So you laid down some condors a few weeks ago and now you are ready to get out. You put in a limit order to buy back your Condor at the Mid-Price. You wait. Nothing. The market oscillates around and now your limit order that was once at the Mid-Price is sitting right at the Market Price. Still no fill.Your bid is now actually above the Market Asking Price and still no fill. You want out but your just not getting filled. So what gives? How can you get out?

This happens frequently when one leg of your Condor is under more pressure than the other. This typically results in one of your long options having an extremely low price and it may not even have a bid at all. This is the root of your problem. The market makers don’t want to buy your junky, worthless option and no one else in the market does either. In which case a way to get filled easier is to not sell that option. Close the Iron condor as a three legged trade, buying back your two short options and the long option that still has a bid. If your broker won’t execute this kind of custom trade then you can simply buy back one leg as a vertical spread and then buy back your other short option as a single. Similar situations may exist when the market is in the dead center of your condor near expiration. There may not have enough order flow in the long options to get your condor filled. In such a case you simply buy back both your short options and write off the residual value of your long options. If the market makes a big enough move in one direction you may even be able to sell one of your long options to get a bit more credit out of the trade.