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Monthly Archives: March 2018
#shortputspread Closed BA BTC BA…
Closed BA
BTC BA Apr 295/270 Bull Put 1.53
Originally, sold yesterday for 2.35
Just a small profit.
TQQQ, bullish fuzzy
I am taking one for the team so we can get another correction.
BTO 2020 180 call @ 50.77
STO 2020 180 put @ 50.39
BTO 2020 175 put @ 47.99
STO March 23, 195 calls @ .37
I also have a bearish fuzzy on this as well.
TRTN
#CoveredCalls
STO 1 $TRTN Oct 40 covered call @ 2.45, shares priced at 31.67. Keeping this LT 5.66% yielder.
No OpEx today, enjoy St Patty’s day!
TLT
#PerpetualRollingStrangles – Close but have to roll…
Rolled TLT MAR 16 2018 119.5 Calls to MAR 29 2018 120.5 Calls @ .15 credit (.63 total credit now)
WDC
BTC July 20, 55 puts @ .10 cents on 2 contracts. Sold at 1.35, closed 4 months early. These small falling knife trades do pay the bills until a good trade comes along.
EWW
#SyntheticStock – Happy to finally be out from under this weekly sale. Been rolling for awhile…
Bought to Close EWW MAR 16 2018 51.0 Calls @ .03 (sold for .52)
Sold EWW MAR 29 2018 51.5 Calls @ .40
AZO
#BullCallSpreads – Bought a Jan 2019 Bull Call Spread on the drop. Selling Bear Call Spreads to pay for it (.80 per week covers it)….letting this week’s expire (sold for 2.40) and selling next week.
Sold AZO MAR 23 2018 670.0/700.0 Bear Call Spread @ 2.27
Rolling EXAS and CBOE / Short Calls KEM All Covered
#rolling covered calls
$EXAS BTC 3/29 50 call STO 4/20 55 call at 1.50 debit. Still have 1.50 credit in position and
have increased potential profit $5 if stock continues up.
$CBOE BTC 3/16 122 call STO 4/13 122 call for added 1.75 credit.
#shortcalls
$KEM STO 4/20 21 calls at .65 Covered
More on SVXY
#VXXGame I can only vaguely understand the complexity here. It demonstrates the importance of keeping risk under constant control in these products that we, nor anyone, fully understands.
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4156919-xiv-svxy-really-happened?auth_param=bf3bv:1dancef:1bc06847ed8b4762c0399a6fda4e3282&uprof=37
REGN
#SyntheticStock – Not taking any chances with this one and paying the dime to close. Happy that 350 held here but also selling the next batch on the rally.
Bought to Close REGN MAR 16 2018 350.0 Calls @ .10 (sold for 4.65)
Sold REGN MAR 29 2018 355.0 Calls @ 2.10
MGM
#SyntheticStock – (in reality just long LEAP calls) – It’s running and I’m rolling. I’ll close when (if) deltas reach zero.
Rolled MGM MAR 16 2018 35.5 Calls to APR 6 2018 36.5 Calls @ even
CELG
#SyntheticStock – Selling under the core here again. It’s sitting out in July and has moved against me since the very beginning. Should still be able to bring in enough weekly to get an overall profit. Need 37 cents per week going forward to cover max loss.
Bought to Close CELG MAR 16 2018 93.5 Calls @ .05 (sold for .90)
Sold CELG MAR 23 2018 93.0 Calls @ .47
#shortputs AMD Sold April 20,…
#shortputs AMD
Sold April 20, 11 put for .45
CRUS
#SyntheticStock – These are actually just plain old long LEAP calls but leaving it under the synthetic hashtag. Paid up to close this week…it’s in an IRA and I wanted to get the next sale off on the rally.
Bought to Close CRUS MAR 16 2018 44.5 Calls @ .05 (sold for .65)
Sold CRUS MAR 23 2018 45.5 Calls @ .45
XOM
#SyntheticStock – Trying to build a base…I’m selling at the 20ma resistance.
Bought to Close XOM MAR 16 2018 75.5 Calls @ .02 (sold for .36)
Sold XOM MAR 23 2018 75.5 Calls @ .35
HIMX
#SyntheticStock – Much better week this week. Had to roll nearly everything last week with the big Friday rally. Closing a lot more at min value this week for fresh sales next week.
Bought to Close HIMX MAR 16 2018 9.0 Calls @ .01 (sold for .65)
Selling under the core now so using spreads and only selling half size. Goal is to get out of this one at even. Took investing advice from a pilot (big mistake!) on this one. 🙂 🙂
Sold HIMX MAR 29 2018 7.5/9.0 Bear Call Spreads @ .20
#shortstrangles Sold VXX $39 call…
Taking off some MTN
Bought to close $MTN Apr 20 210 put @ 1.70. Sold for 5.80 on 12/1. Thanks @jsd501.
Booking the 70% profit over a month early.
DG almost gone
#Earnings BTC $DG March 16th 94 calls for .40 and .30 near the open. Got 1 left, now slightly ITM.
$TIF flirting with my put side, 96.5/109 strangle.
$AVGO looking decent. A 265 pin would be max profit. Closed (1) 265 call for .50.
Taking some more UVXY off
Shorter leashes.
Bought to close:
$UVXY Apr 20 26 calls @ .57. Sold for 1.42, 1.90 and 2.07 on 2/2.
$UVXY Jun 15 60 calls @ .32. Sold for 2.10 on 12/1 and 2.15, 2.20 and 3.85 on 2/5.
#shortstrangles FXI They are selling…
#shortstrangles FXI
They are selling strangles on FXI at Tastytrade so I followed an April 20, 51/47 for 1.28, FXI is a China large cap ETF
#coveredcalls CIEN This is a…
#coveredcalls CIEN
This is a Tradewise recommendation they are closing, the stock went way up and couldn’t roll anymore, made $377 over 6 months, 18% by their figures.
AAOI
#ShortStrangles #SyntheticStock – Still a dog and I’m still selling.
Bought to Close AAOI MAR 16 2018 30.0 Calls @ .05 (sold for .60)
Sold AAOI MAR 23 2018 29.0 Calls @ .35
GLD
#SyntheticStock – Sitting almost at breakeven so selling aggressively to try to get out at even. A little bit of a margin hog and a little too big size wise.
Bought to Close GLD MAR 16 2018 126.0 Calls @ .03
Sold GLD MAR 23 2018 125.0 Calls @ .70
Rolling some deep in the money positions
I was undecided about whether to just book the losses on these or roll them. Decided to roll and get more time and premium.
Rolled $CELG Mar 16 115 put out to Sep 21 115 put for .60 credit
Rolled $RRC Mar 16 22 puts out to Aug 17 22 puts for .15 credit
Rolled $XLK Mar 16 60 straddle out to Apr 20 and inverting the strikes to 64 puts/60 calls for .35 credit. This position has been rolled since November with the strikes moving around. Total credit taken in is now 4.04 so if XLK finishes between the strikes this trade will pretty much break even. That’s unlikely though, with the stock at 69.85. My plan: If it starts to come in, roll opportunities should be better and I can probably un-invert the strikes. If it continues to run up, I’m going to throw the towel in and take the loss.
QRVO puts
A nice long tail being printed on the daily chart. Selling puts around the 200 DMA. Delta of 23, stock at 78.02. No earnings in this expiration cycle.
Sold $QRVO Apr 72.50 puts @ 1.20.
ITM debit spreads
Might be on to something here. I have an experiment running on ERX. 22 DTE 21/26 call spread. I don’t know what the news is, but all the oil service sector names just tanked and are now bouncing. Anyway, I was looking at how hard it would be to roll and it is really easy and often done for a credit.
Adjustment #1 is roll the long out or to a leap and make it a fuzzy. I could add another 9 months for 3.2 or 19 for 7.19. Then you have plenty of time to sell against it.
Adjustment #2 roll the entire spread out a month, could do that for 0.7 credit even going down a strike.
Adjustment #3 roll the short strike down same expiration for credit. At that point you lose some of the profit but still stays green.
I may experiment with some more of these going forward and will share results. Might be a better way to get higher returns with known/controlled risk. That is always a good thing 🙂
Also may be a way to ease into a #fuzzy at a lower cost and not having to initially set up as a long range trade.
Denis Gartman
from Barron’s yesterday afternoon: Gartman: Time to Sell Stock, Hold Cash
March 14, 2018 5:16 p.m. ET
He might be right one day.
#shortputspread Sold BA Apr 295/270…
Sold BA Apr 295/270 Bull Put $2.35
Sold BA Mar29 295/270 Bull Put $1.35
#pietrade Rolled ANDV 96 put…
Rolled ANDV 96 put 14 DTE out to 29 DTE 95 put for 0.35 credit. Cost basis 94.7 now.
Part of my change in management discussed below. Add credit, move strike farther away and give it some more time for more aggressive management if needed.
DG
#SyntheticStock – Really liking the weekly premium in this thing. Setting up a synthetic out to next Jan.
Bought Jan 2019 95/95/92.5 Synthetic Stock @ 8.90
Max loss of 11.40 with 44 weeks to run so need .26 per week to cover…
So:
Sold DG MAR 23 2018 97.0 Calls @ .80
As for the earnings strangle I’m completely out now for 1.70 (sold for 1.79)
#pietrades STO the next week…
STO the next week 8 DTE FAS 68 CC at 67.20 in IRA, only 300 shares.
Tomorrow have some expirations that look safe for now.
WDC 87 CC will let call out
FAS 67 CC will let assign
That’s all for this week. Mostly need to sit on my hands and let theta do its magic.
I need to place some #fuzzy trades and #spycraft trades to improve ROI but to be honest, my trading confidence is still low after the SVXY debacle. To have an entire year’s worth of trading profits wiped out by one trade has been a major gut punch. Luckily I learned to segregate accounts after 8/24/2015 and only affected 2 out of 7 accounts. I know how to trade, fairly good at it, the SVXY was an isolated event, but still sits in the back of your head and prevents you from hitting the send button on some trades I know are good.
After I successfully manage what I currently have on and have a few cycles of profitable trades it should get some mojo back.
As I am reading “Trading options for edge” realize I probably need to manage the positions and portfolio by the Greeks more, especially delta and gamma. Learning some new hedging techniques that should be very beneficial and will post them as I use them and learn them.
#shortputs SIG SIG has recovered…
#shortputs SIG
SIG has recovered a little to 38.58, sold April 20, 35 put for .60
BABA strangle-roll
#CoveredCalls #CoveredCallCampaign #StrangleRoll
Stopped: Bought to close $BABA Apr 6th 197.5 covered call for 5.90. Sold for 1.70 on March 2nd.
StrangleRoll: Sold BABA April 20th 190/210 strangle for 7.50.
A fairly aggressive roll, but when I own the stock it boosts my confidence 🙂
AVGO earnings
#Earnings Hasn’t been a huge mover, but can surprise and also has been in the news. So I’m taking a favorable R:R trade:
Sold to Open $AVGO 255/265/275 #IronButterfly for 7.60. Max risk, 2.40. Last quarter its one day move was zero. It opened up then traded down all day to end dead flat. Let’s do that again!
exiting DG
#Earnings BTC (1) $DG March 16th 94 call for .50. Sold 84/94 #ShortStrangles for 1.60 yesterday. Scaling out of the threatened side.
TIF earnings
#Earnings Sold to Open $TIF March 16th 96.5/109 #ShortStrangles for 1.05. Biggest UP move: 10.5%, Biggest DOWN move: -8.7%, Average move: 3.9%. Mt strikes are +6.3% and -5.9% OTM. Slightly bullish lean. Other than the two biggest moves, TIF has not been a big mover on earnings.
Earnings biggies
#Earnings For your consideration, some of our favorites today:
$ADBE, $AVGO, $ULTA, $TIF
Good Morning
Good Morning
Happy PIE day, 3.14 to…
Happy PIE day, 3.14 to all you fellow math/science geeks out there!
Closed Early BABA Puts
Closed Early
$BABA BTC 3/16 180/185 BUPS at .10 STO at 1.60
SPX trades
#SPXcampaign I’m taking off the Upside Warning for now as the current condition is hard to pin down. We could still be in the larger correction and preparing to test the lows. It seems the tariff issue could be a huge a catalyst now, what with Boeing leading the Dow down today. I think any announced relaxation or elimination of the plan could drive us higher. But if not, sideways to down seems the trend.
Sold to Open $SPX Apr 13th 2600/2575 put spreads for 1.60.
Sold to Open Apr 13th 2870/2895 call spreads for 1.80.
Stopped April 13th 2650/2625 put spreads for 2.85.
#Rolling Sold $SPX April 20th 2595/2570 put spreads for 2.00, 1.5x position size.
Fuzzy trades
I closed the following today:
WYNN, 185 165,165,160 @33.55, bought @ 32.71
BABA, 190,190,185 @38.50, bought @ 34.95
STO CME April 20, 175 calls @ 1.05, against my 160,160,155 fuzzy
Closing STMP post-earnings trade
Bought to close $STMP Apr 20 230/240 BeCS @ .80. Sold for 1.72 on 2/22.
Taking off some more long term UVXY risk
Not much left here so closing them out. Pre-split strikes (from 1:4 split on 7/17/17).
Bought to close:
$UVXY1 Jan 18 2019 60 calls @ .10. Sold for 6.15, 7.30, 3.20, 3.60 and 3.15 from March-August 2017.
$UVXY1 Jan 18 2019 55 calls @ .12. Sold for 3.50 on 5/17/17.
#pietrade STO NSC 30 DTE…
STO NSC 30 DTE 131 put at 1.05. 10 points OTM currently. 5 contracts.
My several rolling tickers in the core accounts are now NSC, UTX, ERX, GM, FAS, ANDV although I may replace GM, it has not been trading as well as it used to.
I have been selling #pietrades into strength, meaning selling the puts on the days the ticker is down a fair amount.
Should have a few more tomorrow, maybe or I might go skiing, season winding down in mid atlantic but still some patches of snow to make a few turns.
JPM
#SyntheticStock – BTC JPM Mar16’18 119 calls for 0.04, sold for 0.27. Gonna wait a bit to sell calls for next week.
SPX indecision
#SPXcampaign With a third day of weakness I have no choice but to switch from bullish to neutral/bearish positioning. The VIX action had been pretty anemic until the significant pop in the last 10 minutes.
Closed $SPX March 16th 2765/2740 put spreads for 8.75. Sold Monday for 4.00.
#CondorRoll: Sold March 21st 2700/2725/2790/2815 condors for 8.00.
Sold April 13th 2600/2575 put spreads for 1.60.
VRX
#SyntheticStock #Tastyworks – Rolled short calls out and up…
Rolled VRX 03/16/18 16.00 Calls to 4/20/18 17.00 Calls @ .15 debit
Originally sold these for .21 so still sitting on a slight credit. Looking to close the whole thing if overall delta reaches zero…
PS…I like Think or Swim better so far…
#coveredcalls #fallingknife SIG Tradewise new…
#coveredcalls #fallingknife SIG
Tradewise new “covered call advisory” is buying 100 shares of SIG, 39.35 now and selling the April 35 call for about .50. SIG is down 17%, over $8 so far today after earnings. It was up around 76 before the previous big earnings drop. I don’t understand this one.
DG earnings
#Earnings Sold to Open $DG March 16th 84/94 #ShortStrangles for 1.60. Biggest UP move: 10.7%, Biggest DOWN move: -17.6%, Average move: 5.6%. My strikes are +/-5.6% OTM.
Here are the last 12 earnings; you can see other than one big up move and one big down, it’s not a big mover.
Dec. 7, 2017 BO 2.77%
Aug. 31, 2017 BO -5.43%
June 1, 2017 BO 6.54%
March 16, 2017 BO 0.53%
Dec. 1, 2016 BO -4.96%
Aug. 25, 2016 BO -17.62%
May 26, 2016 BO 4.61%
March 10, 2016 BO 10.66%
Dec. 3, 2015 BO 4.23%
Aug. 27, 2015 BO -3.18%
June 2, 2015 BO 2.98%
March 12, 2015 BO 3.96%
Closed Early SPX BIDU WYNN / Short Puts MZOR MU SCHN SPX
Closed Early
#spxcampaign
$SPX BTC 3/23 2800/2775 BECS at 9.50 STO at 2.80
$SPX STC 3/14 2810/2830 BUCS at 3.50 BTO at 2.20 Thank you @jeffcp66
$SPX STC 3/16 2840/2860 BUCS at 1.80 BTO at 1.70 Thank you @jeffcp66
#shortputs
$BIDU BTC 3/16 270/260 BECS at 4.00 (GTC Stop) STO at 1.92
#longcalls
$WYNN STC 3/16 165 calls at 25.20 BTO for 9.80 on 1/30 All gone now.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Trades
#shortputs
$MZOR STO 4/20 70 puts at 2.80
$MU STO 3/16 57.5 puts at .80 Thank you @honkhonk81 Good luck to all
$SCHN STO 4/20 36 puts at 1.45
#spxcampaign
$SPX STO 4/20 2650/2750 BUPS at 19.00 Thank you @fibwizard
Danger?
#VIXIndicator I don’t know about you, but after what we’ve been through since January, these two little up days on the VIX look like child’s play. I’m sure questioning this “Upside Warning,” but not sensing a lot of fear, despite two weak days.
SPX puts stopped
#SPXcampaign Closed $SPX March 14th 2775/2750 put spreads for 10.40. Couldn’t risk a further gap down overnight.
X straddle
Borrowing an idea from one of the TastyTrade traders.
Sold $X Apr 20 40 straddle @ 4.70 with the stock at 40.21. Breakevens 35.30/44.70.
Will take off for 25% profit (3.50 or less).
OLED roll
#Earnings #ShortStrangles Rolling these to avoid early assignment:
Closed $OLED March 16th 135/140 strangles for 9.00 (closed only puts, will let calls expire). Sold for 12.85 on Feb 23rd.
Sold to Open OLED April 20th 130/140 strangles for 11.80. I got 5 points wider with a 2.80 credit.
Original trade: sold 130 puts for 2.18. Closed for 10.40.
Total credit in trade: 7.43
#shortputs X dropped today. Possible…
X dropped today. Possible trade?
United States Steel (X) dropped nearly 6% after Vertical Research downgraded the shares to sell from hold and lowered its price target to $23 from $41.
BBBY
BTO BBBY May 18 22.5/22.5/20 .98 2x #Fuzzy No Hedge at this time
Closing DRIP
Took all my short calls off in this ticker at most of the profit. Completely out of it now and will look to re-enter on the next big swoon in oil.
Bought to close:
$DRIP Apr 20 24 call @ .15. Sold for 1.70 on 2/9.
$DRIP Apr 20 25 call @ .15. Sold for 1.90 on 2/9.
$DRIP Jun 15 28 calls @ .40. Sold for 1.56 on 2/8 and 2.50 on 2/9.
#pietrade STO the 16 DTE…
STO the 16 DTE ANDV 96 put at 0.95.
This was my best performer when it was TSO, was reborn as ANDV but was having trouble finding a range after the merger. Looks like it has stabilized and the options are trading with decent volume again.
I am tweaking the #pietrades a little. Account is big enough now to move up to 5 contracts on 3 tickers at a time. Was doing 3 contracts on 4 names but I think reducing the # of tickers will actually improve returns.
SPX
STO Apr 2018 2650/2750 BUPS for 15.10
QQQ
Rehashing SVXY/XIV
We’ve been through this quite a bit and it seems like all the facts are known about what happened. I saw this article, however, by the venerable Lawrence McMillan. His knowledge and experience give the whole thing a lot more context and color.
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4155721-xiv-scapegoat-markets-decline
#shortstrangles MU From Tastytrade April…
From Tastytrade April 20, 50/75 strangle for 1.98, MU is at 60.
EXPE
#longputspread AAPL AAPL has gone…
#longputspread AAPL
AAPL has gone from 157 on Feb. 9 to 182 so far today. Taking a chance with a March 23, 185/180 long put spread.
#shortcalls Sold NUGT Mar 23…
Sold NUGT Mar 23 $25 call for 0.55, stock at $23.90, keep reducing basis of stock originally $38.00 nearly top ticked it. Current basis $32.10 and working it.
#shortcalls Buy to close NUGT…
Buy to close NUGT Mar 16 $26 call for 0.10, sold 3/7 for 0.54 naked call.
edit NUGT not UVXY
SPY
Closed Fuzzy very small profit, Hedges and rolls got me, glad to close with a small profit was losing badly a few days ago.
#spxcampaign BTC the short Mar…
#spxcampaign BTC the short Mar 23rd 2870 Call for 3.00 when SPX was at 2795.54. I plan to close the long side out later.
MCD
Closed Fuzzy BTO on 3.8 250.00 profit, hedge got me again. 155/155/150
MTN
BTC April 20, 210 put @ 2.25, sold @ 5.80
SPX Expiration
$SPX 3/12 2735/2760 BUPS STO at 3.40 on Friday Thank you @jeffcp66
March 12 #Fuzzy Land Very…
March 12 #Fuzzy Land
Very excellent day here. All of the unhedged #Fuzzy that I opened on Friday were closed today for over 50% profit–and I pretty much had a lot of them. Q’s were reset and again closed for a lot of profit. Closed Fuzzies for the quarter now have a 47 handle! I’m still shooting to regain that 50 that I had in January.
Opened some new unhedged Fuzzies today in SPY, but when I saw resistance and rising VIX I atomicized them. Here is an example:
SPY #AtomicFuzzy April Expiration: 280c/-280p/277p @ 2.93 x 21 contracts, 284/288 Call credit spread @ .92 x 36 contracts.
I’m flat on Q’s right now, they are showing signs of trend exhaustion right now, so I’ll be patient for the right entry.
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