2 live examples of Legging into Diagonal Spreads

5 days after stock market’s big surge due to French election result, the S & P 500 ETF SPY started to show a small sign of fatigue by moving down today from a prior 2 day sideways movement. A couple of my bullish positions (EEM 2017 LEAPS & PVH Sept 15 $95 Call) that were entered on the market surge day (4-24-2017) cooled down for about 2 days in a roll. So I sold calls against the long calls and legged the option positions into diagonal spreads as the MACD histograms and the prices of these stocks started to drop about 2 days.

My diagonal spread rolling rule will let me close the short calls when the stocks rise for two consecutive days, or roll to new short calls if the short call premiums result a good amount of profits. I also have stop losses in place to cut loss short in case the stocks go against me.

Among them, EEM has good liquidity of option trades. I sold June 02 $41 call with a Delta around 0.25 for $0.24 credit when EEM traded slightly below yesterday’s close price and it got filled quickly. The option entry was posted before and the price was $3.39. Thus, the debit of the diagonal spread is $3.39 - $0.24 = $3.15.  I’ll continue to track the performance of this trade position as we go.

PVH has less liquidity and has monthly options only (It’s not a good stock for option trades in my opinion as the bid/ask prices were wide).  I sold May 19 $105 call with a Delta around 0.25 for $1.00 credit when PVH was sold off and it got filled eventually as it bounced up intraday. The option Sept15$95c entry price was $12.22 on 4-24-2017. Thus, the debit of the diagonal spread is $12.22 - $1.00 = $11.22. PVH, an apparent shop holding company, seemed to follow the retail ETF XRT closely. This sub-sector did not perform well when compared with the general consumer section IYC.