One more that I didn’t see come through near the end of the day.
Bought to close $CBOE Sep 21 70 puts @ .60. Sold for 1.80 on 2/9. Got lucky on a nice reversal in the stock right after I sold the puts. Took the trade off for 67%. No sense waiting more than 6 more months for the other 1/3.

Bought to close:
$WHR Apr 20 120 puts @ .19. Sold for 1.50 on 10/24.
$WDAY Jun 15 70 put @ .20. Sold for 1.65 on 11/29
$WBA Jun 15 55 puts @ .35. Sold for 1.32 on 10/13.
$UHS Apr 20 80 puts @ .05. Sold for 1.40 and 1.90 on 10/13 and 11/10.
$TAP Apr 20 70 puts @ .20. Sold for 1.65 on 9/29.
$HSIC Apr 20 60 puts @ .49. Sold for 1.70, 1.95 and 2.35 from 11/10-11/20.

Edit:
Bought to close $CELG Apr 20 75 puts @ .25. Sold for 1.55 on 10/26.

Bought to close:
$WDC Apr 20 60 put @ .04. Sold for 1.35 on 12/4.
$WDC Apr 20 65 put @ .07. Sold for 1.75 on 11/30.
$WDC Jul 20 55 puts @ .26. Sold for 1.30-1.60 from 11/30-12/4.

Selling an additional contract at a higher premium to add to my Sep position.
Sold $WMT 9/21 75 put @ 1.60.

Big move down today. Sold $FFIV Apr 20 130 puts @ 1.20 with the stock at 144.82. Delta is 14. Earnings not expected until after April expiration.

On the big move down after earnings, sold $KR Jul 20 20 puts @ .65 with the stock at 23.50

Sold $TSLA Apr 20 290/280 BuPS for 1.70. Short strike at 21 delta to offset my Apr 370/380 BeCS. Strikes are below the early Nov low.

Selling some more hedged UVXY calls to continue to offset/work down basis on SVXY assignments.
Sold $UVXY Apr 13 (weekly) 20/30 BeCS @ 1.22.

Borrowed an idea from TastyTrade but tweaked the strikes a bit (their trade was 40/49 when the stock was lower).
Sold $X Apr 20 40/50 strangle @ 2.85. Stock at 47.12 so this has a bit of a bearish bias resistance just above the current level.

Bought to close $CMG Sep 21 200 put @ 2.00. Sold for 5.60 on 2/8.

Taking one of the May positions off.
Bought to close $SWKS May 18 75 puts @ .20. Sold for 1.50 on 12/1.

Sold $NVDA Apr 20 275/285 BeCS for 1.25. Short strike at 18 delta, about 14% higher than where the stock is trading (currently 241.58). Looking at resistance at 250 (highs from a couple of weeks ago).

Not getting sucked into this move to the short side like I did in 2015. My current position is small and continues to be able to rolled for a credit so I’ll do it as long as I can.
Rolled $NFLX Apr 6 300/315 strangle up and out to Apr 13 312.50/325 for .90 credit.
This position started as short 260 calls in the 1/26 expiration. Been rolling since then. A few rolls in, I had to add puts to create a strangle, to keep being able to generate credits. Total credit accumulated on this trade is now 6.42 with my strikes out of the money again. We’ll see–April 13 is a long way off for a stock like this.

Rolled $NFLX Mar 23 270/300 strangle up and out 1 week to Apr 6 300/315 strangle for .93 credit

Just pushed above 300 for the first time.
Rolled 3/23 265/295 strangles out to 3/29 270/300 for .20 credit.

Adding to my position in May
Sold $AGN May 18 115 put @ 1.30.
I’m now short the following put ladder:
Mar 145 (may need to be rolled)
May 130
May 120
May 115
Aug 105

Adding to put ladder. Sold $WHR Jul 20 120 put @ 1.60.
Put ladder is now:
Apr 120
Jun 130
Jul 120
Sep 115

Sold $BA Apr 20 300/290 put spread @ 1.30. Offsets an Apr 20 390/400 call spread.

Selling more call spreads in UVXY to apply as basis reduction to long shares of SVXY. These in September.
Sold $UVXY Sep 21 25/35 call spreads @ 1.30.

Replacing the April puts I closed earlier with June puts at lower strikes.
Sold $DISH Jun 15 37.50 puts @ 1.30.
Delta 22. Strike below the Feb 2016 low. You’d have to go back to mid 2013 to see 37.50.

I don’t like the way this is trading. The downtrend is continuing and with March expiration still more than 2 weeks off my strikes don’t look safe. I’m taking these positions off for a profit while I still can.
Bought to close:
$DISH Mar 16 42.50 puts @ 1.05. Sold for 1.50 on 10/12 and 1.95 on 10/13.
$DISH Mar 16 40.00 puts @ .30. Sold for 1.30 on 10/13.

Looks like the morning pop may be slowing. Sold $BKNG Apr 6 (weekly) 2220/2240 bear call spread for 2.55 credit. Strike at 17 delta, about 144 points higher than the current price of the stock (2076.02). I would have sold the spread in the April monthly but there weren’t strikes at 20 point intervals at that level. IVR is 74. I will look to take this off for 50% if the stock pulls back/trades flat and/or IV contracts.

I’m going to start selling some closer to the money/aggressive UVXY calls to help reduce basis on SVXY. But because of the lower strike prices I’m spreading them for now.
First batch: Sold $UVXY May 18 20/30 call spreads @ 1.20.

I’m already short 32.50 puts in July so I’m adding cautiously at a lower strike.
Sold $APA Jul 20 30 put @ 1.30.

Bought back:
$GWW Apr 20 145 put @ .05 (sold for 2.65 on 10/24)
$GWW Apr 20 150 put @ .10 (sold for 2.90 on 10/19)
$GWW Apr 20 155 put @ .10 (sold for 3.10 on 10/17)

My remaining positions in this stock are all in July–an ITM short 220 call and several short puts below that, offsetting it.

Sold a mini-ladder
$AZO Apr 20 580 put @ 6.20
$AZO Sep 21 500 put @ 10.51

Closing a profitable position in 3/9 and opening a new one in 3/16.
Sold to close $VXX Mar 9 40 puts @ 2.90. Bought for 1.57 on 2/20.
Bought to open $VXX Mar 16 36 puts @ 1.17.

Rolled 3/16 260/290 strangle up 5 points and out 1 week to 3/23 265/295 strangle for .20 credit.

Only 2 positions expiring today:
$RUTW Feb 23 1530/1540/1570/1580 iron condor
$UVXY Feb 23 20 calls

No assignments but I’m a little burnt on this assignment thing with the SVXY overdose. Speaking of SVXY it was up 8% today. All we need is 15 consecutive days of an 8% increase and it will be over 40 again 🙂 Ahh, fun with math.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Sold $OLED Apr 20 100 puts @ 1.40

Sold $EXAS Jul 20 30 puts @ 1.65 with the stock at 40.32. It’s printing a dragonfly doji.

Bought to close $WBA Apr 20 60 puts @ .40. Sold for 1.43 and 1.85 from 10/9/17-10/13/17.
With earnings estimated before April expiration I decided to close this down for most of the profit.

Big move up after earnings but has come back to the lower end of today’s range.
Selling some premium in April with the IV still elevated (IVR 60).
Sold $STMP Apr 20 230/240 bear call spread for 1.72 credit.
Short strike is near the Oct highs.
Be careful with this one–markets are really wide; both of these contracts have low volume and OI.

On the down move today, bought to close $SNAP Mar 16 20 calls @ .20. Sold for 1.20 on 2/9.

Sold $ROKU Apr 20 30 puts @ 1.35 with the stock at 40.15

Not adding to short UVXY calls for now. Instead I want to try buying some short term puts on VXX and give it about 3 trading weeks to come in some more. Bought $VXX Mar 9 40 puts @ 1.57.

Reducing size where I can.
Bought to close $UVXY Feb 23 26 calls @ .26. Sold for .53-1.20 on 2/2-2/5.
Bought to close $UVXY Mar 16 70 calls .32. Sold for 1.00 on 12/1/17.

Bought to close $DUST Mar 16 44 calls @ .10. Sold for 1.00-1.20 on 12/5/17-12/6/17.
Bought to close $NUGT Mar 16 60 call @ .04. Sold for 5.70 on 9/5/17.
Bought to close $KR Apr 20 18 puts @ .05. Sold for 1.15 on 9/25/17.

Sold $CYBR Apr 20 50 calls @ 1.65. Been writing calls on this stock for quite some time. With this sale, my basis has been reduced by 14.25 (originally acquired at 57.40 so basis now 43.15). Selling the 50s gives me a little more upside as well, with the stock decisively breaking through resistance and just about filling the gap from July.

I’m using today’s small bounce to get out of this short put for tomorrow’s expiration. It’s now above the strike price slightly so I’m out and taking my modest profit.
Bought to close $BIIB Feb 16 300 put @ 2.25. Sold for 3.60 on 1/8.

Sold $REGN Aug 17 240 put @ 5.70 (delta 11).
My ladder is now:
Apr 300 put
May 280 put
Aug 240 put

With the stock now back above the strike (after spending a good part of the last couple of trading delays below it), I decided to close this position for 75-80% of the max and not risk another dip before the end of the week.
Bought to close $EXAS Feb 16 45 puts @ .40. Sold for 1.85 on 1/17.

Bought to close $DUST Mar 16 45 calls @ .15. Sold for 1.20 on 12/7. Reducing some exposure.

On Feb 8 I sold a 200 put in Sep for 5.60. Just added to Sep at a lower strike.
Sold $CMG Sep 21 180 put @ 5.10. Delta 11.

Decided to take this off more than a month early for more than 90% of the max profit.
Bought to close $GUSH Mar 16 44 calls @ .16. Sold for 2.05 on 1/11.

A lot has been written and theorized about exactly what happened Monday night but this article has some deeper analysis that I hadn’t read elsewhere. It goes into detail about the different reasons SVXY survived and XIV didn’t. One factor that was interesting (and they admit it was their deduction): the fund managers for SVXY waited for the futures to come down after the spike at the close Monday before covering their short position. Good strategy in hindsight but they took a risk. Interesting read.

http://www.barrons.com/article_email/where-volatility-goes-to-die-1518237491-lMyQjA1MTA4MDE3MTIxNjEwWj

I hope you all are having a good weekend. Thanks for all your posts. Like many of you I’ve been assigned a lot of this stock and plan to implement some of these strategies to work down basis and eventually let it go at much better levels. It will take some time but we’ll get through it. Thanks again Jeff for The Bistro. I’m glad we are all here.

$NUGT Feb 9 41 calls
$NUGT Feb 9 42 calls
$UVXY Feb 9 26 calls (was watching this closely to potentially roll out as it topped 29 but decided to wait and see what the end of the day brought–I got lucky)

No assignments, at least today. This week has been an assignment sh**storm with all the SVXY I now own. Still looking for us to go back into contango on the VIX futures next week with a lot of help from the expiring Feb contract on Wednesday. If volatility calms a bit next week a flat curve/slight contango should be in place by Thursday. Then maybe we can start looking at laddering in some SVXY covered calls.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Borrowed this idea from TastyTrade.
Sold $SNAP Mar 16 20 calls @ 1.20 with the stock at 18.96. IV rank is high at 74. I’m looking at the decreasing volume and slowed momentum after earnings this week. Would seem to need another big catalyst to push it back up to the highs from Wed. Will be watching closely. Planning to take it off for .60 (50% profit).

From Apr to Sep
First fill: Sold $AMGN Jun 15 140 put @ 2.40

Sold $DRIP Apr 20 24 call @ 1.70 at the highest strike with DRIP at 17.99

Sold $KOLD Apr 55 call @ 1.20. Highest strike.
Looking to replace the Feb 50 and 55 calls which are likely to expire next week.

Defined risk so I don’t have to worry about margin effect.
Bought:
$VXX Jun 15 25 puts @ 1.27
$VXX Sep 20 puts @ 1.30

Once volatility calms down and we go back into contango these should start getting profitable quickly.

Sold $CMG Sep 21 200 put @ 5.60 with the stock at 265.37. Delta is 13. Strike is 25% lower than current price and at a level the stock hasn’t been in almost 6 1/2 years (Oct 2010).

Sold at the highest strike (35, a level above the Dec peak):
$DUST Mar 2 35 calls @ .40
$DUST Mar 9 35 calls @ .60
$DUST Mar 23 35 calls @ 1.00
$DUST Apr 20 35 call @ 1.60

Trimming back by closing a couple of positions I put on yesterday (with UVXY over 25) for a good profit as volatility came in.
Bought to close:
$UVXY Apr 20 45 call @ 2.90 Sold for 8.00
$UVXY Mar 23 45 call @ 2.00 Sold for 6.00

Up over 1.00 (9%) in what doesn’t look to be connected to VX futures movement (UVXY and VXX are also both up pretty substantially).

Down over 25%