#OffTopic When I lived in Los Angeles I never noticed, but now that I live in a place that has winter, this is a special day. Refresh your browser for relief from the gloom.
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Closed Early AAPL
#shortputs
$AAPL BTC 4/20 195/185 BECS at .80 STO at 1.60 Had a GTC stop in at 50% profit.
Added UVXY put spread
Added UVXY put spread
I’ll use this one to reduce basis on SVXY assignments
Bought to open $UVXY Jun 15 16/10 BePS @ 3.20. Position profits 2.80 if UVXY retreats back to where it was (10 at the end of January) by June options expiration.
#ironcondor SPY Sold May 18,…
#ironcondor SPY
Sold May 18, 244/250/283/289 for 1.32
#shortcallspreads TSLA Sold April 20,…
#shortcallspreads TSLA
Sold April 20, 325/330 call spread for 1.78
UVXY calls sold
#VXXGame These are hedged with higher-striked long calls
Sold $UVXY May 18th 20 calls for 2.50
Sold $UVXY June 30 call for 1.75
Sold $UVXY Sept 30 call for 3.30
AMZN
#SyntheticStock – I normally have to go out a month to roll my short term hedge up 10 bucks (unless volatility is really high) then I can go up 20 sometimes. Today I’m using the volatility pop along with the big pullback to go out just one week and still get most of the 10 point upside. This is more than likely a roll into earnings week also which helps.
Rolled AMZN APR 20 2018 1340.0 Call to APR 27 2018 1350.0 Call @ .75 debit.
Interesting year…might not make much but will learn a lot…
#SyntheticStock – It’s these kind of days that make me glad I hedged a little with weeklies. It’s also tough trusting the process of the weekly sales to cover max loss. Looks like we’re gonna learn how it actually plays out over the long run to end of year. As some of these drop the danger of a whipsaw with the weekly hedge grows. I’m planning on selling very carefully and possibly using spreads when selling much below the core and not getting too greedy…mainly just selling near the min required to cover max loss. I’ll probably run through all my positions this week and update what’s needed each week.
Also, I’m trying not to get caught up in P/L YTD….SVXY already blew that. I’m more concerned about actual realized gains represented by positions that are closed…(helps psychologically for sure) 🙂 🙂
UVXY call spreads
On a day like today many of us would normally be throwing out offers on high strike calls on UVXY. I’m going to likely stop (or severely curtail) the naked call selling on this in favor of call spreads that would necessarily have to be quite a bit closer to the money. Just sold this one:
$UVXY Apr 13 18/28 BeCS @ 1.21
SPX puts rolled
#SPXcampaign Stopped: $SPX Apr 13th 2600/2575 put spreads for 3.05. Sold for 1.60 on Mar 14th.
#CondorRoll Sold March 23rd 2560/2585/2775/2800 iron condors for 2.1166, with 1.5x position size. Expires this Friday (hopefully).
TICK high of the day
Did we reach a low?
TSLA
#ShortStrangle – Becoming more trouble than it’s worth…LOL
Currently short this week’s 335 straddle @ 16.40
Closing the call and rolling the 335 put into a new inverted strangle (310/300) for next week. Did the whole thing for a .89 credit.
SPX trades
#SPXcampaign Sold to Open $SPX Apr 19th (monthlys) 2825/2850 call spreads for 1.65.
This is a position I originally sold ITM and have been rolling. At the beginning of last week I thought I might get out for zero. Not so much. This time I’m rolling into an inverse condor, with expectation that calls will expire an puts will need to be rolled again.
BTC $SPX March 23rd 2790/2765 put spreads for 23.35. Sold for 22.00 on March 2nd.
STO March 29th 2790/2765 put spreads for 20.25
STO March 29th 2760/2785 put spreads for 3.45
SPX calls sold
#SPXcampaign Betting that we have another warning today:
Sold $SPX Mar 21st 2710/2735 call spreads for 10.50
Rocky road ahead for TSLA?
Goldman: Tesla shares to drop more than 30 percent in the next 6 months on weak Model 3 deliveries https://t.co/q1PaFtPar7
— OptionsBistro.com (@OptionsBistro) March 19, 2018
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
$TSLA
BIIB
#ShortPuts – Strictly risk management…
Bought to Close BIIB APR 20 2018 250.0, 255.0, and 260.0 Puts
Sold to Close BIIB APR 20 2018 220.0 Puts @ .30
Made about 50 bucks after commissions. Still like the ticker but feel like I’ve got enough biotech going already…
SPX
#RocketManHedge – Rolling my short weekly out and down to Friday. Hedge is out in May so might have to keep easing it down for now…
Rolled SPX MAR 19 2018 2750.0 Put to SPX MAR 23 2018 2740.0 Put @ 2.00 credit
DECK
#ShortStrangles – Sold last week on the dip to the 50ma…slightly bigger position so happy to take the 78 cents.
Bought to Close DECK APR 20 2018 75.0/105.0 Strangles @ .52 (sold for 1.30)
ANET
#ShortStrangles – Originally sold after the big earnings drop…
Bought to Close ANET JUN 15 2018 175.0/400.0 Strangle @ 2.20 (sold for 6.00)
TSLA
#ShortStrangles – It’s a day of taking a little risk off in the tickers that were helped by the pullback. Sold these at different times squeezing the strikes in a little so the wider ones were more profitable…
Bought to Close TSLA JUN 15 2018 170.0/510.0 Strangle @ 2.04 (sold for 6.01)
Bought to Close TSLA JUN 15 2018 180.0/500.0 Strangle @ 2.45 (sold for 4.60)
Bought to Close TSLA JUN 15 2018 190.0/470.0 Strangle @ 3.17 (sold for 3.49)
SPX trade
#SPXcampaign Earlier, after we breached 2730, BTC $SPX Mar 21st 2725/2700 put spreads for 6.85, and just now covered the 2790 calls for .15. Sold the #CondorRoll for 8.00 last week.
VIX Indicator downside signal
#VIXIndicator we have gone above the trigger of 19.75. If we close above it, it will be a new assertion of the Downside Warning.
FB
STO May 150 puts @2.68
STO June 140 puts @ 1.98
#SPXcampaign STO SPX Apr19 2550/2540…
STO SPX Apr19 2550/2540 Bull Put 0.70
#shortputs STO FB Apr20’18 155…
STO FB Apr20’18 155 PUT 1.69
#fallingknife OLED OLED fell from…
#fallingknife OLED
OLED fell from around 157 to around 120 after earnings on Feb. 22, recovered to about 130 now is down to 106. Big AAPL supplier, maybe not much longer.
#shortputs T Sold April 20,…
#shortputs T
Sold April 20, 35 put for .31
Covered Calls
#CoveredCalls #C0veredCallCampaign
BTC $AAPL Mar 29th 187.5 call for .14. Sold for 1.50 on Feb 28th.
STO $SQ Apr 20th 60 call for 1.40.
FB puts
Sold $FB Apr 20 160 puts @ 1.20 with the stock at 176.19. Delta of 14. 160 hasn’t been seen by the stock since last July.
SPX puts sold
#SPXcampaign Sold to Open $SPX April 19th (monthlys) 2580/2555 put spreads for 1.70.
ROKU
BTC July 25/80 strangle @ .90, old at 2.55
I think I need to thank Fuzzball for that idea.
#OT Jeff, is there a…
#OT Jeff, is there a way to re-sort all posts including replies, not only the initial one and its replies, by date/time?
Econ Calendar for week of 3/19/18
Be sure to periodically click “Home/REFRESH” to keep Bistro features updated.
FED announcements Wednesday afternoon.
Good Morning
Good Morning
Afternoon all I’ll be out…
Afternoon all I’ll be out of the market for a couple of weeks until I get this Escape Room set installed and completed. I just can’t seem to do either well at the same time.
Assignment SPXL 46 Covered Calls.
Later
May all your days be so green.
Assignment
IP Assigned 62.5 put, have a 60 for protection am putting it to them also. -250.00 part of a #Fuzzy that didn’t do well but had a few weeks to go. Part of the game.
Assignments
CELG 90 puts assigned
HRL 35 covered calls expired, will sell again on Monday.
Word press is working again.
Exercised Covered Call / Final SVXY Assigned
#exercised
$UPS Taken away at 110. BTO 2/16 at basis of 105.65. Plus received dividend.
#assignment
$SVXY Last 3 contracts. Will look to sell calls.
Whiz WYNN
Whiz is bullish on WYNN figuring a buyout or name change will boost the stock. He actually surprised me today and bought medium length calls (June 190 strike) and is selling weeklies against it. First time I’ve ever seen him try this on something less than the following Jan. Has he been doing stealth flybys here at The Bistro? 🙂 🙂
Anyway…a couple guys in the TGO forum, (The Ready Room), were asking about trade management on these. While I was writing up my response I came across something I found interesting that I hadn’t really considered before. We obviously worry about the issues we have to deal with when the stock drops and what is our max loss. On the other hand when the stock is screaming up it can also start showing losses. Here’s what I noticed and I can’t believe I didn’t see this a long time ago:
Losses to the upside are capped! How can that be? When running the Whiz trade through the TOS Analyze tab I noticed losses to the upside increasing up to a point and then sort of leveling off and the finally stopping at a certain point. I would say the point the losses stop is when the long call (at whatever length of time it’s at) reaches a 1 delta which finally equals the long delta of the short term call sold. It takes a pretty extreme run to get to that point but I found it interesting anyway. Any thoughts on that and am I seeing it correctly?
Here’s the post I made to the TGO forum in regards to his trade of buying June 190 calls and selling next week’s 190 calls:
====================================================================================
Great summary Kevin! I trade these types of trades all the time using various time intervals and tactics. I usually go out a little further in time since I’m a big believer in being able to safely sell enough weeklies to cover the absolute worse case scenario max loss of any of these, whether it’s synthetic or just buying the calls outright.
One obvious risk of these is the stock falling by quite a bit. That would force you to sell weeklies at strikes well below your long position in order to receive enough premium to cover max loss. Some trading platforms actually INCREASE margin requirements in this situation since the weekly call sale is effectively blocking profits on the longer term position. It doesn’t factor in the plan to roll the weeklies up and out if they get run over.
Another not so obvious risk of these types of trades is the stock going up too soon and too much. Due to the gamma risk of the short term call sales the overall position can actually begin losing money as the stock rises if it goes up too quickly. Worse case would be something extreme like waking up Monday morning and finding out WYNN is being bought out for 300 dollars per share (remember the surprise buyout of GMCR a few years ago?). Running Whiz’s new trade through the TOS Analyze tab I show it beginning to lose money at about the 197 level. On the bright side, once the delta of the long term and near term calls both reach max value the upside loss is capped. In this particular trade that happens at about $305 per share and capped at about a $995 loss per contract.
I generally monitor the overall delta of the position and if I see the stock starting to run and my deltas are approaching zero or less I’ll start looking to roll the weekly up and out. If deltas approach zero a second time I start looking to take some profits.
Here’s the first thing I looked at when I received the new trade…
Buying the Jun 190 calls at about 11.00 with 13 weeks to run I would need to sell about 85 cents per week of weeklies to cover that. That gives a good starting point on what weeklies to sell. It’s looking like for now that’s going to be about 7 or 8 dollars out of the money. Is that giving it enough room to run? Who knows? I sure don’t! My preference would be to go a little further out in time on the long calls reducing the weekly sales required to cover them giving the stock a little more breathing room.
These types of trades seem simple on the surface but there are a lot of moving parts to them…
Good luck!
SPX calls sold
#SPXcampaign. Forgot to post earlier: Sold to Open $SPX Apr 13th 2850/2875 call spreads for 1.70
Closed early / Expiration
Closed Early But Way Too Late
$NFLX BTC 3/16 320/300 BECS at 18.00 STO at 2.45
Expired
Full Losses
$WYNN 185/195 BUCS at full loss 3.85 per contract
$KEM Long 25 calls at full loss
At Full Profit
$FB 170/180 BUPS
$WYNN 130/145 BUPS
$WYNN 150/160 BUPS
$ANET 220/230 BUPS
$PRLB 105/110 BUPS
$CAR 45 put
$EXAS 51.5 put
Have a restful weekend.
Options Expiration for 3/16
Expiring:
$AAOI Mar 16 22.50 puts
$AGN Mar 16 145 puts
$BA Mar 16 385/395 BeCS
$CAH Mar 16 52.50 puts
$CMI Mar 16 135 puts
$GILD Mar 16 60 puts
$GS Mar 16 275/285 BeCS
$GS Mar 16 250/240 BuPS
$K Mar 16 57.50 puts
$NUGT Mar 16 45 calls
$NUGT Mar 16 50 calls
$NWL Mar 16 26 puts
$QQQ Mar 16 156/149 BuPS
$UAL Mar 16 50 puts
$UVXY Mar 16 17 calls
$UVXY Mar 16 19 calls
$UVXY Mar 16 30 calls
$UVXY Mar 16 91 calls
$VIAB Mar 16 20 puts
Assignments:
$FXI Mar 16 48/50 inverted strangles–both sides being exercised with the stock finishing between the strikes. Position will be removed from my account.
Have a great weekend everyone.
After hours stock trades
Does anyone know how late in the day you can buy/sell stock after hours?
Options Expiration 3/16/18
#OptionsExpiration #Earnings #ShortStrangles #SPXcampaign #VXXGame #LongCalls #IronButterfly
— Expiring w/max profit —
$DG 84 puts
$OLED 140 calls
$TIF 109 calls
— Expiring w/max loss —
$SPX 2840/2860 long call spreads, purchased for 1.00 avg price.
$UVXY 91 long calls… purchased for 0.158 avg price… served me well as hedges against short calls
$SQ long 60 calls, bought for 0.964, avg price
— #Assignment —
$SQ 50 long calls, bought for 0.858, avg price. Taking stock (200 shares, cost basis 50.86) and adding it to #CoveredCallCampaign
$AVGO 255 long put – I exited one 265 short put for 9.10. Then, volatility at the close denied my fill on closing more, PLUS, we dropped below my long strike. So, this likely means one spread expired ITM, so a 10.00 debit (against 7.60 sale), but I will likely be assigned short shares based on the ITM long 255 put. Because I feel this may bounce on Monday, I’m buying shares after hours so the assignment will cancel out my position and I’ll be flat. This would amount to about a 2.50 loss overall on the trade.
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#shortputspread Closed BA BTC BA…
Closed BA
BTC BA Apr 295/270 Bull Put 1.53
Originally, sold yesterday for 2.35
Just a small profit.
TQQQ, bullish fuzzy
I am taking one for the team so we can get another correction.
BTO 2020 180 call @ 50.77
STO 2020 180 put @ 50.39
BTO 2020 175 put @ 47.99
STO March 23, 195 calls @ .37
I also have a bearish fuzzy on this as well.
TRTN
#CoveredCalls
STO 1 $TRTN Oct 40 covered call @ 2.45, shares priced at 31.67. Keeping this LT 5.66% yielder.
No OpEx today, enjoy St Patty’s day!
TLT
#PerpetualRollingStrangles – Close but have to roll…
Rolled TLT MAR 16 2018 119.5 Calls to MAR 29 2018 120.5 Calls @ .15 credit (.63 total credit now)
WDC
BTC July 20, 55 puts @ .10 cents on 2 contracts. Sold at 1.35, closed 4 months early. These small falling knife trades do pay the bills until a good trade comes along.
EWW
#SyntheticStock – Happy to finally be out from under this weekly sale. Been rolling for awhile…
Bought to Close EWW MAR 16 2018 51.0 Calls @ .03 (sold for .52)
Sold EWW MAR 29 2018 51.5 Calls @ .40
AZO
#BullCallSpreads – Bought a Jan 2019 Bull Call Spread on the drop. Selling Bear Call Spreads to pay for it (.80 per week covers it)….letting this week’s expire (sold for 2.40) and selling next week.
Sold AZO MAR 23 2018 670.0/700.0 Bear Call Spread @ 2.27
Rolling EXAS and CBOE / Short Calls KEM All Covered
#rolling covered calls
$EXAS BTC 3/29 50 call STO 4/20 55 call at 1.50 debit. Still have 1.50 credit in position and
have increased potential profit $5 if stock continues up.
$CBOE BTC 3/16 122 call STO 4/13 122 call for added 1.75 credit.
#shortcalls
$KEM STO 4/20 21 calls at .65 Covered
More on SVXY
#VXXGame I can only vaguely understand the complexity here. It demonstrates the importance of keeping risk under constant control in these products that we, nor anyone, fully understands.
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4156919-xiv-svxy-really-happened?auth_param=bf3bv:1dancef:1bc06847ed8b4762c0399a6fda4e3282&uprof=37
REGN
#SyntheticStock – Not taking any chances with this one and paying the dime to close. Happy that 350 held here but also selling the next batch on the rally.
Bought to Close REGN MAR 16 2018 350.0 Calls @ .10 (sold for 4.65)
Sold REGN MAR 29 2018 355.0 Calls @ 2.10
MGM
#SyntheticStock – (in reality just long LEAP calls) – It’s running and I’m rolling. I’ll close when (if) deltas reach zero.
Rolled MGM MAR 16 2018 35.5 Calls to APR 6 2018 36.5 Calls @ even
CELG
#SyntheticStock – Selling under the core here again. It’s sitting out in July and has moved against me since the very beginning. Should still be able to bring in enough weekly to get an overall profit. Need 37 cents per week going forward to cover max loss.
Bought to Close CELG MAR 16 2018 93.5 Calls @ .05 (sold for .90)
Sold CELG MAR 23 2018 93.0 Calls @ .47
#shortputs AMD Sold April 20,…
#shortputs AMD
Sold April 20, 11 put for .45
CRUS
#SyntheticStock – These are actually just plain old long LEAP calls but leaving it under the synthetic hashtag. Paid up to close this week…it’s in an IRA and I wanted to get the next sale off on the rally.
Bought to Close CRUS MAR 16 2018 44.5 Calls @ .05 (sold for .65)
Sold CRUS MAR 23 2018 45.5 Calls @ .45
XOM
#SyntheticStock – Trying to build a base…I’m selling at the 20ma resistance.
Bought to Close XOM MAR 16 2018 75.5 Calls @ .02 (sold for .36)
Sold XOM MAR 23 2018 75.5 Calls @ .35
HIMX
#SyntheticStock – Much better week this week. Had to roll nearly everything last week with the big Friday rally. Closing a lot more at min value this week for fresh sales next week.
Bought to Close HIMX MAR 16 2018 9.0 Calls @ .01 (sold for .65)
Selling under the core now so using spreads and only selling half size. Goal is to get out of this one at even. Took investing advice from a pilot (big mistake!) on this one. 🙂 🙂
Sold HIMX MAR 29 2018 7.5/9.0 Bear Call Spreads @ .20
#shortstrangles Sold VXX $39 call…
Taking off some MTN
Bought to close $MTN Apr 20 210 put @ 1.70. Sold for 5.80 on 12/1. Thanks @jsd501.
Booking the 70% profit over a month early.
DG almost gone
#Earnings BTC $DG March 16th 94 calls for .40 and .30 near the open. Got 1 left, now slightly ITM.
$TIF flirting with my put side, 96.5/109 strangle.
$AVGO looking decent. A 265 pin would be max profit. Closed (1) 265 call for .50.
Taking some more UVXY off
Shorter leashes.
Bought to close:
$UVXY Apr 20 26 calls @ .57. Sold for 1.42, 1.90 and 2.07 on 2/2.
$UVXY Jun 15 60 calls @ .32. Sold for 2.10 on 12/1 and 2.15, 2.20 and 3.85 on 2/5.
#shortstrangles FXI They are selling…
#shortstrangles FXI
They are selling strangles on FXI at Tastytrade so I followed an April 20, 51/47 for 1.28, FXI is a China large cap ETF
#coveredcalls CIEN This is a…
#coveredcalls CIEN
This is a Tradewise recommendation they are closing, the stock went way up and couldn’t roll anymore, made $377 over 6 months, 18% by their figures.
AAOI
#ShortStrangles #SyntheticStock – Still a dog and I’m still selling.
Bought to Close AAOI MAR 16 2018 30.0 Calls @ .05 (sold for .60)
Sold AAOI MAR 23 2018 29.0 Calls @ .35
GLD
#SyntheticStock – Sitting almost at breakeven so selling aggressively to try to get out at even. A little bit of a margin hog and a little too big size wise.
Bought to Close GLD MAR 16 2018 126.0 Calls @ .03
Sold GLD MAR 23 2018 125.0 Calls @ .70
Rolling some deep in the money positions
I was undecided about whether to just book the losses on these or roll them. Decided to roll and get more time and premium.
Rolled $CELG Mar 16 115 put out to Sep 21 115 put for .60 credit
Rolled $RRC Mar 16 22 puts out to Aug 17 22 puts for .15 credit
Rolled $XLK Mar 16 60 straddle out to Apr 20 and inverting the strikes to 64 puts/60 calls for .35 credit. This position has been rolled since November with the strikes moving around. Total credit taken in is now 4.04 so if XLK finishes between the strikes this trade will pretty much break even. That’s unlikely though, with the stock at 69.85. My plan: If it starts to come in, roll opportunities should be better and I can probably un-invert the strikes. If it continues to run up, I’m going to throw the towel in and take the loss.
QRVO puts
A nice long tail being printed on the daily chart. Selling puts around the 200 DMA. Delta of 23, stock at 78.02. No earnings in this expiration cycle.
Sold $QRVO Apr 72.50 puts @ 1.20.
ITM debit spreads
Might be on to something here. I have an experiment running on ERX. 22 DTE 21/26 call spread. I don’t know what the news is, but all the oil service sector names just tanked and are now bouncing. Anyway, I was looking at how hard it would be to roll and it is really easy and often done for a credit.
Adjustment #1 is roll the long out or to a leap and make it a fuzzy. I could add another 9 months for 3.2 or 19 for 7.19. Then you have plenty of time to sell against it.
Adjustment #2 roll the entire spread out a month, could do that for 0.7 credit even going down a strike.
Adjustment #3 roll the short strike down same expiration for credit. At that point you lose some of the profit but still stays green.
I may experiment with some more of these going forward and will share results. Might be a better way to get higher returns with known/controlled risk. That is always a good thing 🙂
Also may be a way to ease into a #fuzzy at a lower cost and not having to initially set up as a long range trade.
Denis Gartman
from Barron’s yesterday afternoon: Gartman: Time to Sell Stock, Hold Cash
March 14, 2018 5:16 p.m. ET
He might be right one day.
#shortputspread Sold BA Apr 295/270…
Sold BA Apr 295/270 Bull Put $2.35
Sold BA Mar29 295/270 Bull Put $1.35
#pietrade Rolled ANDV 96 put…
Rolled ANDV 96 put 14 DTE out to 29 DTE 95 put for 0.35 credit. Cost basis 94.7 now.
Part of my change in management discussed below. Add credit, move strike farther away and give it some more time for more aggressive management if needed.
Options Bistro 