Iron condors are a relatively straightforward in the pre-trade analysis and order entry process. It is a high cost strategy to trade so most options-centered brokers have made it easy for traders to execute easily. The difficulty of an iron condor is in the trade management and adjustment process. Effectively managing an iron condor trade when the market is moving is ambiguous and subject to your own personal risk tolerance.

An iron condor can be designed to accommodate your risk tolerance and account objectives but those adjustments will always have a trade off. As with most option selling strategies this means there is an exchange of a higher probability of a successful outcome and lower premiums or higher risk and larger premiums.

There are more option strategies than option strategists but at their heart they are all modifications of basically two ideas – buying or selling options. The proliferation of options strategies come from the infinite ways that these two concepts can be combined. Some of these combinations can be great ideas but others are just commission generators with the difference usually resting on how you implement them as a trader. In this article we will start discussing one such combination strategy that is becoming more and more popular with option investors all the time – the iron condor. An iron condor is a combination of a long and short strangle, which is also the same as two credit spreads.