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The Iron Condor is perhaps the most dangerous option strategy around.
The problem is that way too many new option traders slap down significant money and start trading iron condors immediately upon discovering them without first equiping themselves with the proper knowledge and skills needed to trade them properly. They are so captivated by the stories and claims of ten percent months and 90 percent probabilities that somehow they don’t stop to think about what they are going to do if their trade doesn’t go exactly as planned.
And unfortunately what always seems to happen to a high percentage of them is that they promptly wind up getting their trading accounts demolished and their heads handed to them on a platter.
Now wait -
I don’t want you to get the wrong idea here. So let me explain something.
I LOVE iron condors.
And I think it REALLY IS a good solid trade.
And those claims and stories of ten percent monthly gains and ninety percent probabilities? They are absolutely true.
The problem is – there is something big that is being left out of all those claims and stories – and this something is causing way too many fresh new doe eyed option traders to misunderstand this strategy right from the beginning and blindly jump into them with completely wrong expectations.
Yes it’s true that iron condors and credit spreads can be put on with an eighty to ninety percent probability of winning. And yes it’s true that they can generate returns of over ten percent a month. BUT – they also come with a dangerous risk to reward ratio that can be in the range of ten to one.
That means that while trading these trades you are putting at risk 10 bucks for the chance to make just 1. Or – in reality, in the instance of say a standard ten lot index iron condor, you are risking ten thousand dollars for the chance to make just one thousand dollars.
And as mammy used to say to us kids – ‘that ain’t nothin but a real awful bad egg’.
Just do the math. With a risk to reward like that, even with the great probabilities and wonderful monthly returns – before long a problem month could come along and completely wipe out your entire account!
Nevertheless…
All isn’t lost. There IS hope…
Because – as I wrote previously – I REALLY DO like the iron condor strategy.
And – I consistently make money from it.
So apparently, even with that atrocious risk to reward quandary, there must be a method to generate consistent income with this trade.
And yes, there certainly is.
It all revolves around how you go about handling the trade.
That risk to reward problem quickly becomes a complete non issue as soon as you educate yourself on the proper way to initially set these trades up and how to correctly manage and adjust them.
You just need to arm yourself with a small amount of trading know-how. A few iron condor tricks that will allow you to quickly and easily adjust yourself out of sticky situations and smother any problem month threat that comes along, permitting you to experience the iron condor strategy for all that it’s ‘really’ cracked up to be.
To learn a much ‘better’ way to trade the Iron Condor spread for monthly income, visit this Iron Condor Adjustments site for simple step-by-step instructions on how to correctly place, manage, and ADJUST iron condor trades.
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