Sold $SVXY Sep 16 75 call @ 2.45
Author Archives: Ramie
Decay trade on AMZN
Idea from the traders feed on TastyTrade/Dough. Decay trade for today now that the stock is stabilizing a bit. Sold $AMZN May 13 710 put @ 2.10.
More NUGT put hedges
Sold $NUGT May 20 75 puts @ 1.50
NUGT calls in 5/27
Sold $NUGT May 27 (weekly) 175 calls @ 1.50. Highest strike for that week.
AMZN Covered Call
Sold $AMZN May 20 750 call @ 2.00
Taking a June SVXY position off
At an average of around 90% max profit almost 6 weeks early.
Bought to close $SVXY Jun 17 30 puts at .25. Sold for 2.05-3.10 in Dec and Jan.
Closing a rolled NUGT position
I have a lot of exposure this week in short calls so I’m taking one position off that was a rollout and has recovered the original loss and then some creating a profit in the position. Trimming the positions where I can.
Bought to close $NUGT May 13 105 calls @ 1.75. Sold for 4.80 on 5/5 as a rollout from May 6 95 calls.
Options Expiration for 5/6
Closed and/or rolled most of my positions for 5/6. Only 2 remaining that expired:
$NUGT 05/06/2016 77.50 puts
$NUGT 05/06/2016 71.00 puts
NUGT roll
Rolled tomorrow’s 95 calls out to next week and up 10 points in case we get a runup tomorrow after the jobs report. 1.16 credit.
Bought to close $NUGT May 6 95 calls @ 3.64 average (sold for 1.40 on 4/5)
Sold to open $NUGT May 13 105 calls @ 4.80 average
Moves in TLT
Closed a May position and opened a June one.
Bought to close $TLT May 20 125 puts @ .08. Sold for .70 on 4/25
Sold to open $TLT Jun 17 135 calls @ .82. I will look to create a short strangle on another move down in bonds.
SWKS put
Adding another position (this one in the 6/24 weeklies which just started trading today) to my June 60 puts.
Sold $SWKS Jun 24 60 put @ 1.80.
NUGT puts
Just got filled at the close.
Sold $NUGT May 6 71 puts @ .40.
Closing a NUGT rolled position
With the move down I was able to take a rolled position off for an overall profit.
Bought to close $NUGT May 13 116 call @ 2.90. Sold for 10.99 on 4/29, as a rollout which lost 6.65. Closing this now booked an overall profit of 8.09-6.65 = 1.54.
Closing ILMN
Took close to 50% max off before earnings after the bell. Not worth holding even if the strike is outside the expected move. I’ll reinitiate if the stock tanks tomorrow morning.
Bought to close $ILMN May 20 120 puts @ 1.30. Sold for 2.50 on 4/19.
NUGT puts
Sold $NUGT May 27 60 puts @ 1.75
More put hedges on NUGT
Selling more puts to offset short call positions, these in June.
Sold $NUGT Jun 17 45 puts @ 1.25.
NUGT puts
Selling some puts on the down move to offset short calls.
Sold $NUGT May 20 70 puts @ 1.70.
#OptionsExpiration for 4/29 Expiring: $NUGT…
#OptionsExpiration for 4/29
Expiring:
$NUGT 04/29/2016 120 calls
$NUGT 04/29/2016 35 puts
$NUGT 04/29/2016 55 puts
$TSLA 04/29/2016 275 calls
$CMG 04/29/2016 392.50 puts
$FB 04/29/2016 100 puts
$SPX 04/29/2016 2135/2160 call spreads
$SPX 04/29/2016 2140/2165 call spreads
Taking full loss:
$AAPL 04/29/2016 100/104/108 iron butterfly
Assignments:
$HAL 04/29/2016 37 calls (covered)–stock will be called away
Have a great weekend everyone
My NUGT strategy
And I use the term “strategy” loosely. But based on the premise of why I entered these short call trades in the first place, I want to continue selling puts against the positions, but I’m trying to be patient and selling them on down days (for example, for next week’s expiration you can’t really get much premium on puts unless you sell at the 90 strike and above and that feels too close based on how volatile this ETF can be).
I’m taking this one week at a time. For this week, I’ve rolled 95 and 105 calls out to 5/13 at much higher strikes (which are now already in the money, go figure) and I’m watching my 120 calls into the close. Because these roll so easily this has been a strategy that’s worked, but I’m looking at some really deep in the money calls that may have to be rolled in the May and June expirations (calls with strikes in the 40s); I’ll just deal with that when those expirations arrive or when it looks like I’m in danger of assignment. On a big move down (I know it doesn’t feel like that will happen anytime soon but it will and always does), I’ll sell some puts and hopefully get out of some calls gracefully that will have been brought back into the money. In the meantime, if you want to operate this way you better be comfortable with seeing a lot of red in these positions until things turn around. Margin requirements are also increasing with these so that’s a consideration as well.
I’m also not forgetting that NUGT suffers from a lot of mathematical (tracking) headwinds when there is a lot of up and down volatility. Once there’s some more 2 way action on this, we’ll start to see it come back in line (providing gold calms down a bit of course). Of course if gold takes a dive we can sweep the chips off the table, but even if gold prices stabilize and become rangebound, we’ll start to see this ETF fall back from its highs.
Just remember that, as @Iceman is known to say, no trend lasts forever. We’ve all traded $BOIL calls, $KOLD calls, $DUST calls, etc, to see huge spikes and ultimately normalization. That’s what I’m playing for here.
Selling puts on SWKS
Sold $SWKS Jun 17 60 puts @ 1.45. Will go long the stock if it finishes below there in June.
NUGT rollout
I can’t believe I had to roll this one.
Rolled $NUGT 4/29 105 call up and out to 5/13 116 call for 3.09 credit.
I also have a 120 call expiring today that I couldn’t imagine…oh never mind…NUGT is a beast.
So thankful this rolls easily.
AMZN Covered Call
Sold $AMZN May 20 700 call @ 4.50
NUGT hedge
Selling some puts to hedge all this short call exposure.
Sold $NUGT May 20 65 puts @ 1.55
Selling puts on CELG
Probably a little late this morning but I sold $CELG Jun 17 90 puts @ .86 with the stock above 106 bouncing nicely off the post-earnings lows.
Rolling NUGT
Rolled this week’s 90 call up and out to May 13 100 call for 2.00 credit.
KOLD rolling
With little to no time value left, I didn’t want to risk being assigned short something that was HTB. So I rolled one of my in-the-money May positions.
Bought to close $KOLD May 110 call @ 54.66. Sold for 67.96 (as a rollout from Feb) on 2/3/16.
Sold to open $KOLD Aug 110 call @ 60.16
Credit for the roll: 5.50
Continuing to chip away at the basis on this (and will do for my other May positions–115 call, 118 call) provided KOLD doesn’t implode by May expiration.
FB earnings
With a market maker expected move of 7 and the stock around 108.50 I threw one out there at around 2 standard deviations away.
Sold $FB Apr 29 100 puts @ 1.00. If the strike gets taken out I will likely just stay long the stock.
Closing FSLR puts
I originally opened this trade in anticipation of earnings not being before options expiration. But once they were confirmed for 4/27, I knew I would likely be exiting the trade early. Closing it out for a very small (.10) loss.
Bought to close $FSLR Apr 29 60 puts @ 1.84. Sold for 1.74 on 3/23.
CMG earnings trade
Small position outside 2 standard deviations. Taking a risk that much of the bad news is priced in and the stock doesn’t have another 10 or so percent down in it. Strike is below the big January low.
Sold $CMG Apr 29 392.50 put @ 1.60
Short puts on TLT
Sold May 20 125 puts @ .70.
Covered puts on WYNN
Sold $WYNN May 20 85 puts @ 2.60. Brings in premium against and covers short stock that I wouldn’t mind covering at that strike.
#OptionsExpiration for 4/22 $NUGT 04/22/2016…
#OptionsExpiration for 4/22
$NUGT 04/22/2016 95 calls
$NUGT 04/22/2016 105 calls
$NUGT 04/22/2016 65 puts
$UA 04/22/2016 40 puts
$WYNN 04/22/2016 86.50 puts (covered by short stock)
$TSLA 04/22/2016 275 calls
$SPX 04/22/2016 2125/2150 BeCS
No assignments this week.
Have a great weekend everyone.
Closing a KOLD position
Bought to close $KOLD May 20 320 call @ .50. Sold for 8.90 on 3/24/16.
$SPX: What do we do…
$SPX: What do we do in a market like this?
Add more short delta!
Sold to open $SPX Jun 3 2195/2220 call spreads @ 1.30. Short strike is just inside 1 standard deviation (=2199).
UVXY: Taking some more January risk off
Without any great opening trade opportunities I thought I’d look for ways to continue reducing my overweight January short call positions in UVXY. The position is now getting more manageable in the event of a huge spike in the VIX/UVXY. I may leave the rest to expire so I don’t take the tax hit until 2017 (and not have to pay the tax bill for 2 more years) but I’ll see how it goes.
Bought to close $UVXY Jan 20 2017 170 call @ .85. Sold for 13.80 on 1/8/16.
Bought to close $UVXY Jan 20 2107 95 call @ 1.75. Sold for 19.00 on 8/21/15.
Frustrating market
With the VIX this low short premium trades are so hard to find. I keep having to stop myself from forcing things (i.e., putting on trades that deep down I know aren’t paying me enough for the risk). I had hopes that earnings season would provide some opportunities but I can’t really find any earnings trades with any meat on the bone. Maybe it’s a sign that I probably should just pack it in for the day and get back to my day job. 🙂
NUGT roll
Rolled $NUGT Apr 22 90 call up and out to May 6 100 call for 1.52 credit. Depending on the action the rest of the day, I may roll my 95 call up and out as well.
ILMN Short Puts
Sold $ILMN May 20 120 put @ 2.50
APA covered call
Sold $APA Jun 17 60 call @ 1.52
$NFLX bouncing off the mat
Back into the middle of today’s range. Earnings a little more than an hour away.
$UVXY Taking off some more…
$UVXY Taking off some more #VXXGame trades
Using market strength to close these at more than 90% max profit, continuing to reduce risk and short volatility exposure with the S&P at resistance.
Bought to close:
$UVXY Sep 16 2016 110 call @ .89 (Sold for 11.10 on 2/2/16)
$UVXY Sep 16 2016 90 call @ .95 (Sold for 20.10 on 1/20/16)
$UVXY Jan 20 2017 170 call @ 1.00 (Sold for 13.20 on 1/13/16)
$UVXY Jan 20 2017 115 call @ 1.55 (Sold for 28.23 on 8/27/15)
#OptionsExpiration for 4/15 Expiring: $AAPL…
#OptionsExpiration for 4/15
Expiring:
$AAPL 04/15/2016 90 puts
$APA 04/15/2016 57.50 calls (covered)
$CRI 04/15/2016 95.00 puts
$EOG 04/15/2016 55.00 puts
$KOLD 04/15/2016 300.00 calls
$LNKD 04/15/2016 125.00 calls
$NFLX 04/15/2016 115.00 calls
$NUGT 04/15/2016 90.00 calls
$NUGT 04/15/2016 38.00 puts
$SHAK 04/15/2016 32.50 puts
$TSLA 04/15/2016 227.50 puts
$WYNN 04/15/2016 87.50 puts
$X 04/15/2016 9.00 puts
No assignments this week.
Closing CMG
Bought to close $CMG Apr 22 420 put @ .30, taking 90% of the available profit and not risking another swoon next week. Sold for 3.00 on 4/6.
I’m now out of this stock for the first time in a while. It’s been fun (and a bit a nerve-rattling) selling premium throughout all the volatility. The worst of it may be behind Chipotle but we’ll see what earnings brings in a couple of weeks.
Closing position in NOW
I’ve decided to close my rolled/adjusted position in $NOW instead of doing another roll. My adjustments brought me to a pairing of Apr 15 55 calls and Apr 22 55 puts. When I did the roll the estimated earnings date was 4/27. Since then, it has gotten confirmed as 4/20. My plan to let the premium bleed into expiration won’t happen that way so instead of trying to get cute and do another roll I’ve decided to just take the loss that’s left (around 2.00/contract) and move on. The risk isn’t worth it (I’ll consider a separate earnings trade next week if the premiums are enticing enough).
The original trade was an earnings trade from January when I booked an 8.28 loss. So I’m happy to recover more than 75% of it.
NUGT call for next week
Sold $NUGT Apr 22 90 call @ 1.60. Premium is better now. May add at a higher strike if this thing keeps running.
Closing out NUGT calls
This one was so underwater most of this week, that I felt fortunate to get out at a (small) profit. Didn’t want to chance another spike tomorrow with this option expiring.
Bought to close $NUGT 4/15 75 calls @ 1.05. Sold for 1.20 on on 4/6.
NUGT put
Sold $NUGT Apr 29 55 put @ 1.80
UVXY, VXX: Taking off some longer term positions
Taking off a few positions to reduce exposure. I still have relatively large positions in out of the money calls in January, which I will continue to pare back into market strength.
Bought to close:
$UVXY Jan 20 2017 170 call @ 1.74. Sold for 15.25 on 1/15/16.
$UVXY Jan 20 2017 115 call @ 2.55. Sold for 33.00 on 8/27/15.
$VXX Jan 20 2017 66 call @ .54. Sold for 7.00 on 12/31/14.
Rolling AMZN
Rolled April 600 covered call up and out to May 650 for 5.00 credit.
#Rolling
Selling NUGT puts
Sold $NUGT Apr 22 65 put @ 1.70
The new Department of Labor Fiduciary Rule
This week, the Department of Labor finally released its new fiduciary rule, which requires investment advisers to put the interests of their clients ahead of those of themselves or the firms for which they work. On the surface this sounds good, and in its final form it may end up being good (no opinion here yet, I don’t know enough about all its ramifications), but the most interesting part from my perspective was the past 12 months of back and forth between the DOL and the financial industry (the OCC was a major force in this) about the proposals to restrict or eliminate trading of options in IRA accounts, restrict educational information from brokers/trading platforms, and prevent entertainment figures like Jim Cramer, Dave Ramsey and Suze Orman from offering specific recommendations or advice to their viewers and listeners.
The most important of the above concerns for me was the restrictions on IRA accounts and the industry responded in a very big way apparently, since the final DOL rule does not affect the ability to trade options (or futures) in IRA accounts. The final rule also spares the restrictions on entertainment personalities so I guess we will continue to hear “buy-buy-buy!” screaming from the TV, so that’s a comfort. There is also still some clarity that needs to be worked out on the issue of how much options education can be offered to IRA account holders by their brokers.
I don’t know if the financial industry won out on this issue because of the sheer weight of the groundswell, or because they were actually able to convince the DOL that many IRA account holders utilize options to reduce risk (covered calls, etc). From what I understand it is a bit of a surprise they ended up completely leaving this issue alone so either way score a victory for the industry in defending something worth defending. However it happened, I believe it ends up being a good thing for retirement account investors.
Some articles:
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160406006592/en/OCC-Gratified-DOL-Fiduciary-Rule-Benefit-Users
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-brokers-fiduciary-options-idUSKCN0X427F
Wall Street Dodged a Bullet on the Retirement Fiduciary Rule
There is also an article that summarizes the issue nicely on Barrons.com if you have access.
#OptionsExpiration for 4/8 Only 2…
#OptionsExpiration for 4/8
Only 2 expirations this week.
$NFLX 04/08/2016 115.00 calls
$NUGT 04/08/2016 100.00 calls
No assignments.
UVXY puts
Borrowing this idea from Iceman.
Sold $UVXY Apr 29 16 puts @ .80.
NUGT: Adding one in June
Sold $NUGT Jun 17 105 call @ 7.30. Highest strike.
NUGT Jan
Sold $NUGT Jan 20 2017 105 call @ 19.50. Highest strike.
NUGT, SVXY fills
I was away from my desk for the last couple of hours of the trading day, but was filled on these:
Sold $NUGT May 20 95 call @ 4.00
Sold $SVXY May 27 (weekly) 39 put @ 2.00
Closing a position in TSLA
Taking this September position off at more than 90% max profit
Bought to close $TSLA Sep 16 60 puts @ .16. Sold for 2.20 on 2/10.
CMG put
Sold $CMG Apr 22 420 put @ 3.00
More NUGT fun
Sold the following:
$NUGT Apr 15 75 calls @ 1.20
$NUGT Apr 22 90 call @ 1.44
AMZN strangle
Borrowed this idea from TastyTrade.
Sold $AMZN Apr 15 560/615 strangle for 4.05 credit. Will look to manage early as theta decay kicks into high gear.
Closing BIB
Taking advantage of the strength in biotech to close this position for around 75% of max profit.
Bought to close $BIB May 20 30 puts @ .35. Sold for 1.50 on 1/15.
#OptionsExpiration for 4/1 Only 2…
#OptionsExpiration for 4/1
Only 2 expirations this week
$NUGT 04/01/2016 90 calls
$UVXY 04/01/2016 115 calls
No assignments.
Have a great weekend everyone.
SVXY covered call
Sold $SVXY Jun 17 65 call @ 1.25
Closing CMG
Bought to close $CMG Apr 8 465 put @ 6.40. Sold for 11.49 on 3/17 as a rollout from the Mar 475 put which had gone ITM. Overall 2.20 profit on the rolled position and I’m glad to get out of this one. I’m still short the Apr 15 440 put which is looking better today as well. Still not ready to eat any burritos yet though…
SPX call spread in 4/29
Sold $SPX Apr 29 2140/2165 BeCS @ 1.30
#SPXCampaign
Fun with bonds
Sold $TLT May 20 125 puts @ 1.15. Offsets and creates a short strangle with May 135 calls.
SPX call spread
Joining the party
Sold $SPX May 6 2140/2165 call spreads @ 1.45
SVXY covered call
Sold $SVXY Sep 16 70 call @ 1.50
NUGT short calls
Adding positions in expirations where I had none. Highest strikes.
Sold $NUGT May 20 95 call @ 3.70
Sold $NUGT APr 29 (weekly) 105 call @ 1.25
Closing a rolled NUGT position
Taking this one off for an overall profit.
Bought to close $NUGT Apr 8 63 call @ 2.35.
Sold for 10.20 on 3/3, as a rollout from Mar 18 60 call.
Overall profit 1.58.
#OptionsExpiration for 3/24 Only 1…
#OptionsExpiration for 3/24
Only 1 expiration today:
$NUGT 03/24/2016 80 calls.
No assignments.
Have a great 3 day/holiday weekend everyone.
TLT calls
Sold $TLT May 20 135 calls @ 1.14
More NUGT short puts
Adding another position against short calls. Sold $NUGT Apr 29 35 put @ 1.80.
FSLR short puts
Sold $FSLR Apr 29 (weekly) 60 put @ 1.74
RIG puts
Sold $RIG May 20 7.00 puts @ .35. It’s been a steep pullback but I’m willing to take assignment if the stock is below 7 at May expiration. The strike is below the Feb 24 low of 7.67, and another 25% down from current levels. Earnings are not expected until after May options expiration.
Options Bistro 