rknight52 7:42 am on Thursday, May 12, 2016

$AAPL question? All responses welcome.

Currently am short AAPL May 20 100 put. At the time I sold it, AAPL was at 110. Today AAPL at new, almost 2 year low. Looks like I’ll have AAPL stock at 100 (minus the 1.30 received, for cost basis 98.30).
My original thesis was I’d be happy to take AAPL at 100, now it could put me way down. Long term? I still think AAPL will recover and be profitable long term. I have no idea how long that will be.
Thoughts here? I guess I could start selling covered calls when I’m assigned the stock, or I could just get out now for a loss, or something else. I’m sort of tossed on this one as to hold for the long term or recover my capital and deploy elsewhere. Got about a week to figure it out unless assigned early.
Thoughts please?

geewhiz112 7:44 am on Thursday, May 12, 2016

I would sell and wait. I have held and boy am I sorry. I am too optimistic. We must be realistic.
Jeff 7:48 am on Thursday, May 12, 2016

I’m long some stock at 99.00. I think today’s break is significant, so I will be selling for a loss soon. I too believe it will get back above 100… some day. Could be next month, but also could be several years. The growth story seems to be over; they will need something new to drive this higher again, and who knows how long it will be before they come up with it?
- Jeff 7:49 am on Thursday, May 12, 2016
  
  With your option, you can roll it into a strangle, and keep rolling it until you can nail an expiration between your strikes.
  - rknight52 8:20 am on Thursday, May 12, 2016
    
    What about this (this is in an IRA account, so I can’t get fancy): buy back my 100 put (now about 10.15), then sell the Jun 17 95 P for about 6.15. This would then put me down only 2.70. Will AAPL get to 95 by mid June? Who knows. Could then keep rolling down. Would that work to get me back to even? What do you think?
    - rknight52 8:53 am on Thursday, May 12, 2016
      
      Followup — that’s what I did. Rolled out and down to Jun 17 95. Now in at a debit total of 2.70. So, if assigned at 95, then have the stock basis at 97.70. This is down from the 98.70 that would have been the case next week. I’m comfortable here for a month unless assigned early. Will look at continuing to roll out and down monthly.
thomberg1201 9:22 am on Thursday, May 12, 2016

Are you concerned about tying up that much margin? Maybe buy a way out of the money throw away put like a 75?
- rknight52 9:31 am on Thursday, May 12, 2016
  
  This is in an IRA account, so all has to be cash secured. I’ve already been tying up 10,000 with the 100 put. Now, tying up 9500 with the 95 put. Not too worried about setting that money on the sidelines for another month and if I get assigned I’m OK with that, even though the cost basis isn’t what I prefer. I’ll just hold for the long haul as I do believe the valuations for AAPL are pretty good and with all the cash they have it would still be a good long-term investment in my IRA.
  
  Thanks for the idea of the way OTM put. I’ll look at it.
Sam KS 1:03 pm on Thursday, May 12, 2016

my 2 cents
AAPL breaking strong support at 92.4 seems confirmed downtrend. next support at 81.2 which also closely aligns with Bollinger lower band on daily chart. we will have watch next few trading days.