Here we explore the put credit spread trades I placed on the SPY durning the month of December 2014. This is my primary trading strategy for monthly income. By trading put credit spreads on the SPY I am typically in a trade for 23 days but no more than 45 days.
| Ticker | Type | Spread | Expire Date | Open Date | Closed Date | Open Credit | Closed Debit | Profit / Loss |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SPY | Put | 191 / 193 | 12/20/14 | 11/12/14 | 12/5/14 | $0.17 | $0.03 | 7.65% |
| IWM | Put | 106.5 / 108.5 | 12/26/14 | 11/10/14 | 12/17/14 | $0.19 | $0.03 | 8.84% |
| SPY | Put | 192 / 194 | 12/26/14 | 11/12/14 | 12/18/14 | $0.22 | $0.03 | 10.67% |
| IWM | Put | 106 / 108 | 12/31/14 | 11/14/14 | 12/19/14 | $0.21 | $0.03 | 10.06% |
| SPY | Put | 192 / 194 | 12/26/14 | 12/12/14 | 12/19/14 | $0.22 | $0.03 | 10.67% |
| IWM | Put | 106.5 / 108.5 | 1/2/15 | 11/18/14 | 12/22/14 | $0.23 | $0.03 | 11.30% |
| IWM | Put | 105.5 / 107.5 | 1/2/15 | 11/19/14 | 12/22/14 | $0.25 | $0.03 | 12.57% |
| SPY | Put | 194 / 196 | 12/31/14 | 11/20/14 | 12/22/14 | $0.21 | $0.03 | 10.06% |
| SPY | Put | 184 / 186 | 1/17/15 | 12/15/14 | 12/23/14 | $0.23 | $0.03 | 11.30% |
| SPY | Put | 183 / 185 | 1/17/15 | 12/16/14 | 12/23/14 | $0.18 | $0.03 | 8.24% |
Another successful month. This month was a little different from others. You will notice there were a handful of trades that took over 30 days to close and there were a handful of trades that closed pretty quickly. This shows the power of volatility. Volatility was very low in early November and then increased in December. The higher the volatility the more premium we are able to sell and the faster the options decay in value (which is what we are hoping for).
You will also notice some IWM (iShares Russell 2000) trades. This is new from our standard SPY trades. I will use the IWM from time to time as well. More on trading the IWM vs. SPY in future blog posts.
