How much time does OFI take?
How much time does it take to use OFI, and when do I need to pay attention?
OFI can take you as little as 10 minutes a week to execute. Here’s how…
- Thursdays – The new trades get posted to the website around 2 a.m. ET. You can see them on the website and you will also receive an email (and an SMS text alert if you’ve signed up for that, too) by 9 a.m. ET. You will then log in to your online brokerage account and, in less than five minutes, place your two new trades for the week.
- Mondays – Look at your brokerage account to see if you have any open orders that haven’t filled yet. If yes, and they are from two Thursdays prior (eight market days), you’ll want to gradually adjust your limit net-credit price down until you get filled or hit a minimum acceptable limit of $0.85 for a 5-point spread ($1.70 for a 10-point spread). (See also How do I get my order filled?) Depending on how busy you are and/or how important the dollar amount is to you, you could reduce your limit net-credit price by five cents every half hour, ten cents every hour, or whatever amount and time increment you wish. Each time you reduce your limit net-credit price, give it 30 minutes to possibly fill before lowering it further. Particularly busy people may wish to take just two attempts. The first attempt would be made before the market opens by splitting the difference between the $0.85 and Jim’s original net-credit price recommendation. And, if that doesn’t fill after 30 minutes, then just reduce it to $0.85. This process can take anywhere from two minutes to 30 minutes, whichever you choose. These reduced-price orders should all be entered as Day orders so they don’t linger in your account unfilled after Monday.
- Roll Alerts – Whenever Jim advises you to roll a trade, you’ll want to do so within 24 hours of that advice, preferably as soon as possible. Each rolled trade takes 2-3 minutes to execute using your online broker.
- Expiration Days – If you have an in-the-money credit spread that Jim has not yet rolled before expiration day, be sure to pay attention to the website or email or text on that afternoon starting at 12 p.m. ET. If Jim issues a roll alert on expiration day, you must execute that roll before the market closes or you will be assigned the stock.