Jeff 7:38 pm on Tuesday, November 3, 2015

New Look

Good morning. I have designed a new layout for easier use.

Now, on the left of the screen, you can quickly link to each strategy category.
Under the categories is a search field which allows you to find posts with any keyword or stock symbol.
Also on the left, is the “Home” button, which will return you to the entrance page where all posts are visible, with most recent on top.
Under each post’s title you will see the number of comments, or if there are none, it will read “Leave A Comment,” for quick access.
NOTE: You’ll need to fill in your name and email for your first comment, but thereafter it should be filled in for you. Email addresses will NOT be displayed to other users.
THIS WILL CHANGE AGAIN as more contributors are added. Thanks for your patience!

Please reply to this post if you have any feedback or feature suggestions!

Jeff 12:56 pm on Tuesday, November 3, 2015

Closing thoughts 11/3

Another crash-up day, although an end-of-day drop and minor VIX spike could mean we are at a consolidation point. Try to keep all call spreads above the all-time highs of 2130. TSLA is dropping into close… did someone hear something early? Watching that tonight, and REGN in the morning.

Have a great night.

Jeff 10:39 am on Tuesday, November 3, 2015

SPX Nov 13th iron condor ROLL

#SPXcampaign Sold to open $SPX Nov 13th 2025/2050/2150/2175 iron condors for 2.80, with SPX at 2110. This is another roll spread to make back some losses from stopped call spreads.

Jeff 9:29 am on Tuesday, November 3, 2015

NXPI covered calls

#Earnings… I was assigned $NXPI stock at 86 on Friday, cost basis 85.00. Yesterday I sold some puts, but today I’m selling calls…

Sold to Open NXPI Nov 6th 84 covered call for .25

Sold to Open NXPI Nov 13th 85 covered call for .40

Sold to Open NXPI Nov 20th 85 covered call for .95

Jeff 9:14 am on Tuesday, November 3, 2015

REGN Earnings Trade

#Earnings Sold to Open $REGN Nov 6th 520/620 strangles for 3.20.

Biggest UP move:

7.4%

Biggest DOWN move:

-6.1%

Average move:

4.2%

These strikes are 9.4% and 8.0% OTM respectively. Small position (2-lot) due to high strike price. REGN can be volatile, especially when the biotech sector overall is, but it has not moved over 8% in the 5-day period after earnings since July 2012. You could even add protection and make this a condor, possible by playing intraday swings to add the longs, or we may see premium go down into the close.

Jeff 9:04 am on Tuesday, November 3, 2015

VLO short calls

Sold to Open $VLO Nov 6th 70 calls for .35 and .40. These are “against” my short stock position I was assigned Friday at 65.00. This was an earnings play I could have exited for cheap earlier in the week, but stayed in for the expiration and it ran away. Bullish action continues… I know these calls increase my risk rather than mitigate it, but haven’t had the opportunity to sell covered puts. Chart looks pretty strong on this one so I will work to adjust my cost basis lower if it does not pause on its trend soon.

Jeff 8:27 am on Tuesday, November 3, 2015

TSLA earnings

Over last 12 earnings for TSLA:

Biggest UP move:

24.4%

Biggest DOWN move:

-14.5%

Average move:

9.7%

Fuzzball suggests: TSLA – 185/235 strangle @ 2.75 right now. May widen that this afternoon. NP yet…

These strikes are 12.5% OTM on downside but only 10.7% on upside. I am comfortable with 185, as that area has been support before, but 235 is a bit close for me. Plus, I have had a few earnings trades go against me this quarter, so am more risk averse than usual. Therefore, I’m using Fuzzball’s strikes but making it a spread:

Sold to Open: $TSLA Nov 6th 180/185/235/240 iron condors for 1.00.

Jeff 7:17 am on Tuesday, November 3, 2015

WEBINAR – SPX Strategy – Thursday, November 5th, 5p ET

Thanks for following me on the OptionsBistro blog!

I will be holding a webinar this week on the SPX campaign strategy. I started trading it last December and have been developing it while trading it since then. It is turning a decent profit for the year. It took some losses at the end of August, but it also allowed me to develop a “stop trading” signal for downside corrections that I have backtested. Now I have also discovered a similar signal for upside risk, which has caused several call spreads to be closed in October.

I have added these indicators to my presentation, so you are invited to attend a free webinar this Thursday, November 5th, at 5pm ET/2pm PT. I will cover the basics of putting on the trades, and then managing the trades and your portfolio. There’s a lot to cover so it will take about 90 minutes.

There are only 25 spaces so I will accept participants on a first-come, first-served basis. Please reply to this post below if you want to attend, and I will send you a link on Thursday. If you miss this one, there will be future webinars, and I will post the PDF on the blog as well.

Many thanks, hope to see you Thursday!