Bought to Close some of my VXX Oct 30 2020 24.50 Diagonal Calls / Sold to Open VXX Nov 06 2020 27.5 Calls @ 0.40 Net Credit plus a BIG 3 point bump in the strike price, pushing them out of the money.

Took that cash and bought some VXX Dec 18 2020 90.0 Calls @ 0.39

Partial rollup:
Bought to close VXX Oct 30 2020 24.00 Diagonal Calls / Sold to Open VXX Nov 06 2020 26.50 Diagonal Calls @ 0.02 Net Credit plus a 2.50 bump up in the short strike.
With the stock at 26.22, this moves the short position back out of the money.

Bought to close VXX Oct 30 2020 21.5 Puts / Sold to Open VXX Nov 06 2020 21.5 Puts @ 0.32 Net Credit.

Bought to close VXX Oct 30 2020 23 Puts at $0.01. They won’t trade any lower.

This was my biggest VXX short put position. Sold Friday on a roll down @ 1.43.

Replacing these with much smaller positions for next week:
Sold VXX Nov 06 2020 22.50 Puts @ 0.58
Sold VXX Nov 06 2020 22.00 Puts @ 0.44

Bought to close 1 SPY OCT 28 2020 $337 Diagonal Call @ 0.01. It won’t trade any lower.
Sold this on Monday at 5.37 as a roll up.

Bought to close 1 SPY OCT 28 2020 $343 Diagonal Call @ 0.01. It won’t trade any lower.
Sold this on Friday at 4.16 as a roll up.

I’ve rolled my put position that is farthest in the money out a week, and down 2 whole points, to get it out of the money post-election.
Bought to close VXX Oct 30 2020 25 Puts Net Credit / Sold to Open VXX Nov 06 2020 23 Puts @ 0.07 Net Credit.

This was the short put that caused me to be so aggressive on the calls sales for this week. With this one rolled down I can quit worrying about carrying so may short calls as an offset.

Buy/Write
Bought INTC / Sold INTC Nov 13 2020 46.5 Call @ $44.68 Net Debit
YTD low is 43.63, and the next XDiv date is 11/05

Since I’ve got almost all my SPY short calls bunched into tomorrow’s expiration I’ve decided to roll the one with the lowest strike price UP and out 2 days to Friday.
Bought to close SPY Oct 28 2020 334 Call Net Credit / Sold to Open SPY Oct 30 2020 335 Call @ 0.12 Net Credit.

If all goes as planned most of my short positions will be gone tomorrow or at least be rolled significantly higher.

Strike 45 Puts are looking interesting

I’m done selling straight calls but adding some diagonal call spreads
Bought to Open VXX Jan 15 2021 65 Calls / Sold to Open VXX Oct 30 2020 24.5 Calls @ 0.07 Net Credit
Bought to Open VXX Jan 15 2021 60 Calls / Sold to Open VXX Oct 30 2020 24 Calls @ 0.07 Net Credit

Because some of my short calls and puts have the same strike, I’ve turned them into “Short Calendar Iron Butterfly Spreads”

With these trades I’ve almost finished pairing up all my short puts, some of which are still in the money.
The VIX is up 13% so I’ll wait to see if the market finds a floor before doing more.
VXX 10/30/2020 26.00 Diagonal Calls @ 0.39
VXX 10/30/2020 25.50 Diagonal Calls @ 0.44
VXX 10/30/2020 25.00 Diagonal Calls @ 0.54
VXX 10/30/2020 24.50 Diagonal Call @ 0.64
VXX 10/30/2020 24.00 Diagonal Call @ 0.74

Also, this move is helping my SPY bear call spreads too.

Sold ADS Oct 30 2020 52 Calls @ 0.55

Bought to close SPY Oct 26 2020 336 Call / Sold to Open SPY Oct 28 2020 337 Call @ 0.02 Net Credit plus an extra point higher on the short strike
Bought to close SPY Oct 26 2020 337 Calls / Sold to Open SPY Oct 28 2020 338 Calls @ 0.06 Net Credit plus an extra point higher on the short strike.

No more expirations for today

With VXX @ 23 , I Sold the following, replacing similar calls that expired Friday.
VXX 10/30/2020 25.50 Diagonal Call @ 0.34
VXX 10/30/2020 25.00 Diagonal Call @ 0.39
VXX 10/30/2020 24.50 Diagonal Call @ 0.44
VXX 10/30/2020 24.00 Diagonal Call @ 0.54

Bought to Close KSS Oct 23 2020 23.0 Calls / Sold to Open KSS 10/30/020 23.5 Calls @ 0.07 Credit
Bought to Close SPY Oct 23 2020 344 Calls / Sold to Open SPY Oct 28 2020 346 Calls @ 1.02 Credit

Bought to close VXX 10/23/2020 22.5 Puts / Sold VXX 10/30/2020 21.5 Puts @ 0.07 Credit plus a full point lower strike price., which moved them out of the money for now.

I’ll either let my VXX 10/23/2020 22.0 Puts expire or try to cover them for a penny, depending how the last hour goes.

Sold WBA Oct 30 2020 39 Covered Call at $0.26 and @ 0.29 for next Friday

Bought to close SPY Oct 23 2020 341 Call / Sold to Open SPY Oct 28 2020 343 Call @ $0.27 Credit plus a 2 point bump in the short strike.

Probably should have waited but a stimulus deal /no deal announcement would spike SPY one way or another

Buying more time – bringing in $cash

Bought to close VXX 10/23/2020 25.0 Puts / Sold VXX 10/30/2020 25.0 Puts @ 0.32 Credit

Bought to close VXX 10/23/2020 24.5 Puts / Sold VXX 10/30/2020 24.0 Puts @ 0.02 Credit plus a 0.50 lower strike.

Bought to close VXX 10/23/2020 23.5 Puts / Sold VXX 10/30/2020 23.0 Puts @ 0.14 Credit plus a 0.50 lower strike. (my largest position in VXX puts)

I have lots of short VXX calls expiring today too.

Bought to close KSS Oct 23 2020 22.0 Covered Calls/ Sold to Open KSS Oct 30 2020 22.5 Covered Calls at $0.20 Net Credit plus a 0.50 bump on the short strike price.

Starting my call selling for next week.
Sold to open VXX Oct 30 2020 25.5 Calls at $0.32

Bought to Open VXX Jan 15 2021 13 Puts / Sold to Open VXX Oct 30 2020 21 Puts at $0.22 Net Credit.
It’s certainly possible that the VIX structure collapses after the election, no matter what the result.

Some of my longer dated 2021 and 2022 excess long puts are starting to show a decent profit.
Plus. I’ve got a bunch of short calls for tomorrow

Flipped a long call
Sold to close WDC Oct 30 2020 47.5 Calls @ 0.40.
These were the leftover long side hedge of a diagonal spread I put on 9/23
i.e. (Bought to Open WDC 10/30/2020 47.50 Calls / Sold 09/25/2020 40.50 Calls @ 0.12 Credit)
I have written against the long calls several more times since then.

Then … Sold to open WDC Oct 30 2020 47.5 Calls @ 0.41.
Sold these against another leftover long call (Nov 50’s).
The stock is only 42.90.
Pretty good premium for only 6 days.

AT&T Earnings Were Good Enough to End a 10-Day Losing Streak.

Bought to Close SPY Oct 21 2020 344 Calls at $0.04 – sold for 6.72 on 10/16 and 4.08 on 10/19
Sold to Open SPY Oct 23 2020 346 Calls at $1.06.

Bought to Close 1 SPY Oct 21 2020 340 Call / Sold to Open 1 SPY Oct 23 2020 341 Call @ 0.36 Credit with SPY at 343.91
Bought to Close SPY Oct 21 2020 342 Calls / Sold to Open SPY Oct 23 2020 344 Calls @ 0.53 Credit with SPY at 343.82.

Hoping to cover my 344.0 Calls @ 0.01

New Diagonal Spread
Bought to Open 1 CINF Mar 19 2021 95 Call / Sold to Open 1 CINF Nov 20 2020 85 Call @ 0.40 Net Credit.
The stock is at the top of a big 5.5% run today @ 84.25

Rolled all my short Calls with strike prices below 340 forward a few days and up $100.

Still waiting to see how my 340 / 342 / 344 calls end the day.
Stock range 342.50 – 345.67 So far today.
If we stay down or fall further it could be VERY profitable

There we have it! The Oct $VIX futures contract has expired and the front month “contango” is gone. Term structure remains very flat, waiting for the elections to either spike higher or collapse in a heap. I have no idea which one.

Sold AAL Oct 23 2020 13.50 Calls @ 0.24
Sold SLB Oct 30 2020 18.0 Calls @ 0.11

Playing around a bit with diagonal call spreads
Bought VXX Jan 15 2021 85.0 Calls / Sold VXX Oct 23 2020 24 Calls @ 0.02 Net Credit.
Because of all the short puts I have I would like the stock a point higher by Friday.

Also sold some VXX Oct 23 2020 26.50 Calls @ 0.23.
This strike price is almost outside the 20 day( 1 month) trading range for the stock

Sold 1 KSS 11/20/2020 25.0 Covered Call @ 0.68
Sold SLB 11/06/2020 18.0 Covered Calls @ 0.13

VXX
Sold VXX Oct 23 2020 24 Call at $0.63
Sold VXX Oct 23 2020 24.5 Call at $0.51
Sold VXX Oct 23 2020 25 Call at $0.42

Sold VXX Oct 23 2020 25.5 Calls at $0.33
Sold VXX Oct 23 2020 26 Calls at $0.27

Replacing similar calls that expired Friday and turning existing short PUT spreads into Short Calendar Iron Condor Spreads

Sold WDC Oct 23 2020 41 Calls Limit at $0.11

Rolled all today’s short diagonal calls to the Wednesday expiration for small credits.
Too numerous to list but I did roll up the 341 Calls up to 342 and the 343 Calls up to 344.

If SPY gets below 341.50 it could get ugly

Sold VXX Oct 23 2020 24 Calls at $0.39
Sold VXX Oct 23 2020 24.5 Calls at $0.32
Sold VXX Oct 23 2020 25 Call at $0.26

An unexpectedly large move today through the strike price forced me into this roll.
Bought to close ADS Oct 16 2020 55.00 Covered Calls / Sold to open ADS Nov 20 2020 60.0 Covered Calls @ 2.05 Net Credit plus a generous 5 point bump in the strike price.

Buying more time – bringing in $cash

Bought to close VXX 10/16/2020 25.0 Puts / Sold VXX 10/23/2020 25.0 Puts @ 0.19 Credit
Bought to close VXX 10/16/2020 24.50 Puts / Sold VXX 10/23/2020 24.50 Puts @ 0.22 Credit
Bought to close VXX 10/16/2020 23.50 Puts / Sold VXX 10/23/2020 23.50 Puts @ 0.39 Credit
Bought to close VXX 10/16/2020 23.0 Puts / Sold VXX 10/23/2020 22.50 Puts @ 0.02 Credit plus a 0.50 lower strike.
Bought to close VXX 10/16/2020 23.0 Puts / Sold VXX 10/23/2020 22.50 Puts @ 0.15 Credit plus a 0.50 lower strike.

I have lots of short VXX calls expiring today too.

Done with worrying about VXX for this week.

Bought to close ADS Oct 16 2020 52.50 Covered Calls / Sold to open ADS Oct 23 2020 53.0 Covered Calls @ 0.44 Net Credit.

Bought to close ADS Oct 16 2020 53 Diagonal Calls / Sold to open ADS Oct 23 2020 54 Diagonal Calls @ 0.25 Net Credit.
Used 0.05 of the credit to buy a hedge (Oct 23 65.0 Calls) as my old hedge is expiring today

Brought in cash on the rolls and ramped the short strikes prices up a bit.

On the opening spike @ 22.91
Sold 1 VXX 10/16/2020 23.50 Call @ 0.38
Sold VXX 10/16/2020 24.00 Calls @ 0.23 – adding to my position
Sold VXX 10/16/2020 24.50 Calls @ 0.17

I still have twice as many short puts as short calls so higher is better for this week.

Finally a rollup
Bought to Close SPY Oct 14 2020 340 Calls / Sold to Open SPY Oct 19 2020 341 Calls @ 0.09 Net Credit

Sold to Open VXX OCT 16 2020 24.0 Diagonal Calls @ 0.13.
Starting small but I have a bunch of short puts as a hedge

Bought to Close AAL Oct 16 2020 14.5 Calls at $0.01.
It won’t trade any lower

Rolled all today’s short diagonal calls to Wednesday or Friday expirations for small credits.
Too numerous to list.

This week …….

Bought to close KSS 10/09/2020 21.50 Covered Calls / Sold KSS 10/16/2020 23.00 Covered Calls @ 0.04 Credit plus a 1.50 higher strike.
KSS @ 21.75

Bought to close ADS Oct 09 2020 49 Diagonal Calls / Sold to open ADS Oct 16 2020 53 Diagonal Calls @ 0.05 Net Credit but bumped the strike price 4 points and brought in a little cash.

Edit:
Bought to close ADS Oct 09 2020 49 Covered Calls / Sold to open ADS Oct 16 2020 52.50 Covered Calls @ 0.22 Net Credit but bumped the strike price 3.50 points and brought in a little more cash.

Rolled all today’s short diagonal calls to Monday or Wednesday expirations for small credits.
Too numerous to list.

Why is this stock still up from March?

CCL Revenue nearly evaporates
Carnival Corp. said its revenue plunged to $31 million from $6.53 billion for the August quarter, a period that saw no sailings due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the removal of older ships as the company seeks to shrink its fleet.
The cruise operator on Thursday posted a third-quarter loss of $2.86 billion , or $3.69 a share, compared with a profit of $1.78 billion , or $2.58 a share, in the same period last year. The loss was in line with the company’s preliminary results last month. Analysts polled by FactSet were expecting a loss of $2.47 a share on revenue of $77.3 million .
Carnival also posted an adjusted loss of $2.19 a share, about in line with the $2.20 a share adjusted loss analysts polled by FactSet had expected. The company reported a profit of $1.78 billion in the third quarter last year. Carnival’s third-quarter loss was slimmer than the more than $4 billion loss it posted for the second quarter.
The cruise operator is moving to shed 18 less efficient ships, 10 of which have left the fleet, Carnival said. It said those 18 ships represent about 12% of its capacity before the pandemic and 3% of operating income in 2019.
The results came as the company’s Carnival Cruise Line has canceled most U.S. cruises through the end of the year, and its Seabourn luxury line this week canceled voyages on three ships as far forward as May 2021 . Cruise operators have lost billions of dollars this year as the pandemic forced them to halt sailings, leaving them dry in revenues. They haven’t sailed in the U.S. for more than half a year. Carnival said it expects a phased resumption of sailings.
In the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s “no-sail” order was recently extended to Oct. 31 from Sept. 30 , though major cruise operators including Carnival had voluntarily agreed to cancel sailings through the end of October. The cruise industry last month proposed sailing protocols to the CDC, such as reducing virus transmission through air management.
Costa Cruises , the company’s Italian brand, started sailing again on Sept. 6 after a months-long hiatus brought on by ship outbreaks. Its German brand, AIDA Cruises , is resuming sailings in mid-October.
Carnival on average burned about $770 million a month during the third quarter, and it expects to burn about $350 million a month for the current quarter. Those cash-burn rates fall in line with the $650 million average monthly burn rate for the second half of the year the company previously expected.
Carnival said advanced bookings for the second half of 2021 available for sale as of Sept. 20 were at the higher end of the historical range.
Customer deposits as of Aug. 31 were $2.4 billion , most of which are future cruise credits the company had offered customers of canceled cruises in lieu of cash refunds, compared with $2.9 billion in May. Carnival said it can’t yet estimate how much of those deposits would be recognized in earnings compared to refunds or future cruise credits due to Covid-19 uncertainty.
The company continues to expect a loss of the year ending Nov. 30 .

Bought to close KSS 10/09/2020 21.0 Diagonal Calls / Sold KSS 10/16/2020 21.50 Diagonal Calls @ 0.12 Credit plus a 0.50 higher strike.
No earnings next week for this one
KSS @ 21.68

Buying more time – bringing in $cash

Bought to close VXX 10/09/2020 25.0 Puts / Sold VXX 10/16/2020 25.0 Puts @ 0.29 Credit
Bought to close VXX 10/09/2020 24.50 Puts / Sold VXX 10/16/2020 24.50 Puts @ 0.34 Credit
Bought to close VXX 10/09/2020 24.0 Puts / Sold VXX 10/16/2020 23.50 Puts @ 0.02 Credit plus a 0.50 lower strike
Bought to close VXX 10/09/2020 23.50 Puts / Sold VXX 10/16/2020 23.0 Puts @ 0.11 Credit plus a 0.50 lower strike.

I have lots of short VXX calls expiring today too.

Done with worrying about VXX for this week.

Swimming against the riptide on this one:
Bought 1 VXX Dec 18 2020 60.0 Call @ 0.63
Bought 1 VXX Dec 18 2020 50.0 Call @ 0.92

I will surely write against these several times.

Quite a while ago I rolled up an earlier long call to a 10/16/2020 336.0 Call @ 9.03.

I’ve written against this long several times, some trades better than others.

Since this call is closing in on expiration, and many of my short calls are at or above this strike price, I’m rolling the long out to December for a credit and much more time.

Sold to close the 10/16/2020 Call @ 8.97 for a very minor loss.
Bought to open a 12/18/2020 355.0 Call @ 8.70 for 0.27 Net credit on the trade.

We will see if we get a further rally above 343.50 in the next 6 days to make my timing wrong on this.

Spanning the election mess
Bought to open 1 SPY Nov 27 2020 360.0 Call / Sold 1 SPY Oct 26 2020 346.0 Call @ 0.07 Credit.
Giving at least one of my spreads room to run on an upside move.

Last roll
Bought to Close 1 SPY Oct 07 2020 340 Call / Sold to Open 1 SPY Oct 12 2020 343 Call @ 0.71 Net Credit plus a 3 point bump in the short strike.

Actually took a small profit on the 340 call from Monday’s roll.

Once SPY breeched 341, I began to place my roll orders
Bought to Close 1 SPY Oct 07 2020 335 Call / Sold to Open 1 SPY Oct 12 2020 336 Call @ 0.25 Net Credit
Bought to Close SPY Oct 07 2020 336 Call / Sold to Open SPY Oct 12 2020 337 Calls @ 0.54 Net Credit
Bought to Close 1 SPY Oct 07 2020 338 Call / Sold to Open 1 SPY Oct 09 2020 338 Call @ 0.41 Net Credit
Bought to Close SPY Oct 07 2020 339 Calls / Sold to Open SPY Oct 09 2020 341 Calls @ 0.22 Net Credit.

Pushed all my strike prices up.

Puts this morning – calls this afternoon
Bought to Open VXX Nov 20 2020 70 Calls / Sold to Open VXX Oct 09 2020 27.5 Calls @ 0.03 Net Credit

Trying to keep my positions balanced although I still have more puts short than calls, and the strikes are closer to the stock than the calls.

High so far on VXX is 25.54

Bought to open VXX Jan 15 2021 15.0 Puts / Sold to Open VXX Oct 09 2020 24.0 Puts @ 0.03 Net Credit.
I expect the short to expire leaving me with a few more “no cost” longs for next January (or I can roll).

Also Sold to Open VXX Oct 09 2020 23.50 Puts @ 0.12

Pretty benign range for VXX today. 24.39-24.81 with half the day gone

Bought to close 1 SPY Oct 05 2020 338 Call / Sold to Open 1 SPY Oct 07 2020 340 Call @ 0.50 Net Credit.

SPY rallied 5 points today so getting almost a point for a call 3 points out of the money this morning just wasn’t enough premium I guess.

Selling a small diagonal with the short side next week instead of this week..
Bought to open VXX Jan 15 2021 16 Puts / Sold to Open VXX Oct 16 2020 23.5 Puts @ 0.07 Net Credit.
I expect the short to expire leaving me with a few more “no cost” longs for next January.

I’m thinking the VIX pulls back dramatically by Thanksgiving based on the skew in the VIX futures.

Sold ADS Oct 09 2020 51.0 Covered Call @ 0.25
Sold KSS Oct 09 2020 22.0 Covered Calls at $0.22
Sold WBA Oct 09 2020 37.5 Covered Call at $0.15
Sold WDC Oct 09 2020 40.0 Covered Calls at $0.07

Enough for this week’s grocery store run 🙂