The trades are real, and hopefully educational to anyone interested in following this write up.

The stock became public issue on may 18th in what took eight years to stage one of the most anticipated initial public offerings ever.

Stocks listed ipo price was $38.00 per share.

 The high print of the day was 11 percent higher, while the close of day one was $38.23

Options on newly issued stocks can start trading when they meet standards set by the options exchanges. At the CBOE, the rules as follows:

· Minimum of 7,000,000 shares of the underlying security must be owned by people other than officers, directors and shareholders with more than 10 percent of the stock.

· Minimum of 2,000 stockholders

· Trading volume has been at least 2,400,000 shares in the preceding 12 months — i.e., it needs to reach cumulative trading volume of 2,400,000. If they hit that volume level in a day, or two, or three, that would qualify.

Which BEGAN  on May 29th 2012.

<=--- FACEBOOK IPO

Right from the get go, I was eyes locked on this stock- dying to trade it, it was riddled with weak hands, and hot money.

from my vantage point it, was one of the situations where if they had done a smaller float and the stock ripped up, The world would have have complained about the float, and how the small retail trader is crowded out.

 It was a dammed if you do, dammed if you don't situation.

next came finger pointing and exchange vs underwriter error (NDAQ vs MS) as well as the company being slapped with numerous pending lawsuits oddly timed.

the whole fiasco just shows the power of limited risk options positions and why simply trading stock has no statical edge.

What does FB have going for it?

Over time all options traders start to view all underlyings simply as a price unit and volatility.  Lower priced, Liquid, High Volatility stocks are a gift, and something that draws us back to this underlying despite its above mentioned problems.

here is a chart of the only trading data I had when I began trading this (Ignoring any secondary market trading history)

please click on the small images below to view enlarged version.

We really didn't have all that much information to go off, we can see the first listing day with the $45.00 high tick from the initial euphoria, and then a steady decline.

This is what appeared to me to be the perfect case of people thinking they have got something as good as free money if they were in the IPO, and then the cold pimp hand slap of reality setting in.

here is my first trade fill:

This is an unbalanced condor 25x50x done at even, the order is split into two from the actual execution of the order, not my entering it as its an actual screen shot from the confirmation.

strike 26 +50x

strike 27 -50x

strike 28 -25x

strike 29 +25x

total package done for .00

this is the purchase of a 25x put vertical spread, the +29/-28 call vertical

29 puts bot at $1.53 x 25 or $3825.00 debit

28 puts sold at 1.07 x 25 or $2675.00 credit

this portion net net is $3825-$2675.00 or $1150.00 debit

to help offset this cost we will sell twice as many further out of the money spreads.

in this case the 27/26 put spreads 50x

we will be selling the 27 strike put at +.75 x 50 or $3750.00 credit

and we will be buying the 26 strike put at .52 x50 or $2600.00 debit

this portion net net is +$3750.00 - $2600.00 or $1150.00 credit

Now once both debits from the 25x verticals purchased, and the 50x verticals sold, we end up net net with a position that exactly off sets the cost of the other, the risk of this position begins at 26.50 level where the max gain on the 25x vertical bot can no longer cover the risk of the 50x vertical sold.

This position is to be considered Asymmetrical, that is to say it only has risk exposure in one direction, this adds to the ability to hold the trade, this is a very important point. Options by there very nature reach there maximum potential in the final stages if their life. For example if this trade structure has four weeks of life till expiration, it becomes almost beneficial for it to spend two to three weeks of its life anywhere from 29 and above, because that simply translates to moving to a profit zone at a more beneficial time period. Asymmetrical trades and help traders hold onto things for longer periods of time with out taking heat and panicking out of trades that might have eventually become winners if only given proper duration.

the risk graph on this trade standing alone looks as follows