#spxcampaign
$SPX BTC 7/20 2860/2835 BECS at 75% of max profit Thank you @jeffcp66
Daily Archives: Thursday, June 28, 2018
TSLA
Leaks coming out from the factory…might come up a little light on the 5000/wk goal.
https://www.reuters.com/article/tesla-production/tesla-lagging-on-model-3-production-workers-say-idUSL1N1TR1WA
BABA covered call
#CoveredCallCampaign Sold $BABA July 27th 205 covered call for 1.57.
STZ earnings
#Earnings Sold to Open $STZ June 29th 220/245 strangles for 1.43.
Biggest UP move: 6.4%, Biggest DOWN move: -7.1%, Average move: 3.9%. Fairly minor mover, with upside bias.
In smaller accounts also trying for a 2.5 pt. condor at the same short strikes.
Taking advantage of the bounce
Cleaning out some duds and resetting on the bounce.
DIA, FAS, IWM, SSO, TQQQ, XLY income trades
Reset ETF unbalanced diagonals to Aug or Sept 63 delta long calls, Jul6 45 delta short calls, 3×2 ratio, will roll short call @ .20 or when at risk of assignment, reset when core has less than 30dte
MRVL, PANW, PYPL, RHT, TWTR income trades
Reset stock unbalanced diagonals to July 27 or Aug 63 delta long calls, Jul6 45 delta short calls, 2×1 ratio, will roll short call @ .20 or when at risk of assignment, reset when core has less than 30dte
AMZN, GOOGL, ISRG, MSFT, and NFLX earnings trades
Bought BuCS or long calls one expiration past earnings. Typical long call is 40 delta or BuCS with 40 delta long call and short call 10 to 20 points away. I use the BuCS trade when calls are expensive and risky (AMZN for example)
ADBE, BA, BIDU, FB, LABU, MSFT, NVDA, and TNA Fundies (fast unbalanced diagonals)
Closed all my fundies after exhausting all reasonable possibilities of recovering losses with short calls. I didn’t open new trades on these tickers. I want a much smaller book of trades to manage going forward. Although fundies do well on a backtest, the drawdown during a choppy period adds too much risk for my taste. This trade will be left in its Petri dish by the side of the road.:-)
If anyone is interested in the trade specifics, please let me know and I’ll share.
ERX
STC January 2020, 36 calls Against my July 20, 39 calls At 9.05, my cost was 8.02 and I had a much better profit but did not take it.
AMAT FAS GLD LABU NVDA RTN TQQQ
#LongCalls #LEAPS – Pretty good day of booking winners and selling new ones. Early on some and late on some but all of these are now ratios to reduce whipsaw upside risk.
AMAT:
Bought to Close AMAT JUL 6 2018 48.5 Calls @ .08 (sold for .41) A synthetic double dip this week 🙂
Sold AMAT JUL 13 2018 46.0 Calls @ .98
FAS: (2 accounts)
Bought to Close FAS JUN 29 2018 65.0 Calls @ .17 (sold for 1.40)
Bought to Close FAS JUN 29 2018 65.0 Calls @ .15 (sold for 1.42)
Sold FAS JUL 6 2018 63.5 Calls @ 1.22
Sold FAS JUL 6 2018 63.5 Calls @ 1.17
GLD:
Bought to Close GLD JUL 6 2018 121.5 Calls @ .08 (sold for .49)
Sold GLD JUL 13 2018 119.0 Calls @ .78
LABU:
Bought to Close LABU JUN 29 2018 103.0 Calls @ .09 (sold for 3.50 total after a double dip rolldown)
Sold LABU JUL 6 2018 88.0 Call @ 3.20
NVDA:
Bought to Close NVDA JUN 29 2018 250.0 Calls @ .11 (sold for 3.62 total after a double dip rolldown)
Sold NVDA JUL 6 2018 242.5 Call @ 2.81
RTN:
Bought to Close RTN JUN 29 2018 207.5 Calls @ .03 (sold for .73)
Sold RTN JUL 6 2018 195.0 Calls @ 1.24
TQQQ:
Adjusted early and ratio’d after adding to LEAPS
Bought to Open TQQQ JAN 17 2020 60.0 Call @ 13.50 (adding)
Bought to Close TQQQ JUL 20 2018 60.0 Calls @ 1.40 (sold for 1.65)
Sold TQQQ JUL 20 2018 57.0 Calls @ 2.65
#shortputs #rolling AMAT Rolled July…
#shortputs #rolling AMAT
Rolled July 20, 48 put to August for .72
Rolled July 20, 54 put to Jan. 2019 55 put for 2.12, above 50, strikes are 2.5 wide.
5 down days in a row, maybe 45 holds as support.
TOS commissions clarified.
Spoke with my account rep. I have $4.95 stock trades. Options are either 0.65 and $4.95 ticket charge or 1 and no ticket charge.
Doing the math the break even point is about 11-13 contracts. If 10 or lower ask for the 1.00 option no ticket charge. If over 11 contacts go for the 0.65 with 4.95 ticket charge.
Hope that helps the other TOS users 🙂
#fuzzy in a really small…
#fuzzy in a really small account, 2 contracts.
XBI Jan 19 long 87 call short July 6 95 call for 10.63. With 29 weeks left only need 0.29 per week to make it a risk free trade.
Moving a lot to cash
I’m starting to take a lot of trades off and putting fewer new ones on. I am doing this for these reasons:
1. The #SPXcampaign has not been working well in 2018. It was my core strategy starting in January 2015 and worked well through 2016. In 2017, I got crushed a little too much on the upside, and now this year’s whipsaw has been too difficult. I’m going flat in $SPX. Currently I only have a couple of OTM call spreads which I’ll be closing a bit cheaper. I will look to start fresh in the coming weeks or months after I assess the strategy.
2. I have been long a few tech stocks and selling calls. I was also rolling into strangles when calls got breached. In the last week the puts have been getting hit. So I’m keeping the stock for now but have closed most puts. I will sell covered calls if we move higher, or stop myself out if we move much lower or go into more serious correction.
3. I’m not feeling positive about the market. Of course, me typing this paragraph will likely mean today is the bottom! But the market action, the tariff fears, and other reasons for 2018 volatility do not seem to be abating. Plus record low unemployment is often what precedes a recession, and the nation’s debt and deficits are flying to new highs. I by no means am certain of a crash, and I wouldn’t be including this in my decision if it weren’t for #4.
4. My family is spending a month in Japan from late July to late August (my wife is from there, so we’ll be visiting family and touring). The NYSE opens at 10:30pm Tokyo time… I intend to keep trading lightly, but do not want to be going through volatility with lots of positions and having to stay up all night.
I hope to reset my mind, catch up on bookkeeping (both trading and household), and build out this website a bit more.
So, to summarize: I am closing out SPX, TQQQ
I’m keeping stock in AAPL, BABA, SQ, and FB, all with stops set in not too much lower than current prices. BABA is a bit underwater but the other three are nicely in profit.
I have stock also in these which are currently struggling: #PieTrades in MU and AMAT, and broken earnings trade in OLED. I’ll let these sit, sell calls, and dump them if they can’t recover soon.
The only #VXXGame trades I have are long puts in $VXX, a trade that would have worked every year for the past 9 (except maybe 2011), but is NOT working in 2018. Also long $SVXY stock and short a small amount of $VXX stock. I have way OTM long calls on UVXY and VXX, so I’m prepared to sell volatility should it get expensive.
Still short some puts in RH, YY, and GUSH, which I’ll allow to decay.
Long LEAP calls in PYPL and SQ which were cheap, so no reason to close. I will sell calls against these.
And that’s it! Let me know any questions you have about positions you were following.
#optionsexpiration #pietrades and #supercharger Mostly…
#optionsexpiration #pietrades and #supercharger
Mostly adjustments and rolling. Only problem with #pietrades is when 1 goes ITM, they all go ITM. A lot of red on paper this week and will take some 2-8 weeks to break even or profit but can be done. The only one I can’t seem to repair at the moment is the SOXL #supercharger. Not because I don’t know how, don’t have enough cash in the account to do it.
SOXL #supercharger for those that have a few dollars left here is what I want to/would do if I had enough cash left. Sell the long 140 calls and roll to Sept. for about 11.20 debit. Then roll the July 145 down to 140 for 2.6 credit. Creates a calendar that can then be adjusted 1 more time and a profit at current levels at expiration if it does not move too much. New breakeven range of 132-150. I have 7 contracts and would add about $770 to the trade but recovers it for a while. Here is the graph. Since I don’t have enough cash I have to use the Aug. expiration which only gives me 1 shot at recovery so personally I am taking a $1470 loss and will roll it into something else. The account is very small, smaller now and need to preserve what’s left to be able to trade again. Likely a #fuzzy as it will be the most efficient over the long term but may ratio to prevent losses on the upside.
MU taking assignment tomorrow at 58.44 cost basis and sell CC on Monday. A rebound would be nice 🙂 but momentum has definitely shifted across the market.
FAS taking assignment at cost basis of 64.82 and will CC on Monday.
AMAT 49 CC rolled down to 47 at 22 DTE for 0.71 credit. Cost basis now 50.83 so will take some time to recover this one. Especially since had to roll out 3 weeks.
TQQQ taking assignment at 59.95 and will cc on Monday.
AMAT 49 cc rolled down to 47 22 DTE for 0.75 credit. Cost basis now 47.67 so this one is getting close to scratching.
#pietrades are awesome but when some of your names move 10+ points in a week there will be paper losses until you can work it back to even. On the triples can get about $1-2 a week in ATM premium, but be ready to roll up quickly on a whipsaw. Stocks under 100 take longer because you can only get about 0.5-1 per week on those. Stick with it though and you will eventually turn a profit. On thing OIB teaches it think like an investor (long term) but trade like a trader. Only do #pietrades on names you don’t mind holding for a while and weeks like this show you why. I will be in MU and AMAT for several more weeks.
Hope everyone else is having a good week and expiration. Will update the call sales and adjustments on Monday (hopefully will have time to trade at lunch the office has been crazy busy so may not get the chance).
TSLA
STC TSLA 29 Jun 18 332.5/335 CALL @2.35…BTO 20 Jun @ 1.95 #supercharger
CELG
#LongCalls – It’s been a long time coming but this next sale puts CELG in the green if it works out. Replacing this week’s expiration.
Sold CELG JUL 6 2018 79.5/84.0 Bear Call Spreads @ .37
NFLX Supercharger
#SuperCharger I dumped out of NFLX, but kept the call-spread hedge to devalue further. Unless we rally to 450 beforeJuly 13th, this trade will end up being breakeven or slightly profitable due to the hedge.
Sold to Close $NFLX July 6th 380/390 BuCS for 6.00. Bought Tuesday for 7.38.
Keeping NFLX July 13th 450/500 BeCS, sold for 1.90 yesterday, now at .94.
LABU
BTO January 2020, 115 calls @ 18.00
I have the 129 call that expire tomorrow so will sell more short dated calls tomorrow or next week. This one really moves around a lot.
ATM call flaw
My mind is ruminating on the flaw of this strategy (rolling calls down to ATM with fewer contracts). I’m out running an errand, but my mind is telling me there is a flaw tied to low delta on the longer dated long calls. Just wanted to toss out a caution. I’ll explore when I’m back in the office.
WBA
STO January 2019, 45 puts @ .60 cents
#shortstraddle ROKU June 1, sold…
#shortstraddle ROKU
June 1, sold a July 20 37 straddle for 5.75, ROKU went up 9 of the next 12 days peaking around 47 on June 21, has dropped to under 41, I’m out with a gain of about $30 which looks really good today.
Another Downside Warning
#VIXIndicator We got a third warning at the close Wednesday, the second time this week. The low on this round was put it on the day of the first warning, May 29, at 2676. Since then we stayed above 2700 until this week. We could test that low today, and if we go through, the lows for the year are down at 2532. Long way to go from here, so watch to see if we can keep above 2676.
Anyone else looking at technical levels for support?
#pietrade Assigned MU at cost…
Assigned MU at cost basis of 57.70. Still dropping PM!
Options Bistro 