#SPXcampaign STO $SPX DEC2 15 2145/2170 CALL @1.55 CBOE, thank you Mort, Robert and Paul
for letting me know the resistance levels
Monthly Archives: November 2015
$UVXY #VXXGame – Sold UVXY…
$UVXY #VXXGame – Sold UVXY Nov 20 2015 25.0 Puts @ 0.15 with UVXY down 10%
SPX closing spread at 80%
#SPXcampaign
BTC $SPX Nov 27th 1915/1890 put spreads for .20. Sold for 1.25 on Oct 26th.
$NFLX rolling
Rolled Nov 107, 110, 112, short calls out to Dec 110, 114.29, 117.14, for even. Also, rolled this week’s 115 puts up to 120 for another 1.47 credit giving these weekly puts a nice total credit of 7.04. Don’t mind dealing with these short term issues since it’s still an overall bullish position. Jan 2017 94.29 short puts are looking great!
$OPHT short puts
Closing Dec and will let Nov expire this week. Completely out of this ticker now…I may regret not being in if this thing is 300 in a couple years (see $REGN !) thanks @scottto
Bought to close OPHT DEC 18 2015 40.0 Puts @ .25 (sold for 1.50)
Nov positions will expire this week for a nice gain of 3.00…I’ll definitely be looking to get back in on any weakness.
$ZOES #EarningsScalp Followed Jeff STO…
$ZOES #EarningsScalp Followed Jeff STO ZOES NOV 20 2015 BuPS @ 0.25
$ZOES #EarningsScalp – I took…
$ZOES #EarningsScalp – I took one of Jeff’s trades – Sold ZOES NOV 20 2015 22.5 Puts @ 0.25. The Bid/Ask is now higher
ContangoETFs
I’m prepping a webinar for #ContangoETFs and just built this chart. Thought I’d share it with you since it’s an example of the kind of predictable behavior you can see in ETFs like $DUST, $NUGT, $UVXY, $ZSL, $TZA, $BOIL, $KOLD. Kind of like finding money on the sidewalk…
$BBY #EarningsScalp – Sold BBY…
$BBY #EarningsScalp – Sold BBY Nov 20 2015 25.0 Puts @ 0.12. Larger trade size but a lower strike. The last time the stock saw this price was May 2014.
ZOES earnings trade
#Earnings This one is a bit riskier since it is fairly new with only 6 previous earnings reports. Still, the options are pretty far OTM and lower than the stock has been since its IPO month; stock is cheap if assigned.
PLUS, earnings are after tomorrow’s close, so only entering partial today. Will update tomorrow.
STO $ZOES Nov 20th 25 puts for .50, and 22.5 puts for .25.
Biggest UP move: 7.5% , Biggest DOWN move: -4.6% , Average move: 4.6% . These strikes are 20.5% and 28.4% OTM respectively.
BBY Earnings trade
#Earnings Sold to Open $BBY Nov 20th 27 puts for .30 and .32. Scaling in to full position as stock drops off its highs. Next order is in for .34. Not enough premium in calls to make a strangle.
Over last 12 earnings reports: Biggest UP move: 13.2% , Biggest DOWN move: -13.0% , Average move: 6.9% . This trade is 13.3% OTM.
NFLX: Closing some short puts
Bought to close $NFLX Nov 20 108 puts for .18. Sold on 11/16 for 1.27
Closing another:
Bought to close $NFLX Dec 4 100 puts for .41. Sold on 11/16 for 1.55
$ZSL #ScalpTrade – Sold ZSL…
$ZSL #ScalpTrade – Sold ZSL Nov 20 2015 67.5 Calls @ 0.23 on a market order. These are extremely illiquid so I’m riding them through expiration
ZSL calls
#ContangoETFs STO $ZSL Nov 20th 63 call for 1.15
STO ZSL Dec 18th 67.5 call for 2.35
Need to keep an eye if its behavior will be any different after the split. If there’s no change, this one will always top out and fail in the 60-65 area.
NXPI covered calls
#Earnings #CoveredCalls STO $NXPI Nov 27th 83 call for .50 and 84 call for .45. (assigned stock at 86.00)
Good morning…
Up and down yesterday, up today? Check out the great chart Robert posted (prvtrader) last night… we are at resistance on a downtrend line from beginning of November… pressed against it yesterday then failed; we will press it again this morning. I’m picking and choosing $SPX spreads wisely, playing the whipsaw action. I remain watchful for more downside since we are under a Warning from Friday.
It looks like the Bulls…
It looks like the Bulls got a little tired after yesterday’s and this mornings rally…If price moves down tomorrow the Stochastic will give a signal to go short the SPX.
KOLD puts
#ContangoETFs Hard to believe I still get someone to buy these, expiring in 3 days…
STO $KOLD Nov 20th 110 puts for 1.25.
Building a ladder in $UA
Adding a January position to what has now become a short put ladder.
Sold $UA Jan 15 2016 70 put @ 1.20
I am now short the following puts:
Dec 80
Jan 70
Apr 65
Buying a put calendar in…
Buying a put calendar in GMCR for earnings. Nov./Dec. at the 30 strike for approx. 50 cent debit. Will change it to a put credit spread later if GMCR doesn’t go down to cover the costs of the Dec. put.
XOP short puts
A small position to take advantage of the high IV rank (66). Strike is at the late Sep lows.
Sold $XOP Dec 18 32 puts @ .47
SPX put roll
#SPXcampaign #Rolling STO $SPX Nov 27th 1965/1940 put spreads for 1.30, as a partial roll of spreads stopped out last week.
STO Dec 4th 2140/2150 BeCS @ 0.45 when the S&P was trading at 2059. Another cautious trade. 2140 Delta @ .06.
DUST in the wind
#ContangoETFs STO $DUST Jan 45 calls for 1.15. Will add more if premium rises.
$SPX STO Nov 31st 1930/1940 BuPS @ 0.40. cautious starter position. This was filled this morning when the S$P was trading @ 2054
SPX call spread #2
#SPXcampaign STO $SPX Dec 17th 2165/2190 call spreads for 1.25. Second call spread for the week, 20 points higher than yesterday. I won’t worry about defending these unless we break through all-time high at 2134.
$SPX #spxcampaign STO Dec 19…
$SPX #spxcampaign
STO Dec 19 2150/2160 BeCS for 1.00
These are well past the highs and delta less than 0.1.
Got these earlier this morning, just now able to post. Could have waited and gotten a more, but this works.
STO SPX DEC2 15 2145/2170…
STO $SPX DEC2 15 2145/2170 BeCS (12/11/2015) @1.35
$UVXY
STO Nov 20 $25 puts @ $0.21
SVXY…I’ll keep shorting you until I’m wrong
$SVXY – I’ve got enough short puts that I can hope these get in trouble. Long enough XIV in my 401k that I can really hope these get in trouble!
Sold SVXY DEC 18 2015 65.0 Calls @ 1.55
NFLX Short Puts
$NFLX Selling some additional premium to offset short call exposure.
Sold $NFLX Dec 11 (weekly) 100 puts @ 1.27
Good morning…
Another day rocketing higher? Looks that way. I have been backtesting the $VIX warning signals, and I have not found a downside warning that triggers without a subsequent correction in the $SPX (I have tested 1999 thru 2011 thus far). Sometimes, the correction may come weeks later, or sometimes it may be only a decent pullback rather than “correction.” But nonetheless, I am staying on watch for more downside in the days and weeks to come after Friday’s Warning.
Signs that we should reset the clock would be either a new $VIX low (below 12.80) or a new $SPX high (2134). Also, a firm break of the recent SPX high (2116) or a close below the most recent base for the VIX warning (Wednesday’s close of 16.05) I believe would mean relative safety. This is a new indicator and our first time working with it in real-time. So every day is an education.
Monthly expiration is this Friday, and it could be playing a role in this rally. Seeing what happens next week will be interesting.
SPX pre-market call spread
#SPXcampaign In pre-market (4:34am ET) STO $SPX Dec 4th 2130/2155 call spreads for 1.20. This is actually my second regular call spread for this expiry, given that I only sold half my normal amount a couple weeks ago. Staying at or above all-time highs, and above the most recent swing high.
Today’s Stock trades
These are the stocks that I bought today:
$AZO, $BMY, $FB, $NKE (add), $SBUX (add)
All provided good entries.
Kelly
This is what I saw…
This is what I saw today on the SPX; I’ll try to post a chart each day after the close. The idea is to keep a track record of what I see and how I’m trading it.
BTO PFE NOV4 32.5 Call…
BTO PFE NOV4 32.5 Call 1.06. Unusual Call option activity 30,000 today. Thought I would tag along
$SPX call spread
#SPXCampaign Sold Dec 11 2140/2165 BeCS @ 1.20. Short strike has a delta of 07 and is outside 1 standard deviation (2135), and above the all-time high.
$SVXY #vxxgame This morning bought…
$SVXY #vxxgame
This morning bought $SVXY @ 52 and STO Nov 20th 53 P @ 2.00 and 57 P @ 1.15.
$NFLX rollout
Rolling this week’s puts up to 30 delta strike for more premium.
Bought to close $NFLX Nov 20 100 puts @ .25 (sold for 1.20 on 10/30/15)
Sold to open $NFLX Nov 20 108 puts @ 1.27
Credit: 1.02
$SPX spread #spxcampaign STO Dec…
$SPX spread #spxcampaign
STO Dec 11 2130/2140 BeCS at 0.80.
My account not as large as some, so have to take these in smaller bites.
STO Dec 11 LNKD 250/262.5…
STO Dec 11 LNKD 250/262.5 BeCS at $3.64. Stop at 252.33
C’mon silver…I dare ya!
$ZSL $AGQ – I’m so tired of carrying this ZSL ITM bear call spread I’m once again daring silver to go up. This worked great this month being short decent size positions of 38 and 40 calls. If Janet doesn’t raise these should get in trouble…hopefully!
Sold AGQ DEC 18 2015 33.0 Calls @ .57
$UVXY
Made several trades today once it was clear that we weren’t headed for another spike of volatility.
STO $UVXY Dec 4 $65 calls @ $.91
STO $UVXY Dec 18 $95 calls @ $1.09
STO $UVXY Nov 20 $53 calls @ $0.48 (already short $45 calls)
$NFLX Short Puts
Selling some additional premium to offset short call exposure.
Sold $NFLX Dec 4 (weekly) 100 puts @ 1.55
WMT bearish trade
#Earnings – this is NOT my normal earnings trade, but with market volatility I do not feel like shorting options on earnings, especially because there isn’t a lot of premium in many of these companies reporting. But much of retail is very bearish, dropping further on earnings. So I bought 3 $WMT Nov 20th puts for .34, a $100 bet that this could crater down toward 50 when it reports tomorrow morning.
#Eminis – Looking to scalp…
#Eminis – Looking to scalp 10 or 12 points or if it moves against me adding it to a core short position…helps to protect the naked puts of my strangles as well.
SOLD ES @2028.50…order in to cover at 2016.50 or at breakeven on a rally.
#Eminis – The experiment continues….
#Eminis – The experiment continues. The market weakness has finally allowed me to make some adjustments. Covered a couple short contracts earlier for even after riding them all the way up and back down. This left a few uncovered puts that I rolled down and out to Jan Feb Mar and Apr in 1650-1750 range. Now that I’ve got a little room on the short side I’m legging into some strangles when we get a little strength.
Starting with this:
SOLD /ES JAN 16 2100 CALL @ 18.00
Paired with a 1900 put that’s only worth 6.00 making total value of the strangle 24.00 so max gain of $1200 per strangle. Had I been more patient on the put side I believe these strangles could easily bring 30 points total. This position ties up about 8 thousand margin per strangle with the option to take a long or short position if they get ITM as well as rollability.
I’ll be looking to add the call sides further out if we rally into the end of the year…
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STO Dec 11 SPX 1915/1900…
STO Dec 11 SPX 1915/1900 at $1.50, will get out if price goes below 2018.
SPX call spread
#SPXcampaign STO Dec 17th $SPX 2145/2170 call spreads for 1.25
Good morning..
Quite a Friday the 13th we had…. we got our $VIX warning signal, and it looked like it could be a repeat of Aug 20-24… however, a significantly more minor one; $SPX was only down 1.12% for the day. Then the Paris attacks instilled fear, but because they happened Friday, with the weekend to digest, it was anyone’s guess what Monday would look like.
For now, we STILL have an active warning from Friday, so be on the lookout. VIX would need to fall at least back below Wednesday’s close of 16.05 before I would say we can ease off the brakes. SPX vol is high so selling new spreads will get you fairly far OTM; just proceed cautiously. Call spreads should be above all-time high of 2135. I will look to sell my normal 5-week out spreads for Dec 17th before I consider putting rolls on from spreads that were stopped last week.
/ES #Eminis Been out of…
/ES #Eminis Been out of town last few days so no time to post…covered a couple Eminis tonight at 2010.50. Sold them Friday near the close at 2015.00 as soon as I heard about the Paris tragedy. Short a few more at higher prices as a hedge for a fairly big SVXY short put position. Lots of bang for your buck with these things as protection. Had some covered by Dec 2000 puts that I’ll roll down and out if I decide to uncover all of the shorts.
Posting another chart from August….
Posting another chart from August. 
I lost money during that move, because I didn’t pay attention to my indicators. I was trading in “Automatic” since the market had been so kind to me during the consolidation. I should have made a bunch, but missed all the signals.
Options Expiration 11/13/15
A light week this week:
Expiring
$SPX 11/13/2015 2120/2145 call spreads
$SPX 11/13/2015 2140/2165 call spreads
$SVXY 11/13/2015 65 calls (covered)
Have a great weekend everyone.
Options Expiration 11/13/15
Max profit:
$SPX 2110/2120 call spread
Options Expiration 11/13/15
Followers who do not have Posting privileges can respond to the Post with their expirations
Expiring with 100% of max profit:
$NXPI 75 puts
$NXPI 85 covered call
$UVXY 25 put
$VLO 67 & 68 covered puts
$SPX 2125/2145 call spreads
$SPX 2150/2175 call spreads
No assignments. Thanks everyone, have a great weekend!
If you’d like Posting privileges, please email me or reply here and I will invite you.
I posted the wrong price…
I posted the wrong price on those 1800 puts it was .65 cents. Still 21,000 traded.
Closed positions
I closed some of my short options positions for profit in $NUGT, $ZSL, $TDG. I closed some options and stock for losses in $KOLD, $NXPI, $VLO (I intend to roll the KOLD positions once the market settles down). Took off the risk to manage margin should we have an ugly Monday.
SPX trade didn’t fill but…
SPX trade didn’t fill but there may be other opportunities next week. They traded a boatload of puts at the 1800 strike for .80 cents or so.
…and another SPX stop
#SPXcampaign Bought to close $SPX Nov 27th 1950/1925 put spreads for 2.75. Sold for 1.70 on Oct 23rd (part of a roll).
$SPX new call spread
#SPXcampaign Don’t normally sell call spreads on a day like this, but I still needed another for Dec 11th, and I’m still able to get one right at all-time highs. If next week is more down, it will be fine. If we rebound, the relief from put spreads will make up for any pain on this one. It is my only call spread below 2160.
Sold to open $SPX Dec 11th 2130/2155 call spreads for 1.25.
SPX trade in case the market gets ugly this afternoon
I’m trying a 1860/1870 SPX put credit spread for next week for .45 cents in case the market gets super ugly into the close. This is currently above market.
SVXY
This morning I rolled my 50 puts that expire today out to November 27, 45 strike for .96 cents. In 9 more weeks I will have the strike price down to zero. LOL
$SPX stopping Dec 11th spread
#SPXcampaign Bought to close Dec 11th 1920/1895 put spreads for 3.20. Sold for 1.25 on Wednesday.
With warning signal in effect and continuing downside, I am closing non-SPX positions as well, to keep margin clear for a possible Monday crash. I don’t really expect it, but the end of this week is looking like a minor version of August 20-24.
$VIX steadily rising, $SPX steadily…
$VIX steadily rising, $SPX steadily decreasing for last two hours. We are getting a retest of the 20.05 signal level. Take caution as risk remains high for Monday and next week. Need a very strong end-of-day rally to say otherwise.
NFLX
$NFLX breaking below 105, rapidly heading toward the 50 day moving average. Will be interested to see what happens into the close today.
SPX Stop-out
#SPXcampaign Bought to close $SPX Dec 4th 1940/1915 put spreads for 2.90. Sold for 1.25 on Nov 5th. Closing down a few put spreads today to avoid weekend risk after $VIX Warning has fired.
TICK low of the day.
Something is still roiling us intraday… epic battle.
$SPX STO $SPX 2020/2010 earlier…
$SPX
STO $SPX 2020/2010 earlier today and then was sweating it out as I acted too early before really seeing what this market was going to do today. STO at 0.80. Now have closed at 0.30. Glad to get out with a little lunch money on that one.
The SPX 2024 level held…so…
The SPX 2024 level held…so now what?
2045-2050 could be the top of the move, if this is just a retracement. It doesn’t have to get there today, but it might. Nevertheless, if it doesn’t get there today, it may do it on Monday; however, there is resistance at 2061 – 2064 which is a double Fib-Node and the retracement could turn back South there.
$VIX Futures
Front 2 months of the futures are in backwardation again. Not sure how much longer it will last but something to note for volatility sellers.
www.vixcentral.com
$NUGT and $KOLD ETFs
#ContangoETFs Managing some ITM positions in these…
BTC KOLD Nov 20th 100 call for 22.50. Sold for 4.00 on Aug 17th
STO KOLD Nov 20th 110 puts (x2) for 2.55. Will also add a Dec call for 17.50 or more on next KOLD up day.
BTC NUGT Nov 20th 30 put for 5.50. Sold for 2.50 on Oct. 12th.
STO NUGT June 45 call for 5.60
$SPX new LOD, but…
…TICKs fired huge after bottoming… $RUT near positive on day. That may have been bears’ last breath?
$SPX new LOD
$SPX new LOD
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