What if I can’t monitor my trades?

What if I’m on vacation, not well, or otherwise unable to monitor my existing positions? 

Jim’s advice for people in these circumstances is to close out any vulnerable positions until you are able to pay attention and trade again.

For example, if you are traveling without internet access at the beginning of June, prior to leaving you should consider closing out your option positions expiring in June. Upon your return, you may consider re-opening these June positions if they still make investment sense, or if they were rolled in your absence you can consider opening the later-dated rolled positions if they still make investment sense.

If you’re not sure how to close your existing contracts, contact your broker for guidance. Regardless of the actual steps to take with your broker, the general concept is that you will just reverse the original trade. So, if you Bought to Open a put, you would now Sell to Close that put. And, so forth.