Got smoked this morning on TGT 2x implied move… or did I?

Got smoked this morning on TGT 2x implied move… or did I?

This is an earnings release play structured as a long double calendar with pre-insurance in the front month. Column F is the implied move at entry (3:50 PM yesterday) and the realized move at exit (9:36 AM today). As you can see the gdamn realized move is 2x the implied and I was bracing myself for the wrecking ball. Trade was $6,400 debit to open with a buying power reduction margin requirement on top of that of $5,000.

To note: I experimented with this trade by buying a very far out back month term. Usually my back month is 15-60 DTE. For this trade I went way out to 239 DTE to see if the IV crush would be less going that far out. These trades always have long vega, I want to reduce that as much as possible, and going this far out was my attempt at that. Confusingly, I'm gaining more vega by going out that far, but the crush may be less after the release. You can see the IVx of the fronts dropped like 53 points, but the backs only dropped 4 points.

But that's not my point or question. My question is: did the incredible gain on the 17-Apr-25 $160 call save this trade? I made huge gains there and I suspect the gain on this call was much stronger on this very far out back month compared to if it had been only 60 DTE or so. I got hammered by a huge move, but only lost a negligible amount which was very nice. Was it the long term back that saved this trade?

I also have pre-insurance on the front at $162.50, and it was great to have, but it only gained a few hundred, not a few thousand.

Thanks everyone! I'm an idiot and I appreciate the feed back. I'm learning every day!