FxWirePro: Gold bulls struggle for momentum despite rallies, major trend wedged in range – Attain low vols via iron condor spreads

Gold futures prices inched up around $3.00, or 0.2%, to $1,277.04 a troy ounce.

The yellow metal finished down $13.30, or around 1% in the recent past but still booked a weekly gain of about 0.4%, marking its first weekly rise in that past four weeks.

OTC Outlook and Options Strategy:

Please be noted that the gold's implied volatility is perceived to be comparatively minimal from other its previous flashes (below 9.50% in 1m tenors) along with bearish neutral risk reversal sentiments, accordingly we construct a multiple legs of option strategy for regular traders of this currency cross when there is little IV.

XAUUSD's lower IVs with bullish neutral delta risk reversals could be interpreted as the option writer’s opportunity in short run. Thus, exploiting on lower IVs we eye on shorting calls with shorter expiries which would lock in certain yields by initial receipts of premiums.

A total of 4 legs are involved in the condor options strategy and a net debit is required to establish the position.

Using options expiring on the same expiration month, the options trader creates an iron condor by selling a lower strike OTM put and buying an even lower strike out-of-the-money put, similarly shorting a higher strike OTM call and buying another even higher strike out-of-the-money call.

This results in a net credit to put on the trade.