I normally have 1-4 ICs open and this is my way of spreading the risk/margin so that one mistake does not blow up my account and ruin months of work.
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#2 is a weekly IC, normally opened on Wed/Thu once I am "sure" of the Friday closing. STO the sides separately on dip/peak. I think of a weekly IC as a "top-up" that gives me back the commissions/fees I spent that week. If the Friday closing is super obvious or if my margin room is above my "mental reserve", I tend to open more contracts. BTC on Friday is a must. If the Friday closing is sketchy/unpredictable, or if the credit is too small compared to margin room it is risking, there's no weekly IC.
The remaining ICs (#1,#3) are non-weekly and opened 1-3 weeks early. This allows me to get bigger credits. I look for fast dip on Thu/Fri and STO the BPS. STO the BCS on Monday rise. BTC at 90-95% and then look for the next deal. I am now thinking 80% is probably good enough and move on. This kind of IC may have less overall credit than doing weeklies, but i like the idea of less babysitting, putting unused margin to work, and most of all: spreading out the risk into multiple/smaller contracts on different DTE.
Although i'm careful, I'm not too scared of high IVs near catalysts. Ever since i learned of the flip-roll and split-flip exit strategies (discussed upthread) thanks to the excellent experts here, I've gained high confidence in knowing how to fix problem spreads.
Not advice from rookie!