Iron Condor Spread Strategies:: Timing, Structuring, and Managing Profitable Options Trades

Iron Condor Spread Strategies

Timing, Structuring, and Managing Profitable Options Trades

Jared Woodard

The purpose of this essay is to improve your ability to trade iron condor option spreads. Iron condors have become a very popular spread type among active options traders, but there is little detailed or quantitative information available about the best way to employ these spreads. As participants in the crash of 2008 and the intense bull market of 2010 can attest, the static “set-it-and-forget-it” method with which some novice traders approach iron condors does not produce ideal results. In the following, I will consider the circumstances in which it is appropriate to enter a condor spread, key techniques and considerations when structuring ...