MU financial report is tomorrow 3/22/2018 after closing of the market. This one usually bullish and does not move much after financial report.
Monthly Archives: March 2018
#ironcondor GOOGL Followed Beef at…
#ironcondor GOOGL
Followed Beef at TT April 20, 1030/1035/1160/1165 for 1.95
SPX calls closed
#SPXcampaign I wanted to wait for Fed announcement, but this break above 2720 is too much pressure. The deeper dive I was expecting never came through, and it is expiration day. Can’t risk it any longer.
BTC $SPX March 21st 2710/2735 call spreads for 13.50. Sold for 10.20 on Monday.
CRM Long Calls / SPX Campaign
#Longcalls
$CRM BTO 8/17 120/130 BUCS at 4.65 Expect their $MULE acquisition to be accretive.
#spxcampaign
$SPX STO 3/23 2575/2600/2800/2775 IC at 1.35 Thank you @jeffcp66
Falling knife
STO GIS, 35 puts @.51
STO, SJM, 95 puts @1.60
STO, SJM, 90 puts @1.14
#shortputs ORCL Sold April 20,…
#shortputs ORCL
Sold April 20, 46 put for .48
FB Fuzzy
STO April 27, 180 calls @2.60
Closing Sep CMG
Bought to close $CMG Sep 21 180 put @ .85. Sold for 5.10 on 2/12.
No Spring But I Hear TWTRing
#ShortPuts
$TWTR STO 4/20 31 put at 1.16
Are the hash tags working as you type them in? Mine aren’t. Perhaps they are trying to tell me to stop?
LUV
#SyntheticStock – Was seriously considering booking this one yesterday since it was up 2 dollars per spread…so much for that. Looks like the weekly selling will continue.
Bought to Close LUV MAR 23 2018 60.0 Calls @ .05 (sold for .60)
Closed DVN Put / Rolled CBOE Covered Call / Rolled SQ Covered Call
#closed early
$DVN BTC 3/23 33 put at 1.25 STO at 2.45.
#Rolled
$CBOE BTC 4/13 122 call STO 4/20 123 call at .20 added credit. Stock basis now 118
$SQ BTC 4/6 53.5 call STO 4/20 58 call at 1.70 debit. Rolled this one several times. Now cost me 2.00 but assignment price raised from 45 to 58. Stock now at 58.18. Rolling is dizzying. Don’t know how @fuzzballl does it so often. Must be his pilot training.
#pietrade Rolled UTX 16 DTE…
Rolled UTX 16 DTE 126 put down to 125 30 DTE for 0.36 credit.
I could take assignment but with the chop plan to stay farther OTM, roll earlier, and only take assignment at what looks like a base or good price.
FB-fuzzy
In my IRA:
BTO 2020,165 call @ 31.25
STO 2020, 165 put @ 22.86
BTO 2020,160 put @ 20.51
In at 29.50 and waiting for a bounce to sell the weekly calls. Maximum loss is 34.50 so I need .36 cents per week for the next 95 weeks.
More FB puts
Sold $FB Apr 27 (weekly) 150 puts @ 2.40
How is spring working out…
How is spring working out for you so far?
I’ll keep the flowers up for the week so our East Coast members have some solace from what’s outside their windows. Stay safe and stay warm!
#SPXcampaign Jeff, are you still…
Jeff, are you still holding $SPX Mar 21st 2710/2735 call spreads? I opened the 2715/2740 and just wondering what your plan was for rolling.
Short Puts AMZN
#shortputs
$AMZN STO 4/20 1360/1390 BUPS at 1.36
FB #PutRatioJadeLizard I’m focusing on…
FB #PutRatioJadeLizard
I’m focusing on 3-way trades now…theta positive trades with wide profit ranges that will make money with an underlying move in any direction. Lately my fav trade is to combine a put ratio spread (the pit-traders’ fav) with a Bear Call Spread for a Put-Ratio-Jade-Lizard. Here’s the trade I did today on FB:
Apr 6, bought 160 p x 2, sold 157.5 put x 4 for 2.35 net credit, 170/172.5 Call Credit Spread for .70 cr x 2, total credit is 3.05, since it’s greater than the CCS-width there is no upside risk. Break even is 152.60, with max risk being assignment of 200 shares of long stock at that level. So, that allows for a substantial continued downside move, or not. I did the trade awhile ago, it’s already up about 25%.
Sue
p.s. anyone else having trouble w/ email updates on posts? nevermind, my browser notifications were disabled somehow.
p.p.s Nice background Jeff!
OLED
#SyntheticStock – Partial fill on a 2 lot…LMAO!
Bought to Close OLED MAR 23 2018 133.0 Call @ .05 (sold for 1.50)
FB may not end the…
FB may not end the day down 5%, but this is interesting
It does not happen often, but it's happening to Facebook right now. S&P 500 stocks with a market cap of $50+ billion dropping 5% or more on back-to-back days. Here's every instance, and what happened on the third day. Via @OddStats. $FB $GOOGL $NFLX $GE https://t.co/b1MeoGLGt1 pic.twitter.com/oCiRZDe2ti
— StockTwits (@StockTwits) March 20, 2018
#shortputspread FB Tradewise rec for…
Tradewise rec for FB April 20, 155/157.50 for .75
OLED
STO June, 75 puts @.85
STO September, 70 puts @1.85
#shortcallspreads ANET I’m no chartist…
#shortcallspreads ANET
I’m no chartist but it looks like 300 is resistance, sold April 20, 310/320 for 1.75
Long volatility
#VXXGame Added a couple positions on the assumption volatility will remain a bit elevated.
Sold $UVXY April 20th 14 put for 1.05
Sold $VXX Apr 13th 38.5 puts for 1.10
Short Calls EXAS LABU
#shortcalls
$EXAS STO 3/23 49.50 calls at .80 Thank you @honkhonk81
$LABU STO 3/23 95 calls at 2.70 Covered
FB beating
We were all early selling puts on this one. Looking like a decent buying opportunity… I can’t imagine their current troubles will greatly effect profits, but they are taking a bigger toll than I expected.
#CoveredCallCampaign Closed on GTC order: $FB April 6th 190 call for .18. Sold for 1.85 on March 5th.
FDX earnings
#Earnings Selling $FDX March 23rd 240/270 #ShortStrangles. Legging in… so far filled on some 270 calls at .50. Order in for 240 puts at 1.20. This strangle leans bullish based on historical performance on earnings.
Biggest UP move: 11.8%, Biggest DOWN move: -4.5%, Average move: 3.8%. My strikes are about +6.7% and -5.1% OTM.
TQQQ
Rolled the March 23, 195 calls down to April 20, 180 calls for a credit of 4.45
Position is now 180C, 180P, 175P, and April 20, 180 calls
#coveredcalls #fallingknife TRTN
Finally was able to follow Tabortrader with October 40 covered call, couldn’t get filled a couple times, will pick up a couple nice dividends on the way. TRTN has been beaten down to 31, I’m also short Oct. 40 and 35 puts Ive been rolling.
Cool, nice job Jeff
Cool, nice job Jeff
FB
STO May 18, 135 puts @1.15
STO June 15, 130 puts @ 1.20
Happy 1st day of Spring
#OffTopic When I lived in Los Angeles I never noticed, but now that I live in a place that has winter, this is a special day. Refresh your browser for relief from the gloom.
Closed Early AAPL
#shortputs
$AAPL BTC 4/20 195/185 BECS at .80 STO at 1.60 Had a GTC stop in at 50% profit.
Added UVXY put spread
Added UVXY put spread
I’ll use this one to reduce basis on SVXY assignments
Bought to open $UVXY Jun 15 16/10 BePS @ 3.20. Position profits 2.80 if UVXY retreats back to where it was (10 at the end of January) by June options expiration.
#ironcondor SPY Sold May 18,…
#ironcondor SPY
Sold May 18, 244/250/283/289 for 1.32
#shortcallspreads TSLA Sold April 20,…
#shortcallspreads TSLA
Sold April 20, 325/330 call spread for 1.78
UVXY calls sold
#VXXGame These are hedged with higher-striked long calls
Sold $UVXY May 18th 20 calls for 2.50
Sold $UVXY June 30 call for 1.75
Sold $UVXY Sept 30 call for 3.30
AMZN
#SyntheticStock – I normally have to go out a month to roll my short term hedge up 10 bucks (unless volatility is really high) then I can go up 20 sometimes. Today I’m using the volatility pop along with the big pullback to go out just one week and still get most of the 10 point upside. This is more than likely a roll into earnings week also which helps.
Rolled AMZN APR 20 2018 1340.0 Call to APR 27 2018 1350.0 Call @ .75 debit.
Interesting year…might not make much but will learn a lot…
#SyntheticStock – It’s these kind of days that make me glad I hedged a little with weeklies. It’s also tough trusting the process of the weekly sales to cover max loss. Looks like we’re gonna learn how it actually plays out over the long run to end of year. As some of these drop the danger of a whipsaw with the weekly hedge grows. I’m planning on selling very carefully and possibly using spreads when selling much below the core and not getting too greedy…mainly just selling near the min required to cover max loss. I’ll probably run through all my positions this week and update what’s needed each week.
Also, I’m trying not to get caught up in P/L YTD….SVXY already blew that. I’m more concerned about actual realized gains represented by positions that are closed…(helps psychologically for sure) 🙂 🙂
UVXY call spreads
On a day like today many of us would normally be throwing out offers on high strike calls on UVXY. I’m going to likely stop (or severely curtail) the naked call selling on this in favor of call spreads that would necessarily have to be quite a bit closer to the money. Just sold this one:
$UVXY Apr 13 18/28 BeCS @ 1.21
SPX puts rolled
#SPXcampaign Stopped: $SPX Apr 13th 2600/2575 put spreads for 3.05. Sold for 1.60 on Mar 14th.
#CondorRoll Sold March 23rd 2560/2585/2775/2800 iron condors for 2.1166, with 1.5x position size. Expires this Friday (hopefully).
TICK high of the day
Did we reach a low?
TSLA
#ShortStrangle – Becoming more trouble than it’s worth…LOL
Currently short this week’s 335 straddle @ 16.40
Closing the call and rolling the 335 put into a new inverted strangle (310/300) for next week. Did the whole thing for a .89 credit.
SPX trades
#SPXcampaign Sold to Open $SPX Apr 19th (monthlys) 2825/2850 call spreads for 1.65.
This is a position I originally sold ITM and have been rolling. At the beginning of last week I thought I might get out for zero. Not so much. This time I’m rolling into an inverse condor, with expectation that calls will expire an puts will need to be rolled again.
BTC $SPX March 23rd 2790/2765 put spreads for 23.35. Sold for 22.00 on March 2nd.
STO March 29th 2790/2765 put spreads for 20.25
STO March 29th 2760/2785 put spreads for 3.45
SPX calls sold
#SPXcampaign Betting that we have another warning today:
Sold $SPX Mar 21st 2710/2735 call spreads for 10.50
Rocky road ahead for TSLA?
Goldman: Tesla shares to drop more than 30 percent in the next 6 months on weak Model 3 deliveries https://t.co/q1PaFtPar7
— OptionsBistro.com (@OptionsBistro) March 19, 2018
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
$TSLA
BIIB
#ShortPuts – Strictly risk management…
Bought to Close BIIB APR 20 2018 250.0, 255.0, and 260.0 Puts
Sold to Close BIIB APR 20 2018 220.0 Puts @ .30
Made about 50 bucks after commissions. Still like the ticker but feel like I’ve got enough biotech going already…
SPX
#RocketManHedge – Rolling my short weekly out and down to Friday. Hedge is out in May so might have to keep easing it down for now…
Rolled SPX MAR 19 2018 2750.0 Put to SPX MAR 23 2018 2740.0 Put @ 2.00 credit
DECK
#ShortStrangles – Sold last week on the dip to the 50ma…slightly bigger position so happy to take the 78 cents.
Bought to Close DECK APR 20 2018 75.0/105.0 Strangles @ .52 (sold for 1.30)
ANET
#ShortStrangles – Originally sold after the big earnings drop…
Bought to Close ANET JUN 15 2018 175.0/400.0 Strangle @ 2.20 (sold for 6.00)
TSLA
#ShortStrangles – It’s a day of taking a little risk off in the tickers that were helped by the pullback. Sold these at different times squeezing the strikes in a little so the wider ones were more profitable…
Bought to Close TSLA JUN 15 2018 170.0/510.0 Strangle @ 2.04 (sold for 6.01)
Bought to Close TSLA JUN 15 2018 180.0/500.0 Strangle @ 2.45 (sold for 4.60)
Bought to Close TSLA JUN 15 2018 190.0/470.0 Strangle @ 3.17 (sold for 3.49)
SPX trade
#SPXcampaign Earlier, after we breached 2730, BTC $SPX Mar 21st 2725/2700 put spreads for 6.85, and just now covered the 2790 calls for .15. Sold the #CondorRoll for 8.00 last week.
VIX Indicator downside signal
#VIXIndicator we have gone above the trigger of 19.75. If we close above it, it will be a new assertion of the Downside Warning.
FB
STO May 150 puts @2.68
STO June 140 puts @ 1.98
#SPXcampaign STO SPX Apr19 2550/2540…
STO SPX Apr19 2550/2540 Bull Put 0.70
#shortputs STO FB Apr20’18 155…
STO FB Apr20’18 155 PUT 1.69
#fallingknife OLED OLED fell from…
#fallingknife OLED
OLED fell from around 157 to around 120 after earnings on Feb. 22, recovered to about 130 now is down to 106. Big AAPL supplier, maybe not much longer.
#shortputs T Sold April 20,…
#shortputs T
Sold April 20, 35 put for .31
Covered Calls
#CoveredCalls #C0veredCallCampaign
BTC $AAPL Mar 29th 187.5 call for .14. Sold for 1.50 on Feb 28th.
STO $SQ Apr 20th 60 call for 1.40.
FB puts
Sold $FB Apr 20 160 puts @ 1.20 with the stock at 176.19. Delta of 14. 160 hasn’t been seen by the stock since last July.
SPX puts sold
#SPXcampaign Sold to Open $SPX April 19th (monthlys) 2580/2555 put spreads for 1.70.
ROKU
BTC July 25/80 strangle @ .90, old at 2.55
I think I need to thank Fuzzball for that idea.
#OT Jeff, is there a…
#OT Jeff, is there a way to re-sort all posts including replies, not only the initial one and its replies, by date/time?
Econ Calendar for week of 3/19/18
Be sure to periodically click “Home/REFRESH” to keep Bistro features updated.
FED announcements Wednesday afternoon.
Good Morning
Good Morning
Afternoon all I’ll be out…
Afternoon all I’ll be out of the market for a couple of weeks until I get this Escape Room set installed and completed. I just can’t seem to do either well at the same time.
Assignment SPXL 46 Covered Calls.
Later
May all your days be so green.
Assignment
IP Assigned 62.5 put, have a 60 for protection am putting it to them also. -250.00 part of a #Fuzzy that didn’t do well but had a few weeks to go. Part of the game.
Assignments
CELG 90 puts assigned
HRL 35 covered calls expired, will sell again on Monday.
Word press is working again.
Exercised Covered Call / Final SVXY Assigned
#exercised
$UPS Taken away at 110. BTO 2/16 at basis of 105.65. Plus received dividend.
#assignment
$SVXY Last 3 contracts. Will look to sell calls.
Whiz WYNN
Whiz is bullish on WYNN figuring a buyout or name change will boost the stock. He actually surprised me today and bought medium length calls (June 190 strike) and is selling weeklies against it. First time I’ve ever seen him try this on something less than the following Jan. Has he been doing stealth flybys here at The Bistro? 🙂 🙂
Anyway…a couple guys in the TGO forum, (The Ready Room), were asking about trade management on these. While I was writing up my response I came across something I found interesting that I hadn’t really considered before. We obviously worry about the issues we have to deal with when the stock drops and what is our max loss. On the other hand when the stock is screaming up it can also start showing losses. Here’s what I noticed and I can’t believe I didn’t see this a long time ago:
Losses to the upside are capped! How can that be? When running the Whiz trade through the TOS Analyze tab I noticed losses to the upside increasing up to a point and then sort of leveling off and the finally stopping at a certain point. I would say the point the losses stop is when the long call (at whatever length of time it’s at) reaches a 1 delta which finally equals the long delta of the short term call sold. It takes a pretty extreme run to get to that point but I found it interesting anyway. Any thoughts on that and am I seeing it correctly?
Here’s the post I made to the TGO forum in regards to his trade of buying June 190 calls and selling next week’s 190 calls:
====================================================================================
Great summary Kevin! I trade these types of trades all the time using various time intervals and tactics. I usually go out a little further in time since I’m a big believer in being able to safely sell enough weeklies to cover the absolute worse case scenario max loss of any of these, whether it’s synthetic or just buying the calls outright.
One obvious risk of these is the stock falling by quite a bit. That would force you to sell weeklies at strikes well below your long position in order to receive enough premium to cover max loss. Some trading platforms actually INCREASE margin requirements in this situation since the weekly call sale is effectively blocking profits on the longer term position. It doesn’t factor in the plan to roll the weeklies up and out if they get run over.
Another not so obvious risk of these types of trades is the stock going up too soon and too much. Due to the gamma risk of the short term call sales the overall position can actually begin losing money as the stock rises if it goes up too quickly. Worse case would be something extreme like waking up Monday morning and finding out WYNN is being bought out for 300 dollars per share (remember the surprise buyout of GMCR a few years ago?). Running Whiz’s new trade through the TOS Analyze tab I show it beginning to lose money at about the 197 level. On the bright side, once the delta of the long term and near term calls both reach max value the upside loss is capped. In this particular trade that happens at about $305 per share and capped at about a $995 loss per contract.
I generally monitor the overall delta of the position and if I see the stock starting to run and my deltas are approaching zero or less I’ll start looking to roll the weekly up and out. If deltas approach zero a second time I start looking to take some profits.
Here’s the first thing I looked at when I received the new trade…
Buying the Jun 190 calls at about 11.00 with 13 weeks to run I would need to sell about 85 cents per week of weeklies to cover that. That gives a good starting point on what weeklies to sell. It’s looking like for now that’s going to be about 7 or 8 dollars out of the money. Is that giving it enough room to run? Who knows? I sure don’t! My preference would be to go a little further out in time on the long calls reducing the weekly sales required to cover them giving the stock a little more breathing room.
These types of trades seem simple on the surface but there are a lot of moving parts to them…
Good luck!
SPX calls sold
#SPXcampaign. Forgot to post earlier: Sold to Open $SPX Apr 13th 2850/2875 call spreads for 1.70
Closed early / Expiration
Closed Early But Way Too Late
$NFLX BTC 3/16 320/300 BECS at 18.00 STO at 2.45
Expired
Full Losses
$WYNN 185/195 BUCS at full loss 3.85 per contract
$KEM Long 25 calls at full loss
At Full Profit
$FB 170/180 BUPS
$WYNN 130/145 BUPS
$WYNN 150/160 BUPS
$ANET 220/230 BUPS
$PRLB 105/110 BUPS
$CAR 45 put
$EXAS 51.5 put
Have a restful weekend.
Options Expiration for 3/16
Expiring:
$AAOI Mar 16 22.50 puts
$AGN Mar 16 145 puts
$BA Mar 16 385/395 BeCS
$CAH Mar 16 52.50 puts
$CMI Mar 16 135 puts
$GILD Mar 16 60 puts
$GS Mar 16 275/285 BeCS
$GS Mar 16 250/240 BuPS
$K Mar 16 57.50 puts
$NUGT Mar 16 45 calls
$NUGT Mar 16 50 calls
$NWL Mar 16 26 puts
$QQQ Mar 16 156/149 BuPS
$UAL Mar 16 50 puts
$UVXY Mar 16 17 calls
$UVXY Mar 16 19 calls
$UVXY Mar 16 30 calls
$UVXY Mar 16 91 calls
$VIAB Mar 16 20 puts
Assignments:
$FXI Mar 16 48/50 inverted strangles–both sides being exercised with the stock finishing between the strikes. Position will be removed from my account.
Have a great weekend everyone.
After hours stock trades
Does anyone know how late in the day you can buy/sell stock after hours?
Options Expiration 3/16/18
#OptionsExpiration #Earnings #ShortStrangles #SPXcampaign #VXXGame #LongCalls #IronButterfly
— Expiring w/max profit —
$DG 84 puts
$OLED 140 calls
$TIF 109 calls
— Expiring w/max loss —
$SPX 2840/2860 long call spreads, purchased for 1.00 avg price.
$UVXY 91 long calls… purchased for 0.158 avg price… served me well as hedges against short calls
$SQ long 60 calls, bought for 0.964, avg price
— #Assignment —
$SQ 50 long calls, bought for 0.858, avg price. Taking stock (200 shares, cost basis 50.86) and adding it to #CoveredCallCampaign
$AVGO 255 long put – I exited one 265 short put for 9.10. Then, volatility at the close denied my fill on closing more, PLUS, we dropped below my long strike. So, this likely means one spread expired ITM, so a 10.00 debit (against 7.60 sale), but I will likely be assigned short shares based on the ITM long 255 put. Because I feel this may bounce on Monday, I’m buying shares after hours so the assignment will cancel out my position and I’ll be flat. This would amount to about a 2.50 loss overall on the trade.
Options Bistro 