STO Aug 31 1902.5/1900 BuPS .29 #bitty
Monthly Archives: August 2018
A TRADE:
BJ BTO STOCK 26.53, For a day trade. 1/2 a position.
AMAT AMBA DG GLD
#LongCalls #LEAPS – A few sales this morning…
AMAT:
Sold AMAT SEP 28 2018 46.0 Calls @ .44 (ratio’d replacing this week’s)
AMBA:
Sold AMBA AUG 31 2018 43.0 Calls @ .83 (ratio’d for earnings this week)
DG:
Sold DG AUG 31 2018 112.0 Calls @ 1.00 (adding a couple more for earnings)
GLD:
Sold GLD SEP 14 2018 116.0 Calls @ .48
Sold GLD SEP 28 2018 118.0 Calls @ .40
AMZN lophir
Update: Changed profit target to 80% from 50%. With today’s upside, I want to give this trade more room to profit.
Update2: Closed for 70% profit.
STO AMZN Sep28 1/-2/-1/2 1915/1885/1855/1820 PUT/PUT/PUT/PUT @ 8.69 credit. GTC order to close at 4.35.
This is a rinse and repeat trade. I take 50% profit and replace with another 30dte trade. Management is minimal. If stock price lines up with the peak on the risk graph, cut the delta in half by selling a 35/20 delta call credit spread, a long put or whatever you prefer.
A TRADE:
MZOR STO 9/21/18 45.0 PUTS @1.05. Looking to have it put to me a little cheaper. I’m anticipating, as the P&F Chart shows a double top to be, @ 49.0, and a buy signal will be at 50.0. We’ll see. ;>)
#Zebra Trade I caught a…
#Zebra Trade
I caught a rare Liz & Jny this morning “Calling All Millionaires” and caught their #Zebra trade (Zero Extrinsic Back Ratio). This is a little similar to the #Cobras I was doing a little while back (Covered Back Ratio). It looks like a good way to keep some short delta in the portfolio.
My trade today: BTO SPX Sep 26 2940 put (30DTE, 70 Delta) @51.70 x2, STO Aug 29 2900 put @ 6.80 x1. These get rolled every two days (keep track of accrued credits against the longs).
Good video here explains the trade and management:
https://www.tastytrade.com/tt/shows/calling-all-millionaires/episodes/zero-extrinsic-back-ratios-in-2-easy-steps-08-22-2018
ERX #shortputs Bought to close…
ERX #shortputs Bought to close my Aug 31st 37 Puts @ .80 off a GTC order. These were rolled out 8/10 for 2.19
GOOGL
STO Aug 31 1230/1227.5 BuPS .35 #bitty
Consumer confidence hits 133.4 in…
Consumer confidence hits 133.4 in August, vs. 126.7 estimate.
GOOGL
STO August 31, 1180/1200 bull put spread at .30 cents.
AMZN HA Closed Early / Roll NFLX
#shortputs
Closed Part Early
$AMZN BTC 9/21 1780/1800 BUPS at 81% max profit
Closed ALL
$HA BTC 10/19 32 put at .10 STO 6/13 at 1.15 Thank you @ramie77
#longcalls
Closed part early
$AMZN STC 9/21 1800 call at 131.40. BTO at 66.52 on 8/2
#coveredcalls rolled
$NFLX BTC 9/7 345 calls and STO 9/21 365 calls at additional 1.67 debit
EARNINGS
Steve Burns @SJosephBurns
9m
Implied moves for earnings next week(M=monthly):
$BBY 7.4%
$TIF 7.1%
$DSW 13.3(M)
$BJ 12.1%(M)
$BOX 12.7%(M)
$DKS 10.4%
$CRM 4.9%
$PVH 6.3%(M)
$DG 5.5%
$HOME 13.3%(M)
$LULU 9.0%
$ULTA 7.3%
$AMBA 10.7%
$DLTR 6.8%
$ZUO 20.2%(M)
$SFUN 11.9%(M)
https://www.wsj.com/articles/dear-investor-that-cocky-voice-in-your-head-is-wrong-1535108459
https://www.wsj.com/articles/dear-investor-that-cocky-voice-in-your-head-is-wrong-1535108459
#earnings #shortstrangles BBY Sold Oct….
#earnings #shortstrangles BBY
Sold Oct. 70/95 strangle for 1.42
#coveredcalls TWTR Wow, now that…
#coveredcalls TWTR Wow, now that is quite a breakout. Closed my all to early short calls @ .53, a .38 loss. I will just let this play out for a while. Maybe I should go back on vacation.
#advice #shortcallspreads SODA Looking for…
#advice #shortcallspreads SODA
Looking for the best way out. August 9 I sold a Sept. 21, 135/145 call spread for 1.33, SODA had a run up after earnings, then the Pepsi announcement put this in the money, currently at 142.
Any ideas? Thanks.
Rolling/closing.
BTC LABU 85 put this week for 0.15. Sold for 1.9 last Thurs.
Rolled MU this week 50 call leap out a week for 0.32 credit. Cb now 10.94.
SSO
Followed
STO +1 2/2/1/1 ~CONDOR SSO 100 21 SEP 18 124.5/123/120.5/118 PUT @.51
Order to STC GTC [TO CLOSE/TO CLOSE/TO CLOSE/TO CLOSE] .17
#lophir
???
MSFT unhinged fuzzy
Bot MSFT Sep28 109c/-109p/+106p x2 @ 1.32.
My indicators were saying to go long. This will likely be a short hold. My exit price is the high at 111.15
SSO TQQQ new trades
Now that @smasty160 (Sue) has informally introduced the “lophir” to Options Bistro, I’ll start sharing some of my trades. By way of a quick refresher, the lophir trade consists of selling 30DTE 30/15 delta put credit spread x2 and buying a 40/22 delta put debit spread x 1. All of these trades are net credit. You may notice me tweaking delta and DTE at times. My goal is to make some quiet money on a low maintenance trade.
STO +5 1/-2/-1/2 SSO Sep21 124.5/123/120.5/118 PUT/PUT/PUT/PUT @ .55 credit. GTC order to close at .17
STO +4 1/-2/-1/2 TQQQ 100 Sep28 68/65.5/63/60 PUT/PUT/PUT/PUT @ .60 credit. GTC order to close at .18
Buyer beware. These trades are in the experimental stage. Current plan is to cut the delta in half when price hits the profit peak on the risk graph and cut it in half again when it hits the breakeven price or close the trade if it’s near expiration. Our backtesting indicated that we wouldn’t need to manage often but live trading can make a liar out of backtests.:-)
TRADES:
:
$ROKU BTO 3X This morning avg. price 63.33
$TNDM STO 9/21/18 45.0 CALLS @1.05
#shortputs #closing ESPR August 22,…
#shortputs #closing ESPR
August 22, followed honkhonk81 into ESPR, sold Sept. 21, 40 put for 1.77, bought today for .51.
Unrelated but need TSLA above 320
Morning Covered my long stock…
Morning Covered my long stock picking away at the basis again
#coveredcalls
Sold TWTR Aug 31st 36.50 @ .15 when TWTR was at 34.93
Sold NUGT Aug 31st 16 @ .21 when NUGT was at 14.91
Interesting that the VIX is up
With this big move up
LABU
I rolled my August 31, 105 calls out to October 115 calls for a credit of 1.35 against my 2020, 115 calls. So far I have covered 25% of my cost and have 67 more weeks to go if the October 5 calls expire at zero.
Econ Calendar for week of 8/27/18
Could someone explain what a…
Could someone explain what a #stairstep is and show an example?
Thx
SPLK’nked
CAved in – sort of
#assignment
$SPLK called away at 110 as stock after earnings zoomed to 123.69. My basis was 88. Good stock.
NVDA Short Calls / DBX Roll /ADSK “Mistake”
#shortcalls
$NVDA STO 9/21 285 calls at 2.10 Sold against Long October 265 calls
$DBX BTC 8/24 28 call and STO 9/7 30 call at even.
#longcalls
$ADSK STC 8/24 135 calls at 20.40. BTO 8/20 at 4.90. I was trying to capture the earnings run volatility and sell before earnings. My order Thursday was not filled as I forgot to lower my price. Voila! What a pleasant surprise.
Rolling OLED, all the kids are doing it
#Rolling #CoveredCalls
BTC $OLED Aug 24th 122 call for .45. Sold for 1.65 on Aug 16th.
STO $OLED Aug 31st 124 covered call for 1.50.
No expirations, have a good weekend all!
Have a nice weekend
I am checking out early since it is so quiet and I rolled all that I had expiring this week.
#shortputs #pietrade OIH Sold Sept….
#shortputs #pietrade OIH
Sold Sept. 21, 25 put for .54, ATM
TQQQ
This is my bearish trade that I am rolling. The 57 puts that I am short will expire today so I sold the October 60 puts For 1.50 against my 2019, 50 puts that I own and are under water. I have covered .61% of my cost but these expire this January so after October 5, I only have 15 more weeks to break even or roll into a longer expiration.
BABA
I have the 205 calls that will expire today so I sold the October 5, 185 calls for 2.90, 42 days to expiration. I will just keep rolling and rolling.
XBI
#LongCalls #LEAPS – Finally getting a chance to ratio this one. Been rolling ITM weeklies for awhile…
Bought to Close XBI AUG 24 2018 95.5 Calls @ .45 (sold for 1.15)
Sold XBI SEP 7 2018 97.0 Calls @ .89
TQQQ
Rolled August 31, 68 calls to September 7, 68.5 call for a credit of .23 cents which is what I need each week to cover my 2020, 66.67 calls. I have covered 7.4% of the cost so far and have 73 more weeks to go.
#shortstrangles EWZ Followed Ramie’s EWZ…
#shortstrangles EWZ
Followed Ramie’s Oct. 28/36 EWZ strangle from yesterday, for 1.83-thanks
#pietrade ROKU rolled SP 56…
#pietrade ROKU
rolled SP 56 to SP59 both with exp Aug31 for an additional .40 credit. So far, this ticker is treating me nicely
TSLA closed
Closed the final spread for .18. Sold for 9.75 on Tuesday. Nice trade for only 3 days. Thinking about doing it again for next Friday. Premium for same strangle is 9.42 right now.
#shortputs #earnings related GPS Tradewise…
#shortputs #earnings related GPS
Tradewise has a covered call recommendation on the Gap, buy 100 shares and sell a Sept., 32 call. I sold a Sept. 32 put for 3.17, GPS is at 28.80, down 3.50, 11%, $900 margin instead of $2900 for the buy/write.
AMBA
#LongCalls #LEAPS – With #Earnings next week and this thing in a tight squeeze that’s leaning bullish I’m playing it carefully while selling under the LEAPS. Taking this week’s off at even and I’ll decide later where (or if ) to sell next week.
Bought to Close AMBA AUG 24 2018 39.0 Calls @ .50 (sold for .50)
DUST
GLD
#LongCalls #LEAPS – This one was so close to breakeven back in April I probably should’ve closed it but…all the experts were predicting a breakout to the upside and a run to glory. Well…we know how that played out…LOL.
I’ve been double and triple writing some of the weekly call sales on the way down so taking a little off now that there’s signs of life. A long way to go still but it’s out to 2020.
Bought to Close GLD AUG 31 2018 115.5 Calls @ .12 (sold for .40)
ADSK
#LongCalls #LEAPS – This was one I’ve been in for quite awhile. It goes all the way back to Dec with a strangle gone bad and then horrible timing on an overnight short stock assignment. Then turned it into a LEAPS non ratio position where the weekly sales got immediately run over. After finally working out of that by rolling up LEAPS to finance the roll up of the weeklies and gradually being able to turn it into a ratio’d position I was able to resume selling. So…after the big jump today and in spite of lousy exit fills ( I should’ve waited a little) I am out with a small profit from what was once a decent size ugly loss.
Sold to Close ADSK JAN 18 2019 130.0 Calls
Bought to Close ADSK AUG 24 2018 134.0 Calls
All said and done a .76 winner per contract!
Doesn’t sound like much but it feels much bigger…LOL
NVDA Closed Early / Short Calls WSM / Long Calls ANET
#shortputs
$NVDA BTC 9/21 225/230 BUPS at .15 STO at 1.48 on 7/31
#longputs
$WSM STO 9/21 67.50/62.50 BECS at 3.42 Don’t think earnings price spike will last. What do I know?
#longcalls
$ANET BTO 9/21 270/300 BUCS at 11.60 Lucked out. They are being added to S&P 500
TSLA strangle
BABA
#ShortPuts #IRA – I’ll take a shot…
Sold BABA DEC 21 2018 150.0 Put @ 3.45
BABA
Update…got really lucky on this one. Re-stated earnings to a miss now. At least that’s the rumor. Jeez is Muskie running the conference call?
Jeff, your thoughts
SPX BTO Sept 21 2930/2950 @1.70
We did OK on these a while back
NVDA
Shutting down a couple more short put positions
Bought to close $CMI Dec 21 105 puts @ .30. Sold for 1.40 on 5/2.
Bought to close $SWKS Sep 21 85 puts @ .40. Sold for 1.20 on 7/23. I normally would let a position like this expire in a few weeks with the stock at 93, but anything can happen with this one (it had a 30% drop in a little over a month earlier this year). Felt better to just take the profits and move on.
GOOGL BTO Sept 7 1200/1202.5…
GOOGL BTO Sept 7 1200/1202.5 1.85 #supercharger
STC GOOGL Aug 31 1195/1197.5 2.20 Paid 1.85 week ago
Extra credit…
… to whoever can identify what the background today represents (Oregon residents are excluded from the contest). Refresh the page if you still are seeing bamboo.
Taking profits on NKTR
Bought to close $NKTR Nov 16 30 puts @ .45. Sold for 1.85 on 6/5.
EWZ Oct strangle
An idea from TastyTrade.
Sold $EWZ Oct 19 28/36 strangle @ 1.76 with EWZ right in the middle at 32.00.
Adding DUST
Sold at highest strikes:
$DUST Nov 16 64 calls @ 1.00
$DUSH Mar 15 2019 64 call @ 2.10
VMIN
Interesting one, MamaCash. From the prospectus:
“The Fund expects to primarily take short positions in and obtain short exposure to VIX Futures Contracts with two to six months to expiration, but may take short positions in and obtain short exposure to VIX Futures Contracts with shorter or longer durations. The Fund expects the notional value of its exposure to VIX Futures Contracts to be equal to approximately 100% of Fund assets at the close of each trading day, but the notional value of such exposure may be less, and could be substantially less, at the close of any trading day. Under normal circumstances, the Fund will invest at least 80% of its net assets, plus any borrowings for investment purposes, in financial instruments that in combination provide short exposure to VIX Futures Contracts.”
Here are today’s holdings:
I am considering buying shares as well based on the dividend. Price is only around 3.30 so not a big risk if all is lost (which it could be in these inverse vol products, like SVXY).
GOOGL SuperCharger
#SuperCharger Bought to Open $GOOGL Set 7th 1200/1210 Bull call spread for 7.20. It has a daily squeeze. You can get a better price now, or move down a strike or two. Goal closing price is 9.40.
#pietrades, #rolling, #hedge On vacation…
On vacation this week but home so still doing some trading.
Let’s get the crap out of the way first. Sorry to anyone who followed AMAT. Loss on the last earnings 12 weeks ago. Almost worked it back to even but they beat last week but still punished so break even or near break even is now a loss again. I mostly had these in small accounts so am closing so I can use the money on something more effective. BTC all the 47 call options for pennies, 0.03. Sold the stock at 43.06 and 43.09. Total losses (not per contract) of $588 on lot 1 and $558 on lot 2. Not bad considering it was down over $2000 initially. Rolling helps but the reason I am closing it is this: as it dropped below $50 the premiums dried up. ATM 1 week out is only 0.4-0.5. Not enough for #pietrades. Second reason is after 14 weeks of not being able to break even, time to move on. Like GM this is off the #pietrade list for a while. If you can’t bring in more than 0.5-1% per week, not worth #pietrade.
STC the SPX 2550 calendar hedge for 0.55. So a 1 month hedge only cost 0.65. I will continue playing with these but doubt I will always have a hedge. Maybe easier to just short some /ES futures when needed.
Rest are updates, rolls, new trades.
#fuzzies
MU LEAP 55/50 8 DTE cb at 11.26. At least MU found a base.
WDC LEAP 60/ 65 29 DTE cb at 17.78. Looks like finding new range in the 60-70 area.
EOG LEAP 115/115 29 DTE cb at 11.2.
XBI LEAP 87/95 and 95/95 rolled out to 22 DTE for 0.72 credit. cb now 6.8 and 3.32. Should be free trades soon.
#pietrades
LABU 8 DTE 85 put for 1.9, cb 83.10 if assigned. Good support at 85.
TQQQ lot 1 65 cc rolled to next week 65.5 cc for 0.20 credit. Cb 62.78
TQQQ lot 2 65 CC cb 63.23, new trade, small account only 1-2 contracts
TQQQ lot 3 65 cc rolled to next week 65.5 for 0.25 credit. Cb now 62.98
TQQQ lot 4 66 CC cb 65.02 new trade.
TQQQ lot 5 65 cc cb 63.90
Looks like a lot of TQQQ but each account only 1-2 contracts, I am diversified elsewhere. However I have noticed that my more concentrated accounts are doing much better. Better to be a specialist than a general practitioner like me, at least for trading. Also have noticed the more you get direction right, the better the non directional trades do better. Will keep working on being better at directional bias.
A few other changes. No more #pietrades on earnings. Last 5 out of 8 went bad and basically flattened my equity curve for the last 4 months. Would have done much better without those. If I do them will use spreads in advance. Without those 5 losing earnings trades I could have paid off my wife’s car.
Converting deep ITM #pietrades into #fuzzy is a very effective risk reduction tool. Allows you to limit margin but also keep selling premium weekly and looking at 100% returns over 6 months if I keep them going. Probably best tactic for small accounts.
I will be moving most of the #pietrades over to ETFs and leveraged products to avoid the single ticker risk. The ladder idea works well for this 45 DTE and closing/rolling after 3 weeks.
ADSK
#Earnings after the close today. I would take a shot but I’m already in a long term LEAPS position that was a repair trade from about 3 quarters ago. Finally sitting at breakeven but I’m gonna hold it through the announcement.
It’s a 3×4 ratio with little to no upside risk and makes money down to 134 which is my short call strike.
SVXY
Took the last of my SVXY stock today (other than a single Jan 2019 25 strike put). This is pretty typical of where most of my SVXY positions were.
Original trade was Jan 2019 80/80/77.5 Synthetic Stock @ 25.50 so luckily the worse case scenario is a basis about 25 dollars above where the stock is. The short puts were exercised so I sold the long puts. I’ve unloaded all my other stock but I’ll hang on to this one since it’s only a couple hundred shares.
Sold SVXY SEP 21 2018 14.5 Calls @ .38
Covered Call type of morning in PDX
Back home at last… slept well so keeping jet lag at bay!
#CoveredCallCampaign #SyntheticCoveredCalls Since I’ve been trading lighter I mostly only have long stock and long #LEAPs positions. Looking for new entries… who’s got something?
Wednesday I was over the Pacific without enough WiFi megabytes to trade, so fortunately the market didn’t do much.
Tuesday: BTC $SQ 75 calls for 1.55. Small loss. #StrangleRoll: Sold Aug 31st 73.5/78.5 strangles for 1.95.
Tuesday: BTC SQ Aug 24th 76 call for 1.16 & Aug 31st 76 call for 1.96. Breakeven combining the two.
Today: #Rolling Sold SQ Sep 7th 79 call for 1.55; sold Sept 7th 80 call for 1.50
Today: Sold $BABA Sep 14th 195 Covered Call for 1.50
Tuesday: Rolled $AAPL Aug 24th 202.5 #CoveredCalls to Aug 31st 205 covered calls, breakeven. Still underwater on this one but managing to creep my strike up.
Today: Sold $FB Sep 14th 182.5 covered call for 1.45.
Today: Sold $AMAT Aug 31st 43 covered call for .80. This #PieTrade is a stinker… not much premium to work with.
BABA
#LongCalls #LEAPS – Taking advantage of the earnings bounce up to resistance. The overall position is approaching zero deltas again so booking it.
Sold to Close BABA JAN 17 2020 180.0 Calls @ 31.95
Bought to Close BABA AUG 24 2018 180.0 Calls @ 4.60
Ended up with 2.73 profit on a 3 lot…
Now if the China negotiations fall apart I can look to re-enter on the drop. 🙂
Assigned last SVXY shares
Not sure what the hold up was but I finally got assigned the last lot of SVXY from the short puts I had (January 85s). I’ve closed around 20% of the position using basis reduction from UVXY and VXX so I’ll keep plugging away (and maybe start writing some covered calls as SVXY pushes toward 20). I’ll be at this project for at least another year.
SVXY
STO August 31, 14 calls at .45 cents. I will roll these if SVXY is above 14 on Aug 31
Adding SJM
A little more J in the PB&J in January.
Sold $SJM Jan 18 2019 90 puts @ 1.55. Delta 16.
Taking off Oct MYL
Bought to close $MYL Oct 19 30 puts @ .08. Sold for .76 on 5/2.
Rolling Again
#shortcalls
$NFLX BTC 8/24 337.5 call and sell 9/7 345 call at additional .40 credit. This is covered. $NFLX stock now at 344.29 after two nice up days. Was at 330 when I first covered stock on 8/21.
VMIN anyone?
I bot 100 shares of VMIN today just to see what will happen with dividends in December.:-) Has anyone here ever bought or sold this ETF?
#volatility
Rolling Backwards and UP – Oh What Fun
#shortputs
$EXAS BTC 1/2019 35 puts and STO 10/19 60 puts at additional 2.30 credit.
Stock shot up today on Pfizer collaboration. Their earnings should be after option expires. If I dare wait for anything to expire anymore.
A TRADE:
ESPR STO 9/21/18 40.0 PUTS @1.75 Thanks for idea Mr. Thomberg101. You made me look again. ;>)
Close GOOGL BECS Early / GOOGL Puts
#shortcalls
Closed Early
$GOOGL BTC 9/21 1320/1300 BECS at 1.50 STO on 8/10 @ 4.50
#shortputs
$GOOGL STO 9/21 1200/1210 BUPS at 3.55
#earnings #shortstraddle #closing URBN Yesterday…
#earnings #shortstraddle #closing URBN
Yesterday sold Aug. 24, 47.50 straddle for 4.03, bought today for 2.70.
#pietrade ATVI is bouncing of…
#pietrade
ATVI is bouncing of the 200 day MA, usually a nice entry point. Earnings are not before November. Reason enough for me to try a pietrade with selling a put Aug31 at 71 at 1.02
#shortputs ESPR Followed honkhonk and…
#shortputs ESPR
Followed honkhonk and geewhiz’ trade yesterday into this but sold a Sept. 21, 40 put for 1.77-thanks
Options Bistro 