PCS

jarMburger

Sold CCS with short at 7710, 7700 and 7690. The 7690 one closed 10sec before 4pm ET. A bit too close to the fire on that one. The rest went well. Given the trend today, didn’t find a good entry for PCS.

jarMburger

Did some of that when VIX was higher as well. Being doing 0DTE PCS and CCS lately. The low VIX is sucky for us option sellers, forcing me to play too close to the current price. But premium is premium….

jarMburger

Without real catalyst, I think that the index will bounce around 7700 and 7650, with occasional escape above 7700. But expecting the job report on Friday to break the mold either way. I being selling CCS above 7750 and grabbing some 7650 below PCS when the premium looks good but holding out additional plays until Friday.

EsmiradaT

I used to trade SPX 1-7 DTE credit spreads but with the recent volatility made me switch to 0 DTE to avoid the overnight risk. We use GEX, VWAP and market structure to decide between PCS/CCS, and sometimes run an iron condor on range-bound days looks range-bound. If you want to compare setups or trade alongside others, feel free to join us. The discord link is in my profile. Daily results are all posted with full transparency and free to join for now.

bigthink3r

Are you looking for a one direction call put or strangle? I’m considering PCS on Snow due to IV.

bigthink3r

I am bullish to neutral on MRVL so PCS at 200 strike 1 SD OTM. But let see on opening tomorrow. Not much movement currently.

Ok_Butterfly2410

SPY 9/30/26 770 CSP, $1023 premium, $75,980 max loss. 6x SPY 9/30/26 765/770 PCS, $1062 premium, $1938 max loss…. as an example

klipsetrades

Totally — I didn’t take it that way at all. I actually love questions like this that pick strategies apart. I get asked this one a lot too. To preface, I don’t think there’s a universally “right” tool. Futures, long options, spreads, shares, etc. all solve slightly different problems, and people should figure out which fits the way they trade. I think you’re right on fees/liquidity. Futures are generally extremely efficient there. ES especially tends to have very tight spreads, while a multi-leg SPX spread can have more costs between commissions, exchange fees, and the bid/ask on two legs. So I’d definitely give futures the advantage on pure execution efficiency. That being said, for me, one of the biggest advantages of credit spreads is that I can be a little less precise. With futures, your P/L responds directly to every point of movement, so entry and exit timing matters a lot. With a far OTM spread, I’m putting up more collateral in exchange for some room to be imperfect. I’m often trading more around ***where I think SPX won’t go*** than trying to perfectly predict where it will go. The other huge one, as I'm sure you know, is **positive theta**. Long options have time working against you, futures are basically time-neutral, while my credit spreads can benefit from time passing as long as price/volatility cooperate. Today is actually a great example of that. Around 9:00 am PT, I took the upside breakout above yesterday’s low around 7660 with a bullish PCS on SPX. Say a futures trader took essentially the same directional trade in ES/MES. SPX stalled, chopped, and eventually slid all the way back toward that same level about an hour later. The futures trade would’ve given back all of the move, depending on the entry. My PCS was still profitable at that point. Even though price had basically returned to where we both entered, the spread had lost value while I was holding it because I’m net short premium. So before anyone gets excited, that doesn’t mean theta is free money — especially with 0DTE, gamma can very quickly overwhelm it if price starts moving toward the short strike. It just gives me another way to be right besides “price immediately moves in my direction.” And I also agree with your last point. I’m not really using spreads purely to capture delta either. Direction matters to me, obviously, but I’m also intentionally using theta, distance from price, volatility, and the defined-risk structure. That combination just fits how I like to trade better

modder9

Too bad we gutted national cybersecurity agencies. Maybe I can pickup a weekend job consulting for these city governments to secure their OT/PCS networks.