If you can’t be in front of the computer all day, it’s sometimes helpful to have alerts setup in your platform so that you know when it’s time to adjust your position.
Our basic adjustments come when the delta of one of our short strikes approaches 20.
There is a way to setup “delta alerts” inside of thinkorswim. Here’s how.
Trade Example
Let’s start with a brand new iron condor trade.
This is the SPX Aug4 1930/1940 2210/2220 iron condor for a credit of 1.70.
And let’s look at the put side.
Our short put is 1940, so we want to adjust when it hits 20 delta.
Inside of thinkorswim, goto the Marketwatch tab, then select alerts.
Next, open up the option chain you want. In this case, it’s SPX.
Then navigate to the month and strike you want to follow. In our case it’s the Aug4 1940 put.
Right click on it then say “Create Alert.” A new box will pop up.
All you need to do now is change the delta to -0.20
REMEMBER: put deltas will always be negative, and call delta will always be positive. I’m not sure the platform uses absolute values so make sure you get the signs right.
You’ll also want to say “at or above.”
Now if you want to be a little more proactive, I would select a delta of 0.18 as it would give you a heads up on the possibility of an adjustment.
You can also have these notifications sent as a push notification to your mobile device, or through email, or through text messaging.