#spxcampaign
Closed Early on GTC Orders
$SPX BTC 3/9 2800/2775 BECS @ 2.00 STO at 6.00
$SPX BTC 3/16 2875/2850 BECS @ .30 STO at 1.80 Thank You @jeffcp66
$NVDA BTC 3/16 270/260 BECS at .80 STO at 2.30
$NKTR BTC 3/2 75 put at .30 Sold for 4.70. Earnings AH today. Earnings were good but only cost me .30. Thanks to @fuzzballl and @jdietz1954 for the idea.
#shortcalls
$MTN STO 3/16 210 call at 3.60
$SQ Rolled BTC 3/2 46 call STO 3/16 48 call Two dollars up and additional .40 credit
Credit spread adjustments, will be good for #spycraft trades and #spxcampaign among others.
Reading the new book “trading options for edge”. Fairly technical but about half way through now but hit on an adjustment for spreads that is so simple, why didn’t I think of that? Maybe even easier and more profitable than rolling or can at least scratch a trade.
For this to work you have to set up a credit spread that has at least 1 strike between them. For instance you could not do it with a 267.5/267 spy spread but you could do it with a 267.5/266.5. Also need to keep some cash ready for the adjustment.
So if your short strike is in danger of being breached, just buy a few options between the strikes. So say you had the 268/263 spy put spread and about to breach the 268 strike. Say you had 10 contacts, you could buy 3 or 4 of 265 puts and it would basically neutralize your gamma and delta risk. The other benefit is if it keeps moving once you are past your long strike would start showing a profit again because you are net long options and basically have a back ratio spread, just with tweaked strikes. Would work great on a day like today.
Worst case scenario is it stalls out after breaching your short strike but at least you have reduced the max loss a lot and if there is still enough time in the trade you may be able to scratch it for even.
As I said, duh, why didn’t I think of that. I have 8 different ways to adjust a losing credit spreads but this is probably the easiest and most effective. Much easier than diagonal, calendar, butterfly, BWB, back ratio or any of the other adjustments because you do not extend duration. It will all close out at the same time.
I will try it in a week or 2 once I clear out this round of trades. May intentionally set one up to blow up and see what happens.
I also was looking through past #spycraft type trades and the ones that were put on 21 or more DTE had better results than the shorter term ones. More time for a big move to reverse.
Going forward, these trades with be 21 or more DTE and if they need adjustment this will be the primary adjustment.
#SyntheticStock – BTC SLB Mar02’18 67.5 calls for 0.03, sold for 0.24. Gonna wait and see what tomorrow brings to sell calls for next week.
STC 2 April 06 2600 Long side puts at the low earlier, for 44.50, bought as a BUPS on Feb 27, at 14.40..
gain 158%
#SPXcampaign
Sold $SPX March 15th 2750/2775 for 3.50, as a #ReverseRoll from March 23rd puts stopped earlier.
Closed March 2nd 2710/2735 call spreads for 2.80. Sold for 9.20 this morning.
Closed March 16th 2820/2845 call spreads for .65. Sold in a #CondorRoll for 7.85 on Tuesday.
Could be a bounce here, folks.
Good thing I chickened out on the /es put side of the strangle. Came home and /ES had swung 40 points from high to low. WTF?!
Not to discuss politics but seems like our government wants to start a trade war, that’s all I could find for the big swing. That will not be good for the market but may be good for trading!
I had some #pietrades lined up for tomorrow but they are all ITM on the puts now or OTM on the calls so will just be rolling NSC, LNG, MAR, GM for more premium or in the case of GM and LNG taking assignment and start selling calls Monday.
SVXY headed the WRONG direction, that is not helpful at the moment but at least the adjustment seems to be tempering the drop.
#VXXGame Sold $UVXY May 18th 25 call for 3.75
#SPXcampaign Spent the morning converting the account to be short on $SPX. Took most action before the spike higher, so not ideal entries and exits, but good enough now that were down almost 2%.
In chronological order:
Bought to Open LONG March 9th 2625/2600 put spreads for 2.60.
Sold to Open March 29th 2840/2865 call spreads for 1.60.
Closed March 9th 2800/2775 put spreads for 23.00. Sold ITM for 19.70 last Friday. #ITMroll coming
Sold March 2nd 2710/2735 call spreads for 9.20. #ReverseRoll
Closed March 9th 2725/2700 put spreads for 11.05. Sold for 4.05 on Monday. (rolled to spread above)
Sold March 23rd 2775/2800 call spreads for 5.25
Closed March 29th 2610/2585 put spreads for 3.15. Sold for 1.50 on Monday.
Closed March 16th 2695/2670 put spreads for 7.96. Sold in a #CondorRoll for 7.85 on Tuesday.
Sold March 28th 2525/2500 put spreads for 2.20, 1.5x pos size, #Rolling from Mar 29th puts closed above
Stopped: March 23rd 2530/2505 put spreads for 2.90. Sold for 1.60 on Friday. No roll yet.
Here we go again with the selling. Who can offer the lowest price?
How low do we go…. 🙂
Thanks to @hcgdavis for cluing me in on Mark Sebastian’s trade idea on long VXX puts and put spreads. I bought $VXX Mar 16 48/46 put spreads for 1.24 debit. Looking to close for the full 2.00 on a volatility pullback and applying the profit to SVXY stock.
#Earnings Sold to Open $SPLK Mar 2nd 84/112 strangles for 1.20. Biggest UP move: 17.9%, Biggest DOWN move: -10.1%, Average move: 5.9%. My strikes are +19.8% and -10.2% OTM.
BTC March 9, 155 puts and rolled out to March 16, 150 puts for a credit of .14 cents. I should have waited before I rolled earlier.
Rolled March 2 175 calls up to March 9, 177.5 calls for a credit of .45 cents.
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.
#VIXIndicator Below is some data on the previous times this has happened. There was actually once a triple-header, which I missed yesterday. The columns to look at are:
Column D: the number of days between the cancelation and a new Downside Warning. The one we just experienced was only 3 days.
Column N (and Q): this is how much lower we went below the first Warning’s lows. As you can see, all but two occurrences we went lower than the first warning.
Let me know if you have questions!
I rolled March 2, 155 put out to March 9, 155 put for a credit of 2.05, I think the option traders are bearish for next week.
#SPX Campaign Closed both the Mar 16th 2505/2615 BuPS @ 2.50 and the Mar 23rd 2610/2630 BuPS @ 3.25. These were sitting just above my stops yesterday.
We just became Great Grandparents a few min ago!!
UVXY called away my March 16 $10 calls, now short shares. Looking for ways to limit margin (calls) should price rise sharply.
Good Morning
Cue the chicken, BTC the 2480 puts at 13.75 this morning for $760 loss. I will be away for a few hours this morning and don’t have time to adjust or trade against it.
Will revisit later
#VIXIndicator Since 2000, what happened today has happened 8 times previously: a Downside Warning going into effect after it had been canceled, with no Upside Warning in between. On half of those occasions, the subsequent drop in the SPX was lower than the first warning, and in the other half, it was roughly the same. So in other words, every occurrence resulted in at least a test of the lows, and half of those times we went significantly lower.
@fibwizard you on line?
Are you using tick or range charts currently? I am finding the range charts are responding too slowly now with the increased volatility.
Any suggestions for tick settings for say /es, /ym. /nq, /cl, /gc if you are trading those?
Thanks
Booking profits already on the call side of the /ES 37DTE 2480/2900 strangle. Sold the call side for 3.50, BTC after hours (it trades 23/5) for 2.05. 42% profit in few hours so I will book it.
Will leave the put side on and if we get a bounce sell calls again after runup. If we roll down will short 2 futures which would offset the loss all the way down to 2300 or lower, actually the p/l graph at that point shows a 13k profit. The cool thing with futures is you do not always need the same # of contracts as options because of the delta weighting. A future contract carries a hard delta of +-50 and these options are so far OTM you do not need 1:1 ratio for covering like a stock ticker.
#Fuzzy – Had a fill while I was out today, BTC UPS Mar02’18 109 calls for 0.05, sold for 0.43. My core position UPS Mar29’18 108/108/106 Fuzzy is currently unhedged.
#SPXcampaign
Stopped: $SPX March 29th 2625/2600 put spreads for 2.85. Sold yesterday for 1.45.
#Rolling: Sold April 6th 2550/2525 put spreads for 2.00, 1.5x position size.
Stopped: March 2nd 2725/2700 put spreads for 9.60. Sold for 5.20 on Friday.
#SyntheticStock #LongCalls -With 5 wide strikes out in Jan 2019 I just decided to buy the calls outright instead of going synthetic. A little more out of pocket up front but a much lower max loss due to the “5 wide”. This replaces my MU position..
Bought to Open CRUS JAN 18 2019 45.0 Calls @ 6.90
46 week to go so 15 cents a week required….didn’t get a chance to sell the first hedge yet.
#VIXIndicator A rare occurrence so soon after a cancelation.
Strolling through my watchlists looking for anything that’s at an extreme that looks like a good entry for synthetic. Not considering anymore drug/biotech/energy since I’m in those already. So far I’m seeing these:
ALK (already in LUV)
AMBA (earnings tomorrow)
CRUS (liking it)
DIS (on more weakness)
EWW (getting close)
FXI (getting close)
IWM (on more weakness)
NTES (on more weakness)
OLED (once it forms a base)
REGN (in it already but sure seems ready to reverse)
SHAK (decent premium on cheap stock)
TBT (go short)
TLT (go long) saw UOA (bullish) in TLT today…not sure what exactly
#spxcampaign
$SPX STO 3/9 2800/2775 BECS at 6.00 Thank you @jeffcp66
#shortputs
$PRLB STO 3/16 105/110 BUPS @ 1.20
#spycraft
$SPX STO 4/20 2480/2900 Strangle for 18.90 Thank you @hcgdavis
#shortputs
$ALGN STO 4/20 230/240 BUPS at 1.50
Closed Early
$BABA BTC 3/16 200/190 BECS at 20% of full profit
#SyntheticStock – This was a poorly managed trade from the beginning. I’ve got to learn more patience with these things. I entered the trade on Jan 26th and the stock went down almost immediately. Sold some nice hedges but got streamrolled in the massive whipsaw. This could’ve been a 5k winner but the weekly hedge sale has blocked the entire profit from the reversal point. Instead of holding it and trying to roll I’m taking it off for a scratch after commissions. I’ve got to get better at this or quit picking stocks that explode higher 🙂 🙂 .
Sold to Close MU JUL 20 2018 43/43/41 Synthetic
Bought to Close MU MAR 29 2018 44.0 Calls
All said and done…even after commissions but feels like a loser!
Rolled GM 42.5 put this week to next for 0.33 credit. Cost basis now 39.30 or so may take assignment next week and grab the dividend.
#SyntheticStock – Another dog….selling the weekly hedge below the core so only going for about what’s needed to get to breakeven. Core is out in July and I currently need 37 cents per week to cover max loss.
Bought to Close CELG MAR 2 2018 97.0 Calls @ .05 (sold for .68)
Sold CELG MAR 9 2018 92.0 Calls @ .55
Finally learned enough (not sure smart would be the correct adjective) to keep some cash on the side for when volatility is higher.
STO the /ES 37 DTE 2480/2900 strangle for 12. Only 4 contracts, the account would handle 8 but see I learned enough to keep some extra on the side to go short or long the future if needed for adjustments or be able to add another week later. Theta is 125 a day on this so hope to hold it for 10 days then roll to next cycle or close for 35-50% profit.
From now on I am taking profits early if they are available. Anything 25-75% would be enough.
#CoveredCalls #CoveredCallCampaign
Sold $AAPL March 29th 187.5 call for 1.50
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.
BTO 21 SEP 18 46/46/44 CALL/PUT/PUT 5.97 with stock at 45.98. Need 0.28 per week to cover so STO 9 MAR 48 CALL 0.67 #syntheticstock
#SPXcampaign Sold $SPX Mar 9th 2775/2800 call spreads for 6.25.
#Earnings Just like last May, when this stock dipped over 10% on day 1, it is retracing higher on day 2.
BTC $AZO March 2nd 660 put for 1.00. Sold in 660/790 strangles for 4.225 (avg price) on Monday. I’m putting an order in to close the the other put for .50. Calls I will allow to expire.
#Fuzzy – BTC XBI Mar02’18 95 calls for 0.04, sold for 0.48. Waiting to sell calls for next week. My core position is XBI Jun’18 +91calls/-91puts/+88puts, bought for 4.50. So far have booked 1.26 in net premium on 10 contracts.
#SyntheticStock – Rolling the weekly hedge out and up…if the stock continues up to where the overall position is zero deltas I’ll probably book it and look to re-enter on a pullback.
Rolled BIDU MAR 2 2018 247.5 Calls to MAR 16 2018 252.5 Calls @ .60 credit
#SPXcampaign With a second day of weakness I’m looking at call spreads now (after spending Friday and Monday stopping several). I’m offsetting put spreads at the same expiry.
Sold $SPX March 2nd 2775/2800 call spreads for 3.30. Expire this Friday.
#ShortPuts -Decided I’ve got enough going on so bailing on these with lunch money…
Bought to Close WMT APR 20 2018 85.0 Puts @ .77 (sold for .84)
#ShortCalls – I’m booking these and following @Ramie and selling some nearer term UVXY call spreads. I’ll be applying all of the profits to the purchase price of my LEAP SVXY calls until they are zero risk and then after that applying to SVXY losses. This looks like a much better way of cost reduction on the long SVXY calls vs selling calls against them since premium is so weak.
Bought to Close UVXY APR 20 2018 59.0 Call @ .22 (sold for 2.81)
Bought to Close UVXY JUN 15 2018 60.0 Call @ .58 (sold for 3.50)
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.
#SyntheticStock – Earnings still two weeks away so selling the week before (hopefully at a safe strike)…
Bought to Close CTRP MAR 2 2018 48.0 Calls @ .05 (sold for .75)
Sold CTRP MAR 9 2018 48.0 Calls @ .26
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.
#SyntheticStock – This is a weekly call sale that I had rolled down for a 1.24 credit. With the stock reversing (of course) I’m giving some of that back and rolling it back up and out. Earnings next week…
Rolled ADSK MAR 2 2018 111.0 Calls to MAR 9 2018 115.0 Calls @ .96 debit
#spxcampaign Sold to open Mar 23rd 2870/2890 BeCS for 1.20 when SPX was at 2754. This condorized the BuPS. I have an order in for the same for the Mar 16th BuPS.
Good Morning
for those like me that are trying to add a little directional bias and trading to their option selling, Raghee from simpler has posted her charts to TOS and tradestation. I can only get the TOS version to work. Pretty simple charts to follow
http://tos.mx/MUhCu7
Here’s an example. Not as clean as @fibwizard but easy to follow. Red short, green long, blue transition. The dots along the 21 ema show buying or selling strength and the boxes are auto plotting darvas for support and resistance. I use them a little on 15, 60, and 4 hour chart.
#VIXIndicator The clock resets. We need three consecutive closes below 17.76, so Friday is the earliest this may happen. A close above 19.75 tomorrow will mean the Downside Warning is reinstated.
#Earnings – Down big but not that far below breakeven. Sneaking in another call sale this week before possibly rolling.
Bought to Close AZO MAR 2 2018 790.0 Call @ .25
Sold AZO MAR 2 2018 665.0 Call @ 3.20
Position is now 660/665 Strangle @ 9.10 for this Friday
#PerpetualRollingStrangles – Back just in time to make a few trades…
Bought to Close TLT MAR 2 2018 120.0 Calls @ .03 (sold for .44)
Sold TLT MAR 16 2018 119.5 Calls @ .48
#SPXcampaign In light of the weakness and possible failure of Upside Warning, I stopped nearest put spread and rolled into equal-sized, same date condor. Likely I’ll have to roll one of these sides, but better then waking up tomorrow with a large gap down.
Stopped: $SPX March 16th 2750/2725 put spreads for 8.30. Sold yesterday for 5.80.
#CondorRoll: Sold March 16th 2670/2695/2820/2845 condors for 7.85.
#VXXGame BTC $UVXY June 55 call for .76. Sold for 11.00 on Feb 6th.
STO UVXY March 16th 16 call for 1.95.
Looking more like no Upside Warning today… going to have to roll some put spreads if we creep closer to 2750.
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.
STC 2 Apr 06 2600/2700 BUPS at 12.50 credit (2500.00)
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
Our AZO trade not looking good at this time
Bad news for those of us holding and hoping with SVXY
#VXXGame Starting tomorrow, $SVXY will be -0.5x and $UVXY will be +1.5x
http://www.tradingvolatility.net/2018/02/svxy-and-uvxy-to-be-re-purposed-feb-28.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TradingVolatility+%28Trading+Volatility%29
@fibwizard whats your next support point?
Looking at a #spycraft trade but not sure if I want to put it on today or wait until we find support again.
#CoveredCalls #CoveredCallCampaign
BTC $BABA March 2nd 202.5 call for .15. Sold for 1.75 on Feb 6th.
Stopped: $AAPL March 16th 180 call for 2.65. The stock breached my strike then immediately offers a nice pullback so I could exit. Sold for 1.70 on Feb 20th.
I will sell new calls on both when we reach new highs.
SPX Trade Sold to open March 23rd 2630/2610 BuPS @ 1.25 with SPX at 2771
#SPXcampaign Stopped: $SPX March 15th 2850/2875 call spreads for 2.90. Sold for 1.60 on Feb 15th.
Bought SPX March 7th 2810/2830 call spreads for 3.45. This anticipates an Upside Warning going into effect today, and will profit from the probable strong push higher over the next week.
#ContangoETFs Hitting that sell level again…
Sell $DUST Sept 40 call for 3.10.
#SPXcampaign Sold $SPX March 29th 2625/2600 put spreads for 1.65.
Earnings tonight… I didn’t know about the symbol change.
Good Morning
#SVXY
For those who got assigned SVXY at adjusted cost below $50, have you considered a trade like this?
-Sell the stock at market price
-Sell leap puts Jan 2020 at your adjusted cost strike, for example 50Put for $36.50
-Use the proceeds to buy 5 Jan 2020 leap calls at 15 for $6.00ea=$30
The rest of cash will go back into your account.
Since we already lost the money, selling this put would not create more loss.
If I understand this correctly, the B/E would occur when SVXY reaches about $26 at expiration or less if before expiration.
Main risk is that SVXY does not reach $26 by Jan 2020
Would something like this work?
SPX Campaign / Long SVXY Calls / Short Puts AMZN / AZO Earnings Strangle / Close Early SQ Calls /
#spxcampaign
$SPX STO 3/2 2700/2725 BUPS at 3.00 Thank you @jeffcp66
$SPX STO 3/9 2775/2800 BUPS at 17.00 Thank you @jeffcp66
#longcalls
$SVXY BTO 1/17/2020 16 calls at 5.30 Thank you @fuzzballl
#shortputs
$AMZN STO 3/16 1420/1440 BUPS at 2.85
#shortstrangles (Earnings)
$AZO STO 3/2 660/790 at 6.40 Thank you @jeffcp66
Closed Early (partial position due to earnings tomorrow)
$SQ STC 3/16 40 call at 6.85 BTO at 2.80
$SQ STC 3/16 46 call at 3.00 BTO 11/15 at 5.50 (Should have closed them all)
Taking some positions off for most of the potential profit
Bought to close:
$AAPL Apr 20 130 put @ .09. Sold for 3.60 on 9/22.
$ABC May 18 55 puts @ .10. Sold for 1.10 on 11/2.
$ESRX May 18 47.50 puts @ .20. Sold for 1.40 on 10/16.
$ALK Apr 20 50 puts @ .10. Sold for 1.25 on 11/8.
$NUGT Jun 15 54 calls @ .48. Sold for 2.30-2.60 from 1/17-1/24.
$NUGT Jun 15 49 calls @ .60. Sold for 2.60 on 1/12.
$QCOM Jun 15 40 puts @ .22. Sold for 1.10 on 10/31.
$QRVO May 18 55 puts @ .25. Sold for 1.50-2.10 from 12/4-12/16.
$UVXY Mar 2 26 calls @ .07. Sold for .35-1.18 from 2/1-2/5.
$UVXY Mar 2 20 calls @ .13. Sold for .66-1.10 from 1/29-1/30.
Options Bistro 