FB earnings

#Earnings Gotta take a shot. Playing it slightly to the upside with wings at the 100 ma and the all time high. As usual, needing a slightly less than expected move.

Sold FB 123/128/133 iron flies @ 4.20 risking 80 to make 420 per fly. Expected move creeping up above 6 now…

BABA EA GILD HLF earnings iron flies

Initial moves out near my limits on most of these so closing all for small winners…no interest in messing with these all week. Didn’t make a ton but no losers!

BABA closed for .13 gain
EA closed for .48 gain
GILD closed for .37 gain
HLF closed for .07 gain

EA earnings

What the heck…this one worked last time…

75/78/81 @ 2.50

VRX?

What the heck was that?

BABA GILD HLF earnings

I’ve had a pretty good earnings season (thanks GOOGL!) so taking a few low probability but low risk trades. Not interested in any of these for longer term stuff so going with iron flies inside the expected move on all 3.

BABA 97/100/103 @ 2.52. Risking 48 to make 252 per fly (expected move 4.15)
GILD 71.5/73.5/75.5 @ 1.64. Risking 36 to make 164 per fly (expected move 3.05)
HLF 56/59/62 @ 2.47. Risking 53 to make 247 per fly (expected move 4.63)

SVXY puts

Sold SVXY MAR 17 2017 40.0 Put @ 2.80
Sold SVXY MAR 17 2017 45.0 Put @ 4.00

#IRA

GLD roll

Rolled this week’s 120.5 calls to next week’s 121’s @ .25 credit. These are sold against Nov monthly 122 puts…

XLE roll

Rolled almost worthless Nov 74 calls out to Dec 72 calls @ .75 credit. Might as well put ’em to work instead of waiting 3 weeks for a nickel…

Still holding Nov 66 puts…

VIX call spread

Gradually adding to existing position…

Sold VIX DEC 21 2016 20.0/25.0 Bear call spread @ .80

AAPL roll

Was short Dec 2nd 110/123 strangles. 123 calls almost worthless so taking them out and down a little.

Rolled Dec 2nd 123 calls to Dec 16th 120 calls @ .48 credit. Still holding the shorter term puts and still net long delta overall.

No trades!

Haven’t done a thing this week yet. Can’t find much to complain about. Watching WYNN and REGN earnings closely since I’ve got a couple positions there. Looking closely at VIX and UVXY call spreads into the election…leaving room to add if Trump wins.

Expiration

Had a couple this week that I let go all the way to the end…

BMY Oct 48.5 Puts (sold for .55)
REGN Oct 372.5 Call (sold for 4.00)

AMZN long term

Doing a Whiz type trade on this. He’s been suggesting AMZN for awhile but I’ve been waiting for a pullback. Mine is modified slightly from his. He buys a 2019 put and I sell a bull put spread instead. Similar loss profile but cheaper up front. Selling weeklies to pay the bill. Even if AMZN stays flat forever, with a conservative weekly call sale of about 4 bucks, this trade makes 22 grand. Obviously, the risk is AMZN tanking to below 500 where I would own the stock.

Sold 1 AMZN JAN 18 2019 500.0/400.0 Bull put spread @ 14.85
Bought 1 AMZN JAN 18 2019 600.0 Call @ 258.85
Sold 1 AMZN NOV 4 2016 795.0 Call @ 5.30

I’ve been in a similar trade on GS for about 2 months….it’s working great. Planning on exiting it in December after the rate hike and banks spike.

NFLX puts

Already sold next week’s and like Jeff says, not risking an afternoon dump. These were sold right after earnings and then rolled up a couple times for additional premium. I’ll take it since I was kinda pressing my luck to begin with.

Bought to Close NFLX OCT 28 2016 125.0 Puts @ .05 (sold for 3.10)

IBB calls

This was more of a scalp than anything…selling against a monthly put. Booking it and re-selling out in the monthly expiration.

Bought to Close IBB NOV 4 2016 280.0 Call @ .15 (sold for 2.40)
Sold IBB NOV 18 2016 275.0 Call @ 3.00 against a 265 put

WYNN calls

Since I’ve already sold next week’s calls…and I absolutely do not want to be double exposed going into earnings week, I’m taking these off with nice profits.

Bought to Close WYNN OCT 28 2016 97.0 Calls @ .10 (sold for 1.79)

NFLX puts

Replacing this week’s expiration…selling against slightly in the money calls.

Sold NFLX NOV 4 2016 125.0 Puts @ 1.25

REGN call

Replacing this week’s expiration…

Sold REGN NOV 4 2016 370.0 Call @ 7.00

AMZN and GOOGL iron flies

Bought AMZN 795/825/860 iron fly @ 33.15 (sold for 31.50) Loss of 1.65 which is less than half of max

Bought GOOGL 795/820/845 iron fly @ 11.70 ( sold for 22.10)

Net gain of 8.75 on the two biggies…I’ll take it!

#Earnings

GOOGL caution! caution!

Low probability, low risk, but high reward. BTW, I’ve never had much luck with the GOOGL.

795/820/845 iron fly @ 22.10 needing a lower than expected move by quite a bit. Only risking 290 to possibly make 2210.

IBM adjustment

Rolled 152.5 puts out a week and up to 155’s @ 2.00 credit. Sold against 150 calls in the same expiration. Whichever one expires, I’ll probably roll the remaining position out into a new strangle.

AMZN iron fly

Going with 790/825/825/860 @ 31.50
35 wide on a 45 expected move skewed slightly to the upside. Risk 350 to make 3150.

TSLA…. :(

Can I have a do over? LOL…think I would’ve learned my lesson with AZO. Same thing…closing too soon. I think Jeff is right…be comfortable with max loss and let ’em ride awhile. Lesson learned.

Whew…

Sorry about all the posts…LOL Very good chance I’ll be unavailable tomorrow so taking care of some housekeeping. Now to look at some of the earnings ideas.

REGN adjustment

Rolled 377.5 put to next week 370 @ .25 credit.

Still sitting on this week’s 372.5 call (sold for 4.00). Depending on where it ends up (hopefully expired) I’ll be selling another call at some point next week. Earnings next Friday so we’ll see where it is then.

IWM adjustment

Original position of Nov 113/127 strangles @ 1.60

Even with IWM down the 113 puts still look fairly safe just below the 200ma. Calls were almost worthless so rolling them down to the 50ma which appears to be rolling over a little. Counting on some resistance there…

Rolled IWM Nov 127 calls down to 122 for .76 credit.

GLD adjustment

Rolled this week’s 120 calls to next week 120.5 calls @ .14 credit. Still selling against Nov 122 puts. Gradually reducing basis while bringing in nice weekly premium.

WYNN adjustment

Unless something crazy happens this week’s 97’s should go out worthless (sold for 1.79). Replacing with:

Sold WYNN NOV 4 2016 95.0 Calls @ 2.80

Still selling against some ITM puts so should be an interesting earnings next week.

TLT adjustment

Bought to Close TLT OCT 28 2016 133.0 Calls @ .02 (sold for 2.38)

Then:

Sold TLT NOV 4 2016 130.5 Calls @ 1.10

Used that premium to roll Nov 136 puts to Dec 134. Did the whole package for .06 credit. Reduces delta a little and now have about 6 weeks worth of weekly selling against them.

TSLA iron fly

Closed for 6.79…sold for 6.15 so a .64 loss. Worth a shot since it was a big winner last quarter. Get ’em next time!

BMY puts

Going with Sosnoff on this one…

Sold BMY Oct 28 2016 48.5 Puts @ .55

#IRA

TSLA earnings

Looking at iron flies. Maybe 7.5 wide on 11 dollar expected move?

SPX call spreads

Bought to Close SPX OCT 28 2016 2170.0/2180.0 Bear call spreads @ .20 (sold for 1.25)

DUST call spreads

Sold DUST DEC 16 2016 55.0/65.0 Bear call spreads @ 1.32

AAPL new strangle

Looks like I’ll be out of the earnings trade so selling another strangle. Had to use a weekly expiration to get single point strikes.

Sold AAPL DEC 2 2016 110/123 Strangles @ 1.42

CMG adjustment

Bought to Close CMG OCT 28 2016 410.0 Call @ .35 (sold for 5.30)

This was the inverted side of a strangle paired with a 430 put. Obviously the put is DITM now so looking to roll it out and down and then hammer it with weekly call sales. It’s not really as bad as it looks though. The put has accumulated 27.35 in credit after numerous rolls as well as plenty of call premium collected against it. As long as CMG doesn’t go to zero it should be alright…

AAPL earnings strangles

Busy morning….just getting in and seeing what got filled this morning.

Bought to Close AAPL OCT 28 2016 123.0 Calls @ .02

Waiting for the 113 puts for now…

CMG earnings

CMG reports tonight also. I’m not doing anything though since I’m already in a strangle I’ve been rolling around.

AAPL strangles

Not necessarily an earnings trade but if it works out then great! I’ve been wanting to add some strangles to trade around on this thing so earnings seems like a good place to sell the starter.

Sold Oct 28th 113/123 strangles @ 1.40

SPX trading with Whiz

Bear call yesterday and bull put today for this Friday. I’m much safer and wider wings than him but kinda using his idea.

2170/2180 @ 1.25 BeCS yesterday
2125/2115 @ 1.30 BuPS today

UA puts

Sold UA Dec 16 32.5 puts @ 1.30

#IRA

Thoughts on this tweet?

img_47111

DUST….book ’em!

Plenty of time to sell these again so not even messing with it. I’ll look to get back in if this bounce follows through.

Bought to Close DUST DEC 16 2016 60.0/70.0 Bear call spreads @ .97 (sold for 2.05)

TLT roll

Rolled 133 calls to next week’s 133’s @ .53 credit. These are sold against longer term short puts.

WYNN calls

Replacing this week’s expiration with same strike next week. Selling against short puts.

Sold WYNN OCT 28 2016 97.0 Calls @ 1.79

Rolled Gold

Rolled 120 calls to next week 120 a .45 credit. Selling against longer term puts.

REGN calls

Replacing a 370 expiring today. Selling against next week’s 377.5 put.

Sold REGN OCT 28 2016 372.5 Call @ 4.00

NFLX puts

Replacing expiring position with next week. Selling against longer term short calls…

Sold NFLX OCT 28 2016 122.0 Puts @ 2.00

IBM puts

Replacing some that are expiring this week.

Sold IBM OCT 28 2016 152.5 Puts @ 1.50

Looking to roll some 149 calls out and up also…

EBAY earnings

Tony V brought me down…LOL Instead of messing around rolling the puts I’m taking the stock so:

Sold EBAY NOV 4 2016 29.0 Calls @ 0.91

Guess he’s making up for the huge BBY winner last time around…goal is to get out of EBAY as quickly as possible. Stayed small just for this reason…in case I had to buy the stock.

Daily Theta %

Do you guys ever look at daily theta as a percentage of net liq? TT recommends anything up to close to 1 percent on the high end with maybe one-fourth to one half of one percent as more normal. Checked mine and I’m at .46 of 1 percent…so just under one half of one percent. Seems reasonable I guess…feels like I could go higher but like having a nice cushion. These percentages according to TT should be attainable with only about a third of your account in the market at any time. I’ve never paid much attention to it but starting to watch it a little now.

EBAY

Sort of following Tony V. Bought 33/34 call spreads and financed by selling 30.5 puts for .07 credit

CMG calls

Tried getting sneaky yesterday and sold next week’s call a little early. Of course, Raymond James downgrades the stock with about a 275 price target and it immediately rallies 11 dollars. TT is right…those analysts are clueless and have no idea. I’m guessing Raymond James wanted to buy it so they tried downgrading it…LOL

I don’t want 2 of these so I : Bought to Close CMG OCT 21 2016 405.0 Call @ 3.20

I’ll take that out of the 8.50 received yesterday for the early sale and call it a 5.30 credit roll…LOL

NFLX adjustment

According to John Carter, when a stock gaps up big on earnings like NFLX did, it tends to keep going for awhile (not sure if that’s true but seems reasonable).

After seeing his free video on this yesterday afternoon, I rolled my 115 puts up to 120 for Friday @ another 1.65 credit. This morning I rolled the 115 calls leftover from earnings out to Dec 4th 120’s for .05 debit. I’ll continue selling weekly puts against those…

CMG short call

This week’s 405 looks pretty safe. Selling next week.

Sold CMG OCT 28 2016 410.0 Call @ 8.50

Earnings next week and with an ITM 430 put figured I better sell an aggressive call to help out. Could go anywhere when they announce.

IBM adjustment

Similar to NFLX….

Original position was 149/160 strangles @ 2.19. Sold weekly 149 calls @ 1.01 replacing the worthless 160 calls.

New position is 149 straddles @ 3.20. And now we wait and let theta do it’s job!

NFLX adjustment

Tied up on an airplane this morning (not literally…LOL). Taxiing in right at the open made a couple adjustments.

Trade was originally 90/115 strangles @ 2.41. Since I don’t mind keeping this for awhile I sold 115 puts for this Friday @ 1.50. These replace the worthless 90 puts and add quite a bit to the bottom line.

Position now is 115 straddles for Friday @ 3.91. Plan now is to wait and see. Might get lucky with the 115 strikes. If not, I’ll roll the ITM side out and up (or down) and continue selling weekly puts (or calls) against them. Continuing with TT experiment of keeping almost perpetual (small) positions on some popular stocks and just letting the market tell me what to do. Love it so far! Great premium with small margin.

Similar positions in CMG EWW GLD IBB IBM IWM REGN TLT WYNN XLE and will add APPL with an earnings strangle.

IBM?

Earnings today also. 6.25 expected move. 5 wide iron fly about 3.95 right now…no position yet although considering it for a strangle and then manage if needed.

WYNN adjustment

Rolled next week’s 108 short puts out to Nov 11 107’s for even. Continuing to sell weekly calls against them.

Short 100 calls expiring today (sold for 1.02)
Short 100 calls next week (sold for 1.27)

Still long a few deltas but don’t want to over hedge. Earnings coming up (Oct 27th) so should be sweet call premium available there.

IBB adjustment

Scalping a little and a delta adjustment against a Nov 265 put:

Sold IBB NOV 4 2016 280.0 Call @ 2.40

Should be some resistance up in that area…

XLE strangles

Just another tiny position…

Sold XLE NOV 18 2016 66.0/74.0 Strangles @ 1.16

OMM…finally pulled the trigger

My subscription is up for renewal after this week. I left my email at the bottom hoping some OMMers will contact me and I can let them know about “The Bistro”.

===============================================================================

#OffTopic – Well this is it. My last week at OMM. A bittersweet day since I was in the group of beta testers from the very beginning. Can’t believe how much I’ve learned from all the great traders here. Too many names to mention but I won’t hesitate to throw one out there.

@Iceman – Thanks for all your postings over the years and opening my eyes to an entire new spectrum of option trading. Changed everything! I’ll never forget watching you sell into that summer 2011 meltdown. I paper traded right along and it was incredible…thank you sir!

A special thanks to @DAN also. An incredible resource here, an incredible library of learning, and most of all a great teacher. Thank you for having us!

I’ll be moving my “website dollars” over to SMM at some point so I’ll be looking forward to seeing most everyone over there also.

Thanks again everyone and great trading!!

Fuzzball (Scott)
fokkrfuz at charter dot net

UVXY call spreads

Earlier today:

Sold UVXY JAN 20 2017 30.0/40.0 Bear call spreads @ 1.00

SVXY put ladder

Adding one…

Sold SVXY JAN 20 2017 45.0 Put @ 2.60

IBB leg out

Bought to Close IBB NOV 18 2016 310.0 Call @ .60

This was the call side of a strangle sold ( @ 5.15) earlier. Still plenty of time to sell this again on a bounce.

IWM strangle

Sold IWM NOV 18 2016 113.0/127.0 Strangles @ 1.60

REGN roll

Pretty aggressive (crazy? 🙂 ) here….rolling un-threatened call down into congestion for additional premium.

Rolled next week’s 410 call down to 380 @ 5.20 credit. This is against a 380 put…

Current position is 380 straddle @ 15.10. Have to see where she goes next week and adjust accordingly.

WYNN…still selling

Sold WYNN OCT 21 2016 100.0 Calls @ 1.30

Still selling weeklies against in the money puts. Similar to a covered call trade. Plan is to roll the puts out and down next week and keep selling the calls.

Position is now Oct monthly 108/100 inverted strangle @ 13.77 credit received.

Let’s say WYNN doesn’t get back to 108 for a year. Selling weeklies @ 1.25 a week for a year would bring breakeven down to about 30 bucks. The power of the weekly! Not bad for margin of 1300 per strangle….

UVXY Whaddya think about this?

Didn’t do it but seemed interesting for a cash secured account. Long term practically guaranteeing 30 percent annualized….

Sell Jan 2018 5/10 Bear call spreads @ 1.40.

Figure there’s got to be a split or two between now and then so probably could close early….

EWW first time ever

Been watching this for awhile and have been wanting to do something in it. Just missed selling puts on it before the first debate so trying something different.

Sold EWW NOV 18 2016 46.0/54.0 Strangles @ 1.32

VIX call spreads

Trying something a little different….

Sold VIX DEC 21 2016 20.0/25.0 Bear call spreads @ .80

/ES hedge adjustment

Sure looks like some technical damage today. Rolling my covered put out and down for a nice credit. Selling it about where the descending 20ma could be when we bounce. Raising basis AND increasing downside profit potential. Still have the option of rolling the put up for additional credit on any rally.

Bought to close /ES OCT 16 (Wk3) 2155 PUT @ 34.50
Sold /ES NOV 16 (Wk3) 2140 PUT @ 44.50

The short emini basis is now up to 2189.0 after selling some earlier weekly puts against it. That’s the new breakeven against the new 2140 put so max gain is now up to 49 points to the downside.

UVXY risk management

These aren’t getting hit too bad today but another down day tomorrow and volatility could really get cranking again. Gonna book these just because it seems like the right thing to do…LOL

Bought to Close UVXY OCT 21 2016 25.0/35.0 Bear calls spreads @ .19 (sold for 1.65)

UVXY call spreads

Replacing some I closed yesterday…starter position:

Sold UVXY JAN 20 2017 25.0/35.0 Bear call spreads @ 1.00

DUST…joining in

TDA has removed this ticker from portfolio margin calculations so naked is way too risky for me now. I’ll spread it and give it plenty of time…and staying small enough to be able to widen and add for a credit roll if this thing gets way in the money.

Sold DUST DEC 16 2016 60.0/70.0 Bear call spreads @ 2.05