LULU

Roll $LULU Jan-29-2021 330/340 #BuPS // Feb-19-2021 @0.95 Debit. Was STO @1.25.

Everything seems slow this morning. Wondering if East Coast VZ issues are persisting from yesterday.

VXX Put Rolldowns

Rolled down all my in the money puts in VXX a half point plus brought in cash for next week.

Rolled VXX 01/29 22.50 Puts to 02/05 22.0 Puts @ 0.05 Credit
Rolled VXX 01/29 21.50 Puts to 02/05 21.0 Puts @ 0.10 Credit
Rolled VXX 01/29 20.00 Puts to 02/05 19.50 Puts @ 0.25 Credit
Rolled VXX 01/29 19.50 Puts to 02/05 19.0 Puts @ 0.14 Credit

A sizeable lowering of risk on the put side while keeping my VXX short diagonal strangles in place.

TQQQ,

STO March 19, 50 puts at 1.30

GME

Took a page out of the @ramie77 playbook from yesterday and trying a straight BCS.
Bought to Open 1 GME Jan 29 2021 320.0 Call / Sold to Open 1 GME Jan 29 2021 310 Call at $2.00 Credit.

SPY

#ShortPuts – Starter position out in March. Outside the expected move and at the 200 day.

Sold SPY MAR 19 2021 335.0 Put @ 4.22

SPY Rolls

Bought to close 1 SPY Jan 27 2021 380.0 Call / Sold to Open 1 SPY Feb 03 2021 383.0 Call @ 1.05 Credit plus 3 points higher on the short strike.
Bought to close 1 SPY Jan 27 2021 379.0 Call / Sold to Open 1 SPY Feb 01 2021 381.0 Call @ 0.63 Credit plus 2 points higher on the short strike.
Bought to close 1 SPY Jan 27 2021 374.0 Call / Sold to Open 1 SPY Feb 03 2021 376.0 Call @ 0.67 Credit plus 2 points higher on the short strike.

GME Crazy

244 after hours high … so far

GME: Those railroad tracks look mighty tempting

I know I know, wait for the train to slow down before setting up a picnic on the tracks but I thought I’d put a few small, starter positions out there. Can’t wait to aggressively short this thing but we’re way too early for that. For now though:
Sold $GME 1/29 195 200 bear call spread @ 1.00
Sold $GME 2/19 190/200 bear call spread @ 1.50
Defined risk only of course.

#onlyspreads

SPX 1-dte

#SPX1dte Sold to Open $SPX 3760/3780-3905/3925 iron condors for 1.05, SPX at 3857, IV 14.55%, deltas -.06, +.07.

UVXY

New #ContangoSpecial
Bought to open UVXY Jun 18 2021 4.0 Puts / Sold to Open UVXY Jan 29 2021 10.0 Puts $0.05 Credit.
UVXY = 10.50
Short DTE = 3
Long DTE = 143

Last week’s long Put purchase is free and clear after last Fridays short position cover @ 0.01

SPX 7-dte

#SPX7dte Bought to Open $SPX Feb 1st 3835/3855-3865/3885 iron condors for 16.25, with SPX at 3857.

LABU

#ShortPuts – Filled on the last dip. Adding to Feb ladder.

Sold LABU FEB 19 2021 98.0 Put @ 2.60

LABU Put Closed / VRM Put

#shortputs
$LABU BTC 2/19 60 put at .10. STO at 1.15 Thank you @fuzzballl
$VRM STO 2/19 35 put at 1.45

OSTK BYND

I know some are playing options in these.

Overstock.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:OSTK) shares rose 22.4% to $82.48 as the company announced a partnership with Pelion Venture Partners to oversee the blockchain assets of its subsidiary Medici Ventures.

Beyond Meat Inc (NASDAQ:BYND) shares jumped 18.3% to $187.78 after the company announced a joint venture with Pepsi to develop, produce, market snack, beverage products made from plant-based protein.

GME halted

Circuit breaker halt at 114

Has resumed now

GME FIZZ EXPR M MAC BBBY

From Yahoo Finance
….. But underneath the surface, one of the wildest trading days we’ve seen in some time broke out.
GameStop (GME) remained the day’s top story, as the stock continued its unbelievable run from the ~$4 per share range back in the summer to a whopping $76.77 as of Monday’s close.
In a story published Monday, Bloomberg’s Brandon Kochkodin chronicled the ongoing relationship between Reddit’s “wallstreetbets” (WSB) forum, and shares of the struggling video game retailer. In this story we find a fundamental case for buying the stock: A character from Michael Lewis’ famous book “The Big Short” (Dr. Michael Burry), an activist investor who also founded Chewy (CHWY), and along the way a redditor named “Senior_Hedgehog” plays a major role.
Truly a tale for the modern market.

As Yahoo Finance’s Ines Ferre has chronicled, the last handful of trading sessions have centered on the clash between WSB and GameStop’s short sellers. This saga continued on Monday.

But during the session, we also saw the breakout of a market-wide strategy to pile into names that investors are betting against en masse. According to data from FinViz, more than a dozen stocks with more than 30% of their outstanding shares sold short rallied more than 10% on Monday.

In other words, betting on companies that lots of investors are betting against was the biggest driver of single-stock moves to start the week.

Shares of La Croix-maker National Beverage Co. (FIZZ) rose more than 13% on Monday; more than 60% of the company’s stock is currently being sold short.

Some retail-related names were also caught up in this trade, as mall REIT Macerich (MAC) saw its shares rise more than 21% on Monday, while shares of Macy’s (M) were up 10%. More than 30% of both companies’ shares outstanding are currently sold short.
However, not all efforts to blow out the shorts succeeded on Monday.
Bed, Bath & Beyond (BBBY) — which has a short interest north of 60% — gained 1.5% on Monday, but not before some chicanery that saw shares rise as much as 50% in late-morning trade. Shares of BBBY, we should note, are up some 200% over the past six months.
And not every single-stock surge on Monday was tied to huge short interest. BlackBerry (BB), for instance, saw its stock spike by some 28% to start the week — causing the company to issue a statement explicitly stating that it had no news to report, and therefore no explanation for the rally. Just about 7% of BlackBerry’s outstanding shares are currently sold short.

Which brings us to beleaguered retailer Express (EXPR).
With a market cap under $100 million before Monday’s trade, this is a name that rarely gets much attention in the broader market. But a 131% rally to start the week changed that.
Before Monday’s open, Express shares were rocketing and the stock didn’t move all that much after the open. On Friday, the stock closed at $1.79 per share; on Monday, Express shares closed at $4.15.
Rarely does this kind of move come and go without explanation. But on Monday, the media and Wall Street analysts were left scratching their heads to explain this one-day double of a 1990s-era suburban mall staple.
“Express has been the subject of Reddit boards where users speculated [about] whether it could be the next GameStop, the video-game retailer that surged again today,” Bloomberg reported on Monday.

Leading everyone right back to where this day started: Reading Reddit and looking for the next big thing.

NFLX

#ShortPuts – Was going to do this yesterday on a down day but wanted to see a bounce first. Rolling up to the expected move and to the 20 day moving average. Still below the earnings gap.

Rolled NFLX FEB 19 2021 510.0 Put to FEB 19 2021 525.0 Put @ 2.60 credit (6.20 total now)

TQQQ

#ShortPuts -Thinning the herd almost 4 weeks early. These were filling at better than the mid so went ahead and took them.

Pre-split numbers:

Bought to Close TQQQ FEB 19 2021 95.0 Put @ .42 (sold for 2.20)
Bought to Close TQQQ FEB 19 2021 100.0 Put @.50 (sold for 2.20)
Bought to Close TQQQ FEB 19 2021 105.0 Put @ .70 (sold for 2.40)
Bought to Close TQQQ FEB 19 2021 110.0 Put @ .70 (sold for 2.10)
Bought to Close TQQQ FEB 19 2021 115.0 Put @ .90 (sold for 2.40)
Bought to Close TQQQ FEB 19 2021 120.0 Put @ .98 (sold for 2.94)

TSLA

BTC $TSLA Jan-29-2021 680/690 #BuPS @0.10. Was STO @1.72 on 1/11/2012

Holding Feb-05 and Feb-12 690/700 #BuPS.

XLNX

#Earnings – For anyone interested in this one it looks like earnings are now tomorrow after the close…

LAZR

#ShortPuts – Replacing the ones closed yesterday.

Sold LAZR FEB 19 2021 27.0 Puts @ 1.30

PENN Puts

#shortputs
$PENN STO 1/29 95 put at .80

#ironcondor #ironbutterfly LI Sold March…

#ironcondor #ironbutterfly LI

Sold March 19, 25/33/33/36 for 4.82 Chinese electric SUV company-what could go wrong?

#tastytradefollow

SPX trades

#SPX7dteLong Bought to open $SPX Jan 29th 3815/3835-3845/3865 iron condors for 16.55, with SPX at 3841.

#SPX1dte Bought to close Jan 25th 3780/3760 put spreads for .10. Stop was hit on the huge dip so playing it safe.

GME Crazy

Bought to Open GME Feb 12 2021 17.0 Puts / Sold to Open GME Jan 29 2021 30.0 Puts @ 0.15 Credit
Bought to Open GME Feb 19 2021 15.0 Puts / Sold to Open GME Jan 29 2021 29.0 Puts @ 0.13 Credit
Paired off with my one crazy GME Call Spread
GME = 75.0 after almost hitting 160 earlier today

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/gamestop-explodes-early-trading-nears-10-billion-market-cap-amc-next

Also holding 2 lottery tickets 02/05/2021 12.0 Puts left over from the spread I did last week.

Explaining The Action: Benzinga PreMarket Prep co-host Dennis Dick and Tim Quast, founder and CEO of ModernIR and Market Structure Edge, discussed the short squeeze trade on Monday morning’s show.
“There are people arguing with me that GameStop’s fundamentals have totally turned around and this price is justified. And I’m trying to say this has absolutely nothing to do with company fundamentals in a move like GameStop,” Dick said.
Related Link: GameStop’s Power Surge: Will WallStreetBets Or The Short Sellers Come Out On Top?
Citron Research editor Andrew Left has taken a lot of heat from critics since taking a short position and setting a $20 price target for GameStop earlier this month. Quast said the difficulties Left and other small-time retail traders face in timing these huge runs is that they don’t have access to the same real-time information that large market makers like Citadel Securities do. In addition, the market makers don’t have to play by the same rules.
“This is something that traders often don’t understand,” Quast said. “There is a market-making exemption for the Citadels and the Two Sigma’s and the Morgan Stanleys and the Goldman Sachs of the world where they don’t have to locate stock to short like you and I would…They have been granted an SEC exemption as market makers from having to locate shares. They can manufacture them.”
“This is how a stock can behave crazily. How is it possible that GameStop is up 817% prior to today…just in the last 90 days?” Quast said.
Short Interest Vs. Short Volume: Quast said there are important reasons for these exceptions to the normal trading rules for market makers, who are responsible for maintaining liquidity in the stock market. But traders must understand what’s actually going on.
“Citadel is going to know what the buy-sell balance is, and when it reaches a point of equilibrium, Citadel will shift short and we will see a mean reversion for GameStop. And the only way you will see that is by watching short volume, not short interest. It will be three weeks out of date, and it’s absolutely meaningless as a measure of float or total shares outstanding,” Quast said.
Quast said these “manufactured” shares produced by market makers are responsible for stocks like GameStop temporarily having short interest well above 100%.
Is This The End? The wild trading action on Monday comes the same day Goldman Sachs issued a note pointing out potential bubble valuations in 39 stocks. Goldman named Crispr Therapeutics AG (NASDAQ:CRSP), Snowflake Inc (NYSE:SNOW) and Plug Power Inc (NASDAQ:PLUG) among the most overvalued stocks in the market based on projected 2022 enterprise value-to-sales ratios.
At around 10 a.m. on Monday, many of the heavily shorted stocks associated with the recent squeeze began to reverse course, including GameStop. On Twitter, Dick speculated that the short squeeze trade may have finally capitulated to the upside.
“It’s cooling off rapidly in last 5 minutes. I think we just topped out,” he wrote. “We just saw ‘Peak Stupidity’ and everyone is learning the hard way right now.”
Benzinga’s Take: The GameStop run among retail traders has worked like a charm up to this point and has likely forced plenty of retail short sellers to cover their positions at large losses. However, successfully timing the entry and exit points in highly volatile short squeezes can be extremely difficult, even for professional traders.

BZ: Steve Weiss On CNBC’s Halftime Report Says Bought GameStop Puts In March Because ‘This Is All Going Down,’ Says ‘This Should Be A $2 Stock’

Sell Mortimer … Sell
sell mortimer sell

TQQQ,

STO March 19, 55 puts at 1.47

#coveredcalls OXY Sold Feb. 12,…

#coveredcalls OXY

Sold Feb. 12, 23 call for .71. Stock at 21.

ABNB

BTC $ABNB Feb-05-2021 125/135 #BuPS @0.12 Debit. Was STO @2.00 on 1/12/2021

VXX Spreads

Bought to open VXX 02/19/2021 38.0 Calls /Sold VXX 01/29/2021 19.0 Calls @ 0.02 Credit
Bought to open VXX 02/19/2021 33.0 Calls /Sold VXX 01/29/2021 18.0 Calls @ 0.03 Credit.
These pair off with existing VXX Put spreads.

BB Crazy

Sold to close the long Puts I owned against the short puts that expired Friday despite BB being up 45% today.
Sold to close BB Mar 19 2021 6 Puts @ 0.23.
Bought them @ 0.18 and they were fully paid for by Friday’s short.

LAZR JD Puts Closed

#shortputs
$LAZR BTC 1/29 26 put at .10. STO at 1.15 Thank you @fuzzballl for making me see the light!
$JD BTC 1/29 85 put at .07. STO 1/11 at 1.83

LAZR

#ShortPuts – Taking these a couple weeks early.

Bought to Close LAZR FEB 5 2021 25.0 Puts @ .15 (sold for 1.25)

NVDA Roll

BTC $NVDA Jan-29-2021 495/505 #BuPS @0.19 debit
STO $NVDA Feb-19-2021 490/500 #BuPS @1.59 credit

COUP

#ShortPuts – Selling outside the expected move and down near the 200ma and a couple weeks before earnings.

Sold COUP FEB 26 2021 285.0 Put @ 4.20

GME Crazy

Bought 1 GME 02/12/2021 100.0 Call while selling 1 GME 01/29/2021 80.0 Call @ 2.00 Credit on the open.
Execution prices were 22.0 for the buy and 24.0 for the sell.
We will see if the tornado bucks me off on Friday

ABNB

STC $ABNB Jan-29-2021 $185 #Calls @9.6. Long side of the call spread from last week – was BTO @6.30.

Had a limit order in and walked away for 5 minutes. Should have been a trailing stop, as its higher now. Dammit. 50% profit on this side. Short side expired worthless over the weekend.

NNDM Puts

#shortputs
$NNDM STO 2/19 17.50 puts at 3.50. I’ll take stock at $14.

SPY Hedge Profit

Sold to close SPY 01/29/2021 385.0 Calls @ 2.20.
Bought these on 12/22 at 1.83 and again on 12/24 at 1.33

Will buy a new long several weeks longer in time (at a higher strike) to hedge my short calls.

SPX 7-dte

#SPX7dteLong Sold to close $SPX Jan 25th 3835/3815 put spreads for 2.20. Banking on call side for a better return. Condors bought last Wednesday for 15.55.

Graphs on Individual Positions Over Time in IB Account

Tables/Graphs representing each of the positions over time. Good representation of where the profits are being generated.

https://coveredcallswithjeff.wordpress.com/2021/01/23/individual-positions-in-ib-account-and-return-over-time/

#coveredcalls, #return-over-time

Good week in market = good week in IB Account

Positions and Friday trades at bottom of post.

https://coveredcallswithjeff.wordpress.com/2021/01/23/ib-account-wk-ending-1-22-21-new-high-of-381160-16564-in-the-week-4-5/

#coveredcallcampaign, #coveredcalls

Expirations

#optionsexpiration
$VLO 60 call
$SLV 23.5 call
$FSLR 88 put

Assigned
$T 30 put

Have a comfortable weekend

NNDM Calls

#coveredcalls
$NNDM STO 2/19 20 call at .85

UVXY

Bought to close UVXY 01/22/2021 10.00 Diagonal Puts @ 0.01. They won’t trade any lower.
#UVXYContango trade the worked

NFLX

#ShortPuts – Sold NFLX FEB 19 2021 510.0 Put @ 3.60

RIOT Put

#shortputs
$RIOT STO 1/29 20 put at 1.60

SPX 1-dte

#SPX1dte Sold to Open $SPX Jan 25th 3760/3780-3890/3910 iron condors for 1.15, SPX at 3848, IV 9.7%, deltas: -.07,+.07

Expiring: Jan 22nd 3780/3800-3905/3925 condors, sold yesterday for .85

GME Crazy

Range today 42.59 – 76.75
The stock ran over the highest strikes for ANY month @ $60
and with the stock UP $15 now, almost every put in any expiration month is UP

#lotteryticket

VXX Calls

Bought to close VXX 01/22/2021 18.00 Diagonal Calls @ 0.01. They won’t trade any lower.

Sold these @ 0.47 & 0.48 on 01/15.

I’m letting expire other short VXX short calls I have for today at even higher strikes

PLTR Calls Roll / MRVL Strangle / TDOC BUPS Close

#coveredcalls
$PLTR BTC 1/22 27 call and STO 1/29 29 call at added credit of .22

#shortstrangles
$MRVL STO 1/29 53.5/55 strangle at 1.90

#bups
$TDOC BTC 2/19 190/200 BUPS at .40. STO at 2.50 on 1/7. Thank you @ramie77

OSTK

#CoveredCalls – Rolling out for a little more credit. These calls were run over and slightly below my basis. Getting closer to getting out at even then re-establishing over earnings.

Rolled OSTK JAN 22 2021 52.0 Calls to FEB 5 2021 52.0 Calls @ .80 credit

SNOW

#ShortStrangles #ShortStraddles – Rolling out and into a short straddle.

Rolled SNOW JAN 22 2021 327.5 Put to FEB 5 2021 325.0 Put @ 1.10 credit
Rolled SNOW JAN 29 2021 330.0 Call to FEB 5 2021 325.0 Call @ 2.50 credit

Position is now short 325 straddle @ 44.05

EDIT: Have so much premium in this now I’m rolling the call down to reduce deltas. Slightly inverted but more credit than the inversion.

Rolled SNOW FEB 5 2021 325.0 Call to FEB 5 2021 300.0 Call @ 4.10 credit

VXX Puts

Another #VXXContango Special works as planned.
Bought to close 01/22/2021 16.0 Diagonal Puts @ 0.01. Sold these on 01/20 @ 0.27

Now net long some more Jan 2022 6.0 Puts for free.

SLB Calls

Bought to close 01/22/2021 SLB 26.50 Diagonal Calls @ 0.01. Sold on 01/15 @ 0.29
Bought to close 01/22/2021 SLB 27.00 Diagonal Calls @ 0.01. Sold on 01/19 @ 0.20

Rolled SLB 01/22/2021 23.00 Diagonal Calls up to 01/29/2021 23.50 Calls@ 0.02 Credit

LABU

#ShortPuts – Adding…

Sold LABU FEB 19 2021 90.0 Put @ 2.80

LAZR

#ShortPuts – Closing and opening.

Bought to Close LAZR JAN 29 2021 26.0 Puts @ .15 partial fill (sold for 1.10)
Sold LAZR FEB 12 2021 26.0 Puts @ 1.15

VXX Put Rolls

Rolled VXX 01/22/2021 19.50 Puts to next week for 0.22 Credit.
Rolled VXX 01/22/2021 20.00 Puts to next week for 0.17 Credit.
Rolled VXX 01/22/2021 21.50 Puts to next week for 0.20 Credit.
Rolled VXX 01/22/2021 22.50 Puts to next week for 0.17 Credit.

My short VXX 15.00, 15.50 and 16.00 short puts are still looking like they will expire tomorrow.

NVDA

#BearCallSpreads – Gotta take it a couple weeks early on this move.

Bought to Close NVDA FEB 5 2021 485.0/405.0 Bull Put Spread @ 1.05 (sold for 5.10)

RKT Roll (Feel like dancing?)

#shortputs
$RKT BTC 1/22 21 put and STO 1/29 20 put at debit of .35 but would gain $1 if assigned.

EOG DVN OXY COP APA SLB MRO

Oil Producers and Drillers Tumble: Biden Poised To Freeze Oil And Coal Leasing On Federal Land.

DVN and EOG are each down over 8%

SLB Rollup / Earnings tomorrow

Bought to close SLB 01/22/2021 23.50 Diagonal Calls / Sold 01/29/2020 24.00 Calls @ 0.02 Credit plus a half point bump in the short strike.

Waiting for short 26.50 and 27.00 short calls expiring tomorrow to drop to a penny.

SPX trades

#SPX7dteLong Bought to Open Jan 27th $SPX 3835/3855-3865/3885 iron condors for 15.60, with SPX at 3860

#SPX1dte Sold to Open Jan 22nd $SPX 3780/3800-3905/3925 iron condors for .80, SPX at 3860, IV 11.6%, deltas -.06,+.06.

LABU

#ShortPuts – Fairly aggressive starter position (for me). At the expected move and just below the 50ma.

Sold LABU FEB 19 2021 95.0 Put @ 3.40

ABNB March

Sold to open $ABNB 3/19 135 puts @ 4.70. Delta 14. Looking to get long at a basis around 130, below the early Jan lows.

VXX Calls

Sold all the following on the run to 16.50 in VXX.
Sold VXX 01/29/2021 18.00 diagonal calls @ 0.40
Sold VXX 01/29/2021 18.50 diagonal calls @ 0.34 & 0.36
Sold VXX 01/29/2021 19.00 diagonal calls @ 0.29
Sold VXX 01/29/2021 19.50 diagonal calls @ 0.25
#DoubleDip against long Feb and March calls already paid for with earlier diagonals

ABNB LAZR

Roll $ABNB Jan-29-2021 125/135 #BuPS // Feb 21 130/140 @1.65 credit
Roll $LAZR Jan-22-2021 29 #ShortPuts // Feb-12-2021 28 @1.85 credit

NVDA

Roll $NVDA Jan-22-2021 505/515 #BuPS // Feb-12-2021 490/500 #BuPS @1.65 credit.

#earningsPLUG BuPS STO 26 Feb…

#earningsPLUG BuPS
STO 26 Feb 50/55 for 1.76
Earnings on 4 March

Britain’s IG to buy tastytrade for $1 billion in U.S. foray | Reuters

Britain’s IG said it plans to buy U.S. trading platform tastytrade for $1 billion, venturing into North America after a stellar year for the new breed of retail investment brokerages.
— Read on www.reuters.com/article/us-tastytrade-m-a-ig-idUSKBN29Q0PO

SNOW

#ShortStrangles – Having second thoughts about double selling the calls. Closing the one sold yesterday but leaving next week’s 330 strike. Sold against a Jan 22nd 327.5 put I’ll be rolling soon.

Bought to Close SNOW FEB 5 2021 330.0 Call @ 5.00 (sold for 4.10)

PLTR Calls / NIO Puts Roll / PENN Puts Closed

#coveredcalls
$PLTR STO 1/22 27 call at .28

#shortputs
$NIO BTC 1/22 59.50 put and STO 1/29 58.50 put at .60 added credit and $1 less if assigned
$PENN BTC 1/22 96 put at .10. STO 1/19 on stock quick drop at 3.10

SLB Rollup / Earnings tomorrow

Bought to close SLB 01/22/2021 24.00 Diagonal Calls / Sold 01/29/2020 24.50 Calls @ 0.02 Credit plus a half point bump in the short strike.

WFC Rolls

Rolled WFC 01/22/2021 30.50 Diagonal Calls out a week for 0.13 Credit
Rolled WFC 01/22/2021 31.00 Diagonal Calls out a week for 0.18 Credit
Rolled WFC 01/22/2021 31.50 Diagonal Calls up to 01/29/2021 32.00 Calls for 0.02 Credit.

Waiting for my short 01/22/2021 33.00 Diagonal calls to drop to a penny so I can cover them (or I’ll just let them expire).

LULU

Rolled $LULU Jan-22-2021 330/340 #BuPS // Feb-05-2021 325/335 @1.35 credit
Holding Jan-29-2021 330/340 #BuPS

ARKK

#ShortPuts – Starter…first time in it. Selling the expected move down near the 50 day.

Sold ARKK FEB 26 2021 125.0 Put @ 2.95