Mundy - I'm chicken, that's why iron condors. I hate losing money. I keep about 90% of my account in cash most times. Actually my cash is higher than my net liq value but that's because I'm primarily a premium seller. The 10% is my risk on the table. Because I use so little capital, when one side of condor gets challenged, I'm able to roll out and down to give it more time...but I like to roll down and double at least once in the same month before I roll out...otherwise I'm giving up that months income.  The doubles get expensive quickly though. I only trade index options with this strategy. I don't want to deal with single stocks where going to zero is even a small probability.