Holding an IBM December straddle from January
Recorded in cvforge on July 14, 2026 by ConvexValue · Published July 25, 2026
One trade, fully specified: buy the December 2026 ATM straddle on IBM on the first trading day of the year, then watch what the position did.
Exact prompt
Show me the historical PnL of the following trade: - buy a december 2026 ATM straddle on IBM on the first day of 2026
Data cadence
Live U.S. option snapshots, refreshed through the session. Open interest is an end-of-previous-day figure and updates once daily.
Plan requirements
Needs the Research data plan, which adds end-of-day historical options aggregates. The rest of the build runs on the free tier.
Fields used
fair_market_value, strike_price, expiration_date, contract_type, break_even_price, implied_volatility, delta
How to read it
The prompt reads like a trade ticket, and that is the pattern worth copying: state entry date, underlying, expiration and structure and the build can reconstruct it exactly rather than approximating with an index.
A long-dated straddle bought at the start of the year is a slow instrument — most of its premium is time value that erodes gradually, so the early months typically look like a slow bleed even if the eventual move is large. The shape of that curve is the lesson.
Change it
The prompt is the interface. Ask for a different ticker, a different expiration window, or an extra column in the same sentence style and the agent edits the app in place — you do not start over, and you do not wait for anyone to build it.
Limitations
- Snapshot data, not a transaction tape: the build reads the chain as it stands, so it cannot attribute a trade to a buyer or a seller.
- Open interest updates once a day, so an intraday volume/OI comparison is always this session’s volume against yesterday’s open interest.
- Contract coverage is U.S. listed equities, ETFs and indices. Indices use the I: prefix, for example I:SPX.
- Current per-contract valuation is Massive fair market value (FMV), a proprietary estimate. cvforge does not provide option bids, asks, midpoint, quote sizes, NBBO or last trades, and FMV is not an executable quote.
- Payoffs use Massive fair market value estimates. FMV is not an executable price, so premiums, P&L and break-evens are theoretical.
- Curves before expiration depend on an implied-volatility assumption held constant; in practice volatility moves with price.
Related demos
- A 3D P&L surface for a six-month NVDA iron condor
- Every December MU strangle and straddle, year to date
- QQQ, SPY and IWM straddles compared year to date
Search focus: atm straddle held to expiration pnl. Related: ibm straddle from january, long dated straddle performance study. Originally posted on X.