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Iron Condors

Analyzing the risk profile of iron condors

Additional Thoughts

While iron condors may seem complex on paper, there's not a whole lot to them strategically speaking. All you want is for the share price to stay between the short strikes and your short options to decline in value. Regardless of how complex they're made out to be, nothing changes that simple goal. No need to get fancy because, with four legs, it would be very easy to make a mess of the position. Decide on a comfortable risk to reward ratio at the start and let the market take care of the rest.
Iron condors were a strategy I used a lot when I first started trading. They are very useful for limiting risk in larger underlyings and taking small shots in unfamiliar products. As I've gotten more experienced, however, I've traded them less and less. The four legs add up in commissions, and the lack of defensive tactics, risk of illiquidity, and relatively high max-loss frequency has turned me off over the years. I see them as an important tool for learning to trade, but I'm happy to have cut back in favor of more efficient strategies.

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