the front month options that I bought. I would stop out of this position between 112.3-113 on the spy. I accept full risk to the downside of $45.

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