#Earnings A fairly cheap play, low probability, placing butterflies on both sides at the expected move of about 30 points. Something fun to watch the rest of the week…
Sold to Open $CMG Apr 22 470/480/490 call butterfly for .80
Sold to Open $CMG Apr 22 400/410/420 put butterfly for .90
Considering a butterfly around 105, or maybe some puts. Anyone else?
#SPXcampaign Bought to close $SPX May 27th 2125/2150 call spreads for 6.00. Sold for 4.50 on March 29th. Not a bad loss, but the call side continues to be toxic. I am reserving any and all calls for above 2150. I will look for roll options to replace this loss.
#SPXcampaign In pre-market, bought to close $SPX Apr 29th 2025/2000 put spreads for .25. Sold for 1.30 last Tuesday.
#Earnings STC $NOW stock for 74.01. Assigned at 60.00 in February
BTC $NOW May 20th 60 call for 14.00. Sold for 2.05 in February.
Last remnant of earnings trade, no reason to hold longer. Overall all a loser since I sold several shares while under water.
#SPXcampaign Sold to Open $SPX May 27th 1940//1915 put spreads for 1.30, with SPX at 2083.
— Expiring w/max profit —
$FB 109 covered put
$FB 110 covered put (closed for .04 before close)
$NUGT 70 & 81 puts
$NUGT 82 calls
–Expiring w/losses —
$SPX 2090/2100/2110 iron butterfly (see post below)
$GOOGL 820/840/860 call butterfly
$JNJ 108/110/112 iron butterfly
Have a great weekend!
BTC $SPY 210 puts for 1.00, filled right at the bell, to avoid assignment. Sold at 209/210/211 iron butterfly on Wednesday for .79, so .21 loss.
For $SPX 2090/2100/2110 IB, allowing to be exercised. Based on close price of about 2091.60, loss would be 1.40, so less than max loss of 2.00. Sold on Wednesday for 8.00.
#ContangoETFs Last week and today I’ve tried something fun in the last five minutes, making a couple hundred or so each week. Sold NUGT 81 puts and 82 calls for .15 and .20 cents from 3:55p to 4p. A little at a time, working the small swings in the stock. Mainly, taking advantage of people likely closing long options before the close to avoid assignment. A bit on the edge, but if I accidentally get assigned I can always buy or sell the stock after the bell to balance out to zero.
#SPXcampaign Sold to Open $SPX May 19th 1960/1935 put spreads for 1.35, with SPX at 2083.
#Earnings #AfterHours
Last night bought $GOOGL stock for 730. Sold half a few minutes later for 740. Stopped myself out on the rest at 734.00. The profit is double what I lost on the bullish butterfly I bought yesterday, so all’s good.
#ContangoETFs Only a strangle left in August after closing these two this morning:
BTC $KOLD May 20th 270 call for .90. Sold for 9.00
BTC $KOLD May 20th 275 call for .70. Sold for 7.00
Although good profits on these two, I ended up losing overall on KOLD, as I got pressured on margin and had to close at unfortunate highs. I will trade this more conservatively in the future when it pops up again.
#Earnings #CoveredPuts #shortstock
Against my short stock position, STO $FB Apr 29th 103 puts for 1.50
#Earnings BTO $GOOGL stock for 730.00. Sold half for 740.00. Holding other half for more gains… will close tonight if it reaches 760, otherwise hold for tomorrow. Stop at 720.00, which would be breakeven.
#SPXcampaign Six minutes after close, bought to close $SPX May 19th 2125/2150 call spreads for 6.00. Sold for 3.50 on March 16th as a roll. This is one of three spreads I have at 2125. Stopping since we breached my 20-pt stop at 2105. Will wait the others out… I believe the upside momentum will slow a lot now that we are near the November high of 2116.
GOOGL trade, another bust!
#Earnings I haven’t traded $GOOGL on the last few earnings because premium is often light at far OTM strikes. Looking at its history, it is more bullish than bearish on past earnings. I am trying for the Apr 22nd 800/820/840 call butterfly. This would profit most at 820, a 5.4% up move (40 points), which is the expected move based on IV. Looks to be going for 3.75-4.00. Bidding 3.25 for now and will adjust if not filled.
Anyone else trading this?
#SPXcampaign Sold to Open $SPX May 13th 2050/2025 put spreads for 3.50. Aggressive trade as a roll from stopped call spreads.
#Earnings NOW and DATA doing the reverse of what happened in February. NOW earnings last night; DATA not until May 5th. I have covered calls, NOW way down at 60, DATA at 49.
Ah, yes, 2100 iron fly coming in… come to papa!
The only interesting thing I can say about today is that VIX, VXX, and UVXY are down, but have moved straight across since the early morning drop. Days like these often lead to a very sharp, steady plummet in UVXY, but not today. VIX reached new lows today, surpassing October’s low, but also has been straight across since morning. All of they while SPX has drawn a perfect 45 degree line UP since about 11am ET.
What does it mean? I don’t know what anything means in this market lately.
#Earnings This could be a viable trade if you’re willing to take stock… selling 40 puts for .50, or any other bullish play. That would be a 9.1% down. UA’s biggest recent down move was 7.3%, and it often pops up big, like 22% up last quarter. Chart looks pretty bullish, with a daily squeeze, and entering a weekly squeeze.
#Earnings Bought to close $NFLX Apr 22nd 90 puts for .10. Sold for .60 on Monday. Still holding 90 puts expiring Apr 29th, GTC order in to close for .10.
#SPXcampaign Bought to close $SPX May 13th 1890/1865 put spreads for .20. Sold for 1.40 on April 11th.
Today $VIX hit its lowest level since mid-August (right before the storm)
#IronButterfly Too Mort’s idea, but trying with options expiring TONIGHT:
Sold to open $SPX Apr 20th 2090/2100/2110 iron butterfly for 5.50.
Breakevens at today’s close are 2094.50 and 2105.50.
Buy (1) 2090 put
Sell (1) 2100 put
Sell (1) 2100 call
Buy (1) 2110 call
Also trying for same spread expiring this Friday for 8.00. And in smaller accounts, trying for 209/210/211 $SPY spread for .80
Thanks, Mort!
#SPXcampaign Sold to Open May 19th 1975/1950 put spreads for 1.25.
#Earnings This trade looks to be a bust. It will cost 2.00 to close the ITM call spread; after the 1.50 credit we took in, that’s a 50-cent loss (ignore the puts, they will expire worthless). It may be possible to close it for less than 2.00 if there is any pullback, so keep an eye on it for the rest of the week. Sorry this one didn’t work out!
#SPXcampaign Sold to Open $SPX Apr 29th 2025/2000 put spreads for 1.30.
#LongCalls Adding to the two positions I started yesterday
BTO $TLT May 20th 130 call for 2.10
BTO $TLT June 17th 132 call for 1.90
#Earnings #ShortStock #coveredputs
STO $FB April 29th 100 put for 1.20. Slowly building a larger put position as an eventual earnings play. If I have to stay short the stock into earnings, I want to sell a lot of puts to offset possible positive reaction in the stock.
#Earnings BTC $NFLX Apr 22nd 125 calls for .04. Sold for .95 yesterday. Order in to close the 90 puts for .10. May take a few hours or a couple days.
Another day, another All-Time low in UVXY.
Silver at hew highs, ZSL at new lows, lowest since August 2014. No position as the juice got drained out when they split it last November. I won’t be selling puts either. I think ProShares is now regretting making the split. #ContangoETFs
#Earnings $NFLX down but bounced off lows and is still nicely centered between 90/125 strangle.
$JNJ up; will watch the rest of the week for a drift back toward 100. May close short puts early if they get cheap enough.
#SPXcampaign In pre-market, Bought to close May 6th 1915/1890 put spreads for .20. Sold for 1.30 on April 7th. And bought to close May 6th 1925/1900 put spreads for .20. Sold for 1.25 on April 4th.
#Earnings To offset puts sold earlier, STO $NFLX Apr 22nd 125 calls for .95
#SPXcampaign Sold to Open $SPX May 19th 2160/2185 call spreads for 1.75.
#LongCalls Starting a position in this as bullish consolidation continues.
BTO $TLT May 20th 130 call for 2.43
BTO $TLT June 17th 132 call for 2.20
#Earnings Following rknight’s idea…
STO $NFLX Apr 22nd 90 puts for .60
STO $NFLX Apr 29th 90 puts for 1.00
With stock at 106.40 this strike is 15.4% OTM. I will take stock at 90. If we get any significant bounce before close I will consider selling some calls over 120.
#Earnings Here are the moves in the 5 days after the last 12 earnings reports for $NFLX:
Tue 01/19/2016 AC -6.64%
Wed 10/14/2015 AC -7.74%
Wed 07/15/2015 AC 12.65%
Wed 04/15/2015 AC 19.33%
Tue 01/20/2015 AC 25.41%
Wed 10/15/2014 AC -19.92%
Mon 07/21/2014 AC -6.65%
Mon 04/21/2014 AC -7.57%
Wed 01/22/2014 AC 14.23%
Mon 10/21/2013 AC -7.59%
Mon 07/22/2013 AC -5.97%
Mon 04/22/2013 AC 23.61%
The AVERAGE move is 13.7%. With the stock at 108.00, just staying inside the average move would equate to a 93/123 strangle, which goes for about 2.00. As I like to stay much further away than the average, I don’t think I will be selling options or condors. May look at butterfly options, but since the moves can be big and erratic, those will be pretty speculative. Any other ideas?
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#VXXGame
UVXY slammed through its all time-low of 17.41, dropping all the way below 17 on this surge in the market.
BTC $UVXY May 20th 38 call for .42. Sold for 2.14 on 3/23.
#SPXcampaign – missed my fill on new put spreads on the drop. Now I’m playing the other side.
Bought to close $SPX Apr 22nd 2000/1975 put spreads for .20. Sold for 1.60 last Tuesday.
Sold to Open $SPX May 6th 2140/2165 call spreads for 1.25.
#Earnings Sold to Open $JNJ Apr 22nd 108/110/112 iron butterfly for 1.47. Max gain, 1.45(ish), max loss, .53. This is based on the fact that JNJ moves very little on earnings, and 110 is with the current uptrend and a nice round number. Open interest not really a factor; it’s slightly bigger at 110 call but not on the puts. Goal is for JNJ to finish the week as close to 110 as possible. On any large swings I may take off parts of it during the week to increase chance of profit, but also increase risk slightly.
#SPXcampaign In Pre-market, bought to close April 20th (Wednesday) 2110/2135 call spreads for .20. Sold on Apr 6th for 1.30.
#optionsexpiration
Expiring:
SPX 2000/1975 put spreads
NOW 65 covered call
NUGT 45 put
Assignments:
NOW 55 covered call, stock called away
DAL 47 (long) call, assigned stock
Have a great weekend, all!
#Earnings Well, a bummer of an ending for this one… sold half of my position with decent profits, but the last half will be about breakeven since we collapsed today rather than the hoped for pin at 49.00. About a 70% gain on the overall trade.
Sold to close remaining 47 calls for .55. Bought as apart of the butterfly for .70.
#ContangoETFs #StrangleRoll
BTC NUGT Apr 15th 75 calls for 2.975 and 75 call for 6.00
STO NUGT May 13th 55 puts for 2.50, 45 put for .95, and 120 calls for 2.05 (enough quantity to gain a small credit for the rolls)
#ContangoETFs Bought to close NUGT Apr 15th 72 put for .25 to avoid possible assignment. Sold for 1.25 earlier this week. Now, about those 72 (and 75) calls…
#SPXcampaign On the spike down this morning, Bought to close $SPX Apr 22 2100/2125 call spreads for 3.00. Sold for 2.50 on March 24th. Only a small loss, but since my 2080 stop level has been hit, need to clear the way for the freight train going north. A slow train can kill you as much as a fast one if you’re just lying on the tracks… might even be worse; a slow painful crushing rather than a quick death.
#SPXcampaign Sold to Open $SPX May 6th 2025/2000 put spreads for 3.10. A #ReverseRoll to partially replaced call spread stopped this morning.
Sold to Open $SPX May 13th 1960/1935 put spreads for 1.35, with SPX at 2080.
#Earnings At the open, sold to close $DAL April 15th 47/49/50 broken-wing butterfly for 1.40 and 1.50. Two more spreads closed… waiting until after noon to close the remainder. I should be able to close these for 1.90 if we end the day near 49.00. Bought for .70 on Wednesday.
#SPXcampaign Yesterday, Sold to Open June 16th 1900/1875 put spreads for 2.00. I realized I sold a call spread weeks ago (2175/2200) in this expiry so a put spread would be margin free.
In today’s pre-market, Bought to close $SPX May 6th 2100/2125 call spread for 8.00. Sold for 5.00 on April 3rd (as a roll). Will look at add more rolls soon.
#ContangoETFs Nice pullback… although now some puts going ITM!!!
STO May 6th 50 put for 1.50
STO April 29th 50 put for 1.00
#SPXcampaign In pre-market, bought to close $SPX Apr 29th 1910/1885 put spreads for .20. Sold for 1.40 on March 22.
#Earnings Delta Airlines’ earnings are in, and the stock is up as expected. I will be looking for this to settle in at 49.00 at Friday’s close. I will be putting some close orders in after the open today to take profits if they become available before Friday. I’ll list those orders as a comment below this post.
The earlier news on $FB was an error…. great buying opportunity!
#SPXcampaign Sold to open $SPX May 13th 2125/2150 for 1.25, with SPX at 2078. Is there no limit to this rally? New 2016 highs reached today.
#VXXGame Taking a cue from @Ramie today; clearing out most long-term and a few short-term…
BTC Apr 29th 33.5 calls for .30. Sold for 1.90 on 3/17/16
BTC May 6th 32.5 call for .52. Sold for 2.85 on 3/24/16
BTC May 20th 50 call for .35. Sold for 1.98 on 3/24/16
BTC Jan 2017 80 call for 3.40. Sold for 15.45 last August
BTC Jan 2017 170 call for 1.75. Sold for 7.45 on 1/7/16
BTC Jan 2018 85 call for 4.90. Sold for 24.00 on 1/13/16
#SPXcampaign Bought to close $SPX Apr 20th (Wednesday) 1980/1955 put spreads for .20. Sold for 1.90 on April 5th.
Is there news on FB? Dumping.
#Earnings Considering an earnings trade on DAL. It has moved up on the last 13 report, an average of 4% (one day after report). A bullish ATM credit spread could work, for perhaps a butterfly centered at 49, where there is huge open interest. A 4% move from here would put as at 49.50.
#SPXcampaign In pre-market, Bought to Close $SPX Apr 29th 1880/1855 put spreads for .20. Sold for 1.35 on Mar 29th.
#SPXcampaign Sold to Open $SPX Apr 22nd 2000/1975 put spreads for 1.60. This is an extra spread since my first two spreads for this expiry were previously closed with profits.
#ContangoETFs #ReverseRoll Taking a cue from @fuzzballl here…
BTC NUGT May 6th 105 call for 6.00
STO NUGT May 20th 55 puts (x2) for 3.00
After dumping ZSL completely and scaling back on KOLD, NUGT became my favorite son, but I got a bit too deep in the calls. Plus my broker turned up to 11 the margin pressure on these overnight, so I had to dump four under water calls at losses. #ContangoETFs
Example, BTC Apr 29th 105 call for 3.60 released $7K in margin.
Also BTC Apr 8th 85 call for 5.00
BTC Apr 15th 80 call for 7.50
BTC Apr 29th 100 call for 4.40
Total losses only $1K as these were sold for decent premium. Easy to start building back with puts, which also reduce the margin.
STO May 6th 55 put for 2.00
STO Apr 22nd 70 put for 3.30
#SPXcampaign – missed this fill from the first hour of trading: Bought to close $SPX Apr 22nd 1910/1885 put spreads for .20. Sold for 1.40 on Mar 22nd.
#SPXcampaign Sold to Open $SPX May 13th 1890/1865 put spreads for 1.40. Sold calls at the open and puts at the close.
#ContangoETFs I was too early on these, as is too often the case. Need to pace myself!
STO NUGT Apr 15th 85 call for 2.05
STO NUGT Apr 29th 100 call for 2.90
STO NUGT May 6th 105 call for 3.20
STO NUGT May 13th 105 call for 3.50
#SPXcampaign Bought to close $SPX Apr 14th 2000/1975 puts for .75. Sold for 5.00 on March 23 (as a roll) Closed the roll portion, but still have some of these that were sold for 1.55. Will probably allow to expire or close for .20.
Sold to Open May 13th 2135/2160 call spreads for 1.30.
Added to May 6th and 13th… up to 105
#OptionsExpiration Only NUGT this week. Earnings season starting up next week…
— Expiring —
NUGT 72 calls
NUGT 45 and 50 puts
#ContangoETFs #Rolling
BTC NUGT Apr 8th 67 call for 3.90 (sold Monday for 1.00)
STO NUGT Apr 29th 85 call for 4.20
#ContangoETFs STO NUGT May 13th 95 call for 4.25 (adding)
#Earnings #ShortStock BTC FB Apr 15th 115 call for .34. Sold for 1.80 on 3/1. FB getting shellacked today; finally some relief for short stock.
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