More details on "All In"

I was lamenting the fact that I had no additional cash to plunk down on the new condor trades with the new lower S&P500 levels when I recalled that I have last months profits to play with, not just the base cash. Now I happen to be switching accounting companies for my US trading so it has been split between the new and old while trades settle so I don't have it all as one lump sum.

Seeing as I have access to the typical futures contracts and a condor needs up to $5,000 spare cash ($250 per point with 20 point spreads) I am limited to trades in that neighbourhood normally. I also have access to the E-mini contracts as well which have $50 points. The same 20 point spread will tie up only $1,000. As long as my 6% trade rule holds there is no reason why I cannot use these to "top off" my trading while I am in between $5k increments.

Today I placed an Emini for February EOM to top off my trades.

This little gem of a move will generally increase the profit potential of my entire account as I can now make all of my money and more of my profits work for me sooner.

Figuring that I can place $1000, $2000, $3000 or $4000 trades will serve to top off my profits in the neighbourhood of an additional $1800 assuming an on average trade size of $2500. This is a trade volume of $30,000 over the year at my 6% target for each month.

Nice bonus.

On the outstanding trade front, I am considering closing the put sides of my trades and letting the call side run. The broker deems the call risk so minimal that I can leave those call spreads active to get full profit from that side of the trade. This allows me to use my full capital buying power to open new trades at the new levels. I would like to see them closed today or tomorrow to cut risk and be able to put new trades on to still expire in February. This cuts losses now as well as creates a small compensation with the existing call spreads and lets me see full capital applied to other trades in February. I think that I can aim for either a break even or a small profit. I need to run some numbers to see how lose I am though.

Jeff.