August 19
BTC 61 call, STO 71 December call for a 0.50 cent credit.
Monthly Archives: August 2016
SPX calls sold / puts closed
#SPXcampaign Sold to Open $SPX Sept 15th 2245/2270 call spreads for 1.65, with SPX at 2190.
Bought to close $SPX Aug 26th 2050/2025 put spreads for .20. Sold for 1.60 on July 28th.
SVXY
STO covered calls, December 85 calls @6.50
HAIN–down today so far
HAIN–down today so far
#Market #Anniversary Hey guy’s, last…
Hey guy’s, last summer, the day before August Monthly expiration, was when the market started it’s violent move. We are about to lap that event. Likely to be getting some press this week and possibly make people a bit skittish.
SPX puts closed
#SPXcampaign In pre-market, Bought to Close $SPX Aug 26th 2040/2015 put spreads for .20. Sold for 1.30 on July 25th.
HAIN
32,152 calls in the Sept 55 expiration on a day the stock went up 3.22 which is 6%. Sept 60 had 6,000, Aug 55 and 60s had 14,000 between them.
Sept. 55 puts had over 5,000, otherwise almost no other option activity. I wonder if an evening custodian was snooping and told some friends about something he read on a desk?
Earnings are Wednesday, ladies and gentlemen, start your engines.
Expired
$NUGT 85 puts
$NUGT 200 Calls
Closed 8/19 Spreads Early
$BABA 80/85 BUCS @ 97% profit
$BABA 80/85 BUPS @ 99% profit
$SPX 2015/2040 BUPS @ 91% profit
Thanks to all for your sharing.
Restful weekend.
#optionsexpiration
$VIX – http://blog.gavekalcapital.com/?p=11556 The relationship…
$VIX – http://blog.gavekalcapital.com/?p=11556
The relationship between the VIX and the spread between high yield bonds over 10-year treasuries is highly correlated (87% over the past 15 years). This, of course, makes intuitive sense. The VIX tends to spike when confidence in stocks or the economy is shaky. Which is also true for high yield bonds. When investors begin to worry that high yield issuers won’t be able to make debt payments because of, for example, slowing growth, high yield bonds usually sell off against treasury bonds.
This occurred earlier this year in February when the VIX spiked to over 28 and the spreads widened to 850 bps. Since then as investors climb the wall of worry the level of the VIX and high yield spreads have fallen in tandem. However, the level of the VIX has fallen much further and signifies that fears in the equity market are much lower than fears in the bond market.
At no point over the past 15 years has this level of the VIX occurred when high yield bond spreads are this elevated. A simple regression model suggests that the VIX should be around 19 rather than the current level of 12. Or looked at from the other angle, high yield spreads are usually 185 bps lower than they currently are when the VIX is at 12.
Presumably, this relationship will begin to normalize. The question that needs to be answered is will it normalize because investors bid up high yield bonds or because the complacency in the stock market erodes away?
#OptionsExpiration #Weeklys #Aug12 – another…
#OptionsExpiration #Weeklys #Aug12 – another week another new high for the market, $SVXY and $NUGT.
I finally decided to let go of part of an overly large position in SVXY in some retirement accounts. These had been rolled up several times but the additional premium just wasn’t there today. But, cash is good!!!
— Expired —
CHK (Weekly) Aug 12 2016 6 Calls (Covered)
KORS (Weekly) Aug 12 2016 43 Puts
NUGT (Weekly) Aug 12 2016 205 Calls
NUGT (Weekly) Aug 12 2016 80 Puts
SVXY (Weekly) Aug 12 2016 50 Puts
SVXY (Weekly) Aug 12 2016 70 Puts
UVXY (Weekly) Aug 12 2016 24 Calls (Covered)
UVXY (Weekly) Aug 12 2016 25.5 Calls (Covered)
UVXY (Weekly) Aug 12 2016 26 Calls (Covered)
UVXY (Weekly) Aug 12 2016 26.5 Calls (Covered)
UVXY (Weekly) Aug 12 2016 27 Calls (Covered)
UVXY (Weekly) Aug 12 2016 28 Calls
UVXY (Weekly) Aug 12 2016 58 Calls
UVXY 20/(Weekly) Aug 12 2016 12 Calls
UVXY 20/(Weekly) Aug 12 2016 18 Calls
— Assignments —
SVXY (Weekly) Aug 12 2016 58.5 Calls (Covered/IRA Account)
SVXY (Weekly) Aug 12 2016 60 Calls (Covered/IRA Account)
SVXY (Weekly) Aug 12 2016 64 Calls (Covered/IRA Account)
SVXY (Weekly) Aug 12 2016 65 Calls (Covered/IRA Account)
SVXY (Weekly) Aug 12 2016 66 Calls (Covered/IRA Account)
AAPL snuck in a Sept….
AAPL snuck in a Sept. 110/115 call spread for 1.13, counting on AAPL stalling a little.
Have a nice weekend all
Options Expirations
$NUGT $85 puts
$NUGT $120 put
$NUGT $210 call
$NUGT $220 call
$NUGT $230 call
$SVXY $52 puts
$UVXY $25 calls
Nicely profitable week where no positions ever got challenged. Love it when that happens.
#optionsexpiration
Expirations for August 12
NUGT 155 put
SVXY
40 puts
45 puts
50 puts
55 puts
60 puts
#optionsexpiration
IRA expiration
SVXY 40 puts sold @1.70
I think it is safe to say I am not going to be assigned on this one.
SPX monster
#SPXcampaign This morning I was a rolling fool. I have been managing my way (slowly) out of call spreads that were (and are being) crushed. It will either take a few months or one decent pullback to get me out. I’m being patient and aggressive at the same time.
And I’m using the experience to understand how to roll ITM. It is not as difficult as I thought, save for the fact that you experience large drawdowns and heavy margin requirements. But veterans of #VXXGame know all about that!
Bought to close $SPX Aug 18th 2130/2155 call spreads for 23.20. Sold as a roll for 6.35 on June 28th.
Rolled to: $SPX Aug 24th 2135/2160 call spreads for 21.50, and Aug 31st 2140/2115 put spreads for 2.45.
Here I am trying to do just a one-week roll, while moving one strike higher. Thinking is that whenever a correction comes, my call spread will drain of value more quickly with a near-dated spread. PLUS, near-dated actually have more spread premium than further ones (due to bigger difference between short and long strikes). Also added a slightly further-out put spread to bring in a credit on the roll.
Sold to Open Sept 9th 2080/2055 put spreads for 1.30, standard weekly spread.
Sold to Open Aug 24th 2140/2115 put spreads. Roll spread to offset calls sold earlier this week.
Good news is I have 2195/2220 calls and 2150/2125 puts expiring today. This was a similar roll two weeks ago from a partially ITM spread… so I can get out of these suckers!
I got busy this week and have not updated the SPX Chart… will do before Monday.
SVXY
STO December 85 calls @6.00 adding to my covered call positions
$UVXY roll Aug 19 $20…
$UVXY roll Aug 19 $20 put to Sept 16 $20 put for $2.10cr, Aug put netted 0.64 as well.
$NUGT BTC Aug 12 $175…
$NUGT BTC Aug 12 $175 call for 0.10 before noon, sold early morn today for $4.50
NUGT
STO August 19, 150 put @3.40
$NUGT #ShortPuts – with a…
$NUGT #ShortPuts – with a week to go I rolled up some short puts for a little more premium.
Bought to Close NUGT Aug 19 2016 85.0 Puts @ 0.04
Sold NUGT Aug 19 2016 135.0 Puts @ 1.19.
$NUGT – was assigned early…
$NUGT – was assigned early on an Aug 12th ITM call. Just closed the short stock at 165.
I was a bit worried when the pre-market high of 182.37 showed up on my chart.
$SVXY #CoveredCalls #Rollup – Deep…
$SVXY #CoveredCalls #Rollup – Deep in the money rollups are tough to get off.
Bought to close SVXY Aug 12 2016 60.0 Calls @ 11.70
Sold SVXY Sep 23 2016 63.0 Calls @ 12.10 for a 0.40 Credit plus 3 additional points on the strike price.
IBB Closed Aug 26 305/315…
IBB
Closed Aug 26 305/315 call spread for .64, sold Aug. 9 for 1.40.
#Gold Someone hit the sell…
Someone hit the sell button a bunch of times and left for lunch @ 12 noon.
#earnings closed Aug. 19 PCLN…
#earnings closed Aug. 19 PCLN 1205/1215/1525/1535 iron condor for .10, sold for 1.48 on Aug. 3. I still think we can make money on the iron fly a few of us have, I am still in it anyway.
NUGT put rollup
Rolled $NUGT Aug 19 135 puts up and out to Aug 26 140 puts for 2.91 credit. I’m continuing to bring in premium against my Aug 19 in the money short 130 calls.
#earnings NVDA closed 55/65 strangle…
#earnings NVDA closed 55/65 strangle for .51 sold yesterday for 1.58
$CMCM #Covered call Buy shares…
$CMCM #Covered call
Buy shares @ 12.50 basis by STO AUG19 13 calls @ .82.
SVXY
STO December 85 calls @6.00
DIS earnings closed
#Earnings BTC $DIS Aug 12th 96.5 calls for 1.08 (avg price). Sold as part of iron butterfly for 1.58 on Tuesday. Small profit, but profit nonetheless.
$SVXY #CoveredCalls.
Back from moving my daughter to Florida during that apparent tropical depression. I was beginning to think an Ark was needed instead of an apartment. Anyway, I was early assigned Aug 12th 57 Covered Calls one day early. Second time in as many months. Alas, didn’t get it rolled.
$TWLO
STO Aug 19 48 put @ .48. Will take stock if put to me.
SVXY Roll
BTC August 19, 59 calls, STO December 69 calls for a credit of 0.15 cents.
$SVXY #CoveredCalls #Rollup – one…
$SVXY #CoveredCalls #Rollup – one of many rollups I’m doing in various accounts for SVXY.
Bought to close SVXY Aug 12 2016 65.0 Calls @ 5.70
Sold SVXY Sep 23 2016 71.5 Calls @ 5.90 for a 0.20 Credit plus 6 1/2 points on the strike price.
The new strike price is slightly out of the money with the stock at currently 71.30 and the breakeven for the new short call is at 77.40, well above the YTD high on the stock.
As I said last week, in this account I’m using a 3:1 overwrite strategy with an #OptionLadder approach. So if SVXY collapses again I’m not likely to get hurt to the downside unless the stock stays down for more than 6 weeks. In most cases for each individual week, I only have calls outstanding on 50% of my long stock. I roll that position each week out to a week that I have no exposure in, at successively higher strike prices.
At some point I will start letting some of my stock go and switch to selling puts. But for now this is working.
SVXY
BTC August 26, 40 puts @0.05 sold @1.05
$SVXY #ShortCalls – As SVXY…
$SVXY #ShortCalls – As SVXY pulls back a bit, I’m getting a bigger credit for doing this roll. I also have an order in to liquidate more stock at the recent high of 74.16, should it return there anytime soon.
Bought to close SVXY Sep 16 2016 60.0 Calls @ 13.78
Sold SVXY Jan 19 2018 90.0 Calls @ 15.28
SVXY
BTC August 26, 38 puts @0.05 sold @0.85
BTC August 26, 45 puts @0.05 sold @1.80
Not much more to be made so free up some margin.
NUGT
BTC September 16, 50 put @0.10, sold @1.15
$NUGT
STO $NUGT Sep 2 $260 Call @ $2.50
Party like it’s…
Yesterday was the first time since December 31, 1999, that the S&P, Dow, and Nasdaq all closed at record highs on the same day.
$NUGT BTC Aug 12 $175…
$NUGT BTC Aug 12 $175 call for $2.50, sold earlier today $4.50, I know coulda, woulda, shoulda waited for better price. I made a decent profit, eh.
NVDA 4 #earnings trades on…
NVDA 4 earnings trades on NVDA over at TT, 2 bullish and a neutral strangle. Aug. 19 55/65 strangle for 1.78, Aug. 12, 56/51 BuPS for .75, Aug. 19, 55/46 BuPS, and an Aug 12 jade lizard, short 62 call and 57 put, long 63 call for 1.46. NVDA is approaching 60.
Not sure what to try yet.
Iron Condor in GOOGL
STO Sep 23 GOOGL 787.5/777.5 BuPS and 830/840 BeCS for $5.00
This is a 1:1 risk/reward trade. So basically it becomes a binary trade. I either win or lose.
NUGT inversion experiment update
What started out as a strangle with the short call getting killed this thing still has a chance. Went further inverted today. Position was next week’s 165/155 inverted strangle @ 21.70 credit. Rolled the 165 put up to 180 put for another 7.00 credit.
Position is now 180/155 inverted @ 28.70. As long as the credit received is more than the inverted width it will make money. Goal is to still have the stock price be inside the strangle at expiration. Pay the width of the strangle for the position to go away and keep the difference. If nothing else it has a lot better chance than if I would’ve let the original 100 put (or whatever it was…don’t remeber) just sit there.
$NUGT
STO $NUGT Aug 26 $250 calls @ $1.50
STO $NUGT Aug 26 $120 put @ $1.25
STO $NUGT Sep 2 $110 put @ $1.50
STO $NUGT Sep 2 $120 put @ $2.50
I will see how high $NUGT wants to go on this run before I look to sell Sep 2 Calls to pair off the puts.
NUGT…this week’s strangle
Was sitting on a 155/170 strangle for this week. 155 put almost worthless so reverse rolling the 170 call out 2 weeks to the put side.
Bought NUGT AUG 12 2016 170.0 Call @ 9.75
Sold NUGT AUG 26 2016 160.0 Put @ 9.15
Paid .60 debit but that’s ok…I’ll look to sell the call side at some point…or maybe not at all and just reduce my size a little.
NUGT strangle
Sold $NUGT Aug 19 142/210 strangles @ 4.00
$NUGT BTC Aug 12 $180P…
$NUGT BTC Aug 12 $180P for $6.10, sold last Thursday for $18.20
$NUGT
STO Aug 19 $220 call @ $1.20
NUGT
STO September 16, 175 puts @25.98
NUGT
BTC August 26, 80 put @0.10, sold for 2.05 on 1 contract. no brokerage.
SPX calls sold
#SPXcampaign Sold to open $SPX Aug 31st 2210/2235 call spreads for 3.60, as a partial roll from stopped ITM spreads. We continue the grind higher, but it is slow enough that call spreads are working well, even fairly close to the money.
SVXY
STO December 85 calls @6.00
SVXY
STO December 37 puts @1.90
$UVXY #ShortCalls #VXXGame – Sold…
$UVXY #ShortCalls #VXXGame – Sold UVXY Oct 21 2016 55.0 Calls @ 2.05. This is the highest available strike price and represents almost 10% of the underlying equity, currently at 21.30
RGLD earnings
#Earnings Sold to Open $RGLD Aug 19th 87.5/85 put spreads for 1.25. A partially ITM bullish spread, playing the trend and gold bullishness. Also, if it drops on earnings, it will have 10 days to recover. 1:1 risk/reward.
NUGT
STO October 21, 120 put @13.10
Still trying to get long against my short call positions.
$UVXY #ShortCalls – getting some…
$UVXY #ShortCalls – getting some more done on the move to 22 in UVXY
Sold UVXY AUG 19 2016 34.0 Calls @ 0.24 – these expire next week
Sold UVXY AUG 26 2016 40.0 Calls @ 0.43
SPX call spread closed
#SPXcampaign Bought to close $SPX Aug 18th 2225/2250 call spreads for .20. Sold for 1.55 on July 22nd.
NUGT hedge
Sold $NUGT Sep 2 120 puts (delta 10) @ 3.10. This is additional hedging against my large short call position in September.
SHAK earnings
Haven’t decided yet if I’ll do it. Iron fly 2.5 wide for 1.90. Risk 60 to make 190. MMM of 2.75. Could also widen to 3 for not much more risk…
$UVXY
STO $UVXY Aug 12 $25 calls @ $0.20
STO $UVXY Aug 19 $34 calls @ $0.20
STO $UVXY Aug 26 $34 calls @ $0.51
$UVXY #ShortCalls #VXXGame – Sold…
$UVXY #ShortCalls #VXXGame – Sold UVXY Sep 16 2016 56.0 Calls @ 0.78. Highest available strike price
$NUGT BTC Aug 19 $170…
$NUGT BTC Aug 19 $170 $12.50, sold 30 minutes earlier for $14.50
UVXY closed
#VXXGame, earlier at the opening low, BTC UVXY Sept 9th 58 call for .34. Sold for 1.80 on Aug 2.
SPX puts sold
#SPXcampaign One standard campaign spread and one partial roll
Sold to Open $SPX Sept 9th 2060/2035 puts for 1.25, with SPX at 2176.
Sold to Open $SPX Sept 2nd 2125/2100 puts for 2.75, with SPX at 2178.
/ES eminis hedge
Yesterday:
SOLD 2 Sep futures @ 2176.75
SOLD 2 Aug 17 2170 puts @ 9.75
Bought 4 Aug 17 2195 calls @ 4.45
After looking a lot closer at this last night I decided the max loss wasn’t worth the potential gain so closed it all this morning for a scratch. Watching TT last night a couple guys on there had what I felt was a much better hedge. Lower cost and higher reward than what I was trying. They were going out to Sep and just buying VIX 15/20 call spreads. Only paying about 85 cents so much better R/R than my futures trade.
I haven’t bought those yet but might if we get a pullback in VIX closer to 11…
DIS KORS YELP earnings
DIS 93.5/96/96/98.5 iron flies @ 1.93 (closed for 1.20)
KORS 46.5/50/50/53.5 iron fly @ 2.70 (closed for 1.55)
YELP 29.5/32.5/32.5/35.5 iron flies @ 2.39
YELP outside the move so waiting a little on it. Could get out at .50 loss right now. Since max loss is only .61 I’ll watch it awhile. Like to get out at a scratch but even if taking max loss the 3 trades combined are profitable. Could possibly roll the calls or take short position in the stock while waiting for reality to set in for YELP…LOL
Another NUGT put rollup
Rolled $NUGT Aug 26 110 puts up to 135 puts for 2.51 credit.
SKEW is up
For the first time since June, the SKEW went above 135.00 yesterday. SKEW is often a predictor of corrections (readings above 135) or rallies (below 120). On this chart, SKEW is in red, SPY in yellow. You can see a pop to 140 preceded the late June pullback from Brexit.
Earnings…can we predict the move?
Interesting…
https://www.tastytrade.com/tt/daily_recaps/2016-08-09/episodes/reversals-after-earnings-08-09-2016
KORS anyone?
By the way…I’ve been a long time supporter of the hometown brewery but recently switched to the silver bullets…so gotta do this. Just one fly…
Sold this week’s 46.5/50/50/53.5 iron fly @ 2.70
Risk 80 to make 270 and once again needing a slightly less than MMM…
$UVXY #ShortCalls – Covered these…
$UVXY #ShortCalls – Covered these positions to free up room to sell shorter term calls expiring this week and next.
Bought to close UVXY2 SEP 16 2016 100.0 Calls @ 0.01
Bought to close UVXY2 SEP 16 2016 105.0 Calls @ 0.01
Bought to close UVXY2 SEP 16 2016 110.0 Calls @ 0.01
All these were sold on 6/13/16 @ 0.84
DIS earnings
Was just getting ready to adjust the strikes up a half point when it filled…
Sold this week’s 93.5/96/96/98.5 iron flies @ 1.93
Risk 57 to make 193. MMM is currently 2.94 so need something slightly less than that…
YELP earnings
Sold this week’s 29.5/32.5/32.5/35.5 iron flies @ 2.39
Risk 61 to make 239. MMM is currently 3.82 so need something slightly less than that…
Options Bistro 