#ShortPut #IRA – If I can get over half the premium in 6 days I’ll take it. Yuuuge rally this week.
Bought to Close NVDA DEC 21 2018 210.0 Put @ 2.80 (sold for 5.80 last Friday)
Recent Updates Page 299
Shutting down a couple more short put positions
Bought to close $CMI Dec 21 105 puts @ .30. Sold for 1.40 on 5/2.
Bought to close $SWKS Sep 21 85 puts @ .40. Sold for 1.20 on 7/23. I normally would let a position like this expire in a few weeks with the stock at 93, but anything can happen with this one (it had a 30% drop in a little over a month earlier this year). Felt better to just take the profits and move on.
GOOGL BTO Sept 7 1200/1202.5…
GOOGL BTO Sept 7 1200/1202.5 1.85 #supercharger
STC GOOGL Aug 31 1195/1197.5 2.20 Paid 1.85 week ago
Extra credit…
… to whoever can identify what the background today represents (Oregon residents are excluded from the contest). Refresh the page if you still are seeing bamboo.
Taking profits on NKTR
Bought to close $NKTR Nov 16 30 puts @ .45. Sold for 1.85 on 6/5.
EWZ Oct strangle
An idea from TastyTrade.
Sold $EWZ Oct 19 28/36 strangle @ 1.76 with EWZ right in the middle at 32.00.
Adding DUST
Sold at highest strikes:
$DUST Nov 16 64 calls @ 1.00
$DUSH Mar 15 2019 64 call @ 2.10
VMIN
Interesting one, MamaCash. From the prospectus:
“The Fund expects to primarily take short positions in and obtain short exposure to VIX Futures Contracts with two to six months to expiration, but may take short positions in and obtain short exposure to VIX Futures Contracts with shorter or longer durations. The Fund expects the notional value of its exposure to VIX Futures Contracts to be equal to approximately 100% of Fund assets at the close of each trading day, but the notional value of such exposure may be less, and could be substantially less, at the close of any trading day. Under normal circumstances, the Fund will invest at least 80% of its net assets, plus any borrowings for investment purposes, in financial instruments that in combination provide short exposure to VIX Futures Contracts.”
Here are today’s holdings:
I am considering buying shares as well based on the dividend. Price is only around 3.30 so not a big risk if all is lost (which it could be in these inverse vol products, like SVXY).
GOOGL SuperCharger
#SuperCharger Bought to Open $GOOGL Set 7th 1200/1210 Bull call spread for 7.20. It has a daily squeeze. You can get a better price now, or move down a strike or two. Goal closing price is 9.40.
#pietrades, #rolling, #hedge On vacation…
On vacation this week but home so still doing some trading.
Let’s get the crap out of the way first. Sorry to anyone who followed AMAT. Loss on the last earnings 12 weeks ago. Almost worked it back to even but they beat last week but still punished so break even or near break even is now a loss again. I mostly had these in small accounts so am closing so I can use the money on something more effective. BTC all the 47 call options for pennies, 0.03. Sold the stock at 43.06 and 43.09. Total losses (not per contract) of $588 on lot 1 and $558 on lot 2. Not bad considering it was down over $2000 initially. Rolling helps but the reason I am closing it is this: as it dropped below $50 the premiums dried up. ATM 1 week out is only 0.4-0.5. Not enough for #pietrades. Second reason is after 14 weeks of not being able to break even, time to move on. Like GM this is off the #pietrade list for a while. If you can’t bring in more than 0.5-1% per week, not worth #pietrade.
STC the SPX 2550 calendar hedge for 0.55. So a 1 month hedge only cost 0.65. I will continue playing with these but doubt I will always have a hedge. Maybe easier to just short some /ES futures when needed.
Rest are updates, rolls, new trades.
#fuzzies
MU LEAP 55/50 8 DTE cb at 11.26. At least MU found a base.
WDC LEAP 60/ 65 29 DTE cb at 17.78. Looks like finding new range in the 60-70 area.
EOG LEAP 115/115 29 DTE cb at 11.2.
XBI LEAP 87/95 and 95/95 rolled out to 22 DTE for 0.72 credit. cb now 6.8 and 3.32. Should be free trades soon.
#pietrades
LABU 8 DTE 85 put for 1.9, cb 83.10 if assigned. Good support at 85.
TQQQ lot 1 65 cc rolled to next week 65.5 cc for 0.20 credit. Cb 62.78
TQQQ lot 2 65 CC cb 63.23, new trade, small account only 1-2 contracts
TQQQ lot 3 65 cc rolled to next week 65.5 for 0.25 credit. Cb now 62.98
TQQQ lot 4 66 CC cb 65.02 new trade.
TQQQ lot 5 65 cc cb 63.90
Looks like a lot of TQQQ but each account only 1-2 contracts, I am diversified elsewhere. However I have noticed that my more concentrated accounts are doing much better. Better to be a specialist than a general practitioner like me, at least for trading. Also have noticed the more you get direction right, the better the non directional trades do better. Will keep working on being better at directional bias.
A few other changes. No more #pietrades on earnings. Last 5 out of 8 went bad and basically flattened my equity curve for the last 4 months. Would have done much better without those. If I do them will use spreads in advance. Without those 5 losing earnings trades I could have paid off my wife’s car.
Converting deep ITM #pietrades into #fuzzy is a very effective risk reduction tool. Allows you to limit margin but also keep selling premium weekly and looking at 100% returns over 6 months if I keep them going. Probably best tactic for small accounts.
I will be moving most of the #pietrades over to ETFs and leveraged products to avoid the single ticker risk. The ladder idea works well for this 45 DTE and closing/rolling after 3 weeks.
ADSK
#Earnings after the close today. I would take a shot but I’m already in a long term LEAPS position that was a repair trade from about 3 quarters ago. Finally sitting at breakeven but I’m gonna hold it through the announcement.
It’s a 3×4 ratio with little to no upside risk and makes money down to 134 which is my short call strike.
SVXY
Took the last of my SVXY stock today (other than a single Jan 2019 25 strike put). This is pretty typical of where most of my SVXY positions were.
Original trade was Jan 2019 80/80/77.5 Synthetic Stock @ 25.50 so luckily the worse case scenario is a basis about 25 dollars above where the stock is. The short puts were exercised so I sold the long puts. I’ve unloaded all my other stock but I’ll hang on to this one since it’s only a couple hundred shares.
Sold SVXY SEP 21 2018 14.5 Calls @ .38
Covered Call type of morning in PDX
Back home at last… slept well so keeping jet lag at bay!
#CoveredCallCampaign #SyntheticCoveredCalls Since I’ve been trading lighter I mostly only have long stock and long #LEAPs positions. Looking for new entries… who’s got something?
Wednesday I was over the Pacific without enough WiFi megabytes to trade, so fortunately the market didn’t do much.
Tuesday: BTC $SQ 75 calls for 1.55. Small loss. #StrangleRoll: Sold Aug 31st 73.5/78.5 strangles for 1.95.
Tuesday: BTC SQ Aug 24th 76 call for 1.16 & Aug 31st 76 call for 1.96. Breakeven combining the two.
Today: #Rolling Sold SQ Sep 7th 79 call for 1.55; sold Sept 7th 80 call for 1.50
Today: Sold $BABA Sep 14th 195 Covered Call for 1.50
Tuesday: Rolled $AAPL Aug 24th 202.5 #CoveredCalls to Aug 31st 205 covered calls, breakeven. Still underwater on this one but managing to creep my strike up.
Today: Sold $FB Sep 14th 182.5 covered call for 1.45.
Today: Sold $AMAT Aug 31st 43 covered call for .80. This #PieTrade is a stinker… not much premium to work with.
BABA
#LongCalls #LEAPS – Taking advantage of the earnings bounce up to resistance. The overall position is approaching zero deltas again so booking it.
Sold to Close BABA JAN 17 2020 180.0 Calls @ 31.95
Bought to Close BABA AUG 24 2018 180.0 Calls @ 4.60
Ended up with 2.73 profit on a 3 lot…
Now if the China negotiations fall apart I can look to re-enter on the drop. 🙂
Assigned last SVXY shares
Not sure what the hold up was but I finally got assigned the last lot of SVXY from the short puts I had (January 85s). I’ve closed around 20% of the position using basis reduction from UVXY and VXX so I’ll keep plugging away (and maybe start writing some covered calls as SVXY pushes toward 20). I’ll be at this project for at least another year.
SVXY
STO August 31, 14 calls at .45 cents. I will roll these if SVXY is above 14 on Aug 31
Adding SJM
A little more J in the PB&J in January.
Sold $SJM Jan 18 2019 90 puts @ 1.55. Delta 16.
Taking off Oct MYL
Bought to close $MYL Oct 19 30 puts @ .08. Sold for .76 on 5/2.
Rolling Again
#shortcalls
$NFLX BTC 8/24 337.5 call and sell 9/7 345 call at additional .40 credit. This is covered. $NFLX stock now at 344.29 after two nice up days. Was at 330 when I first covered stock on 8/21.
VMIN anyone?
I bot 100 shares of VMIN today just to see what will happen with dividends in December.:-) Has anyone here ever bought or sold this ETF?
#volatility
Rolling Backwards and UP – Oh What Fun
#shortputs
$EXAS BTC 1/2019 35 puts and STO 10/19 60 puts at additional 2.30 credit.
Stock shot up today on Pfizer collaboration. Their earnings should be after option expires. If I dare wait for anything to expire anymore.
A TRADE:
ESPR STO 9/21/18 40.0 PUTS @1.75 Thanks for idea Mr. Thomberg101. You made me look again. ;>)
Close GOOGL BECS Early / GOOGL Puts
#shortcalls
Closed Early
$GOOGL BTC 9/21 1320/1300 BECS at 1.50 STO on 8/10 @ 4.50
#shortputs
$GOOGL STO 9/21 1200/1210 BUPS at 3.55
#earnings #shortstraddle #closing URBN Yesterday…
#earnings #shortstraddle #closing URBN
Yesterday sold Aug. 24, 47.50 straddle for 4.03, bought today for 2.70.
#pietrade ATVI is bouncing of…
#pietrade
ATVI is bouncing of the 200 day MA, usually a nice entry point. Earnings are not before November. Reason enough for me to try a pietrade with selling a put Aug31 at 71 at 1.02
#shortputs ESPR Followed honkhonk and…
#shortputs ESPR
Followed honkhonk and geewhiz’ trade yesterday into this but sold a Sept. 21, 40 put for 1.77-thanks
Closing NVDA
Taking about 65% of the profit out of this.
Bought to close $NVDA Sep 21 230/220 BuPS @ .56. Sold for 1.55 on 8/17.
Closing JBHT
Taking more than 70% of the profit a few months early.
Bought to close $JBHT Nov 16 100 puts @ .40. Sold for 1.45 on 7/16.
A TRADE:
BJ BTO STOCK @26.49
TRADE: ESPR – A little…
TRADE: ESPR – A little risky, but on the P&F Charts it’s on a buy signal at 49.0. P&F=Point & Figure Chart
ESPR STO 9/21/18 50.0 PUT @5.30
ROKU BTO STOCK 58.69 An add. Also on a P&F buy signal @59.0
NFLX SPLK EXAS AVGO AAXN Covered Calls
#shortcalls
$NFLX STO 8/24 337.50 calls at 2.95 Covered My timing not too good
$SPLK STO 8/24 110 calls at 1.75 Covered
$EXAS STO 8/31 51 calls at .65 Covered
$AVGO STO 8/31 212.50 calls at 1.80 Covered
$AAXN STO 9/21 70 calls at 1.00 Covered
FYI SJM is down 7%
FYI
SJM is down 7%
AMTD is down 7% on news
SPX all-time high
This also cancels the Downside Warning.
#earnings #shortstraddle URBN Sold August…
#earnings #shortstraddle URBN
Sold August 24, 47.50 straddle for 4.03, very high IV
Spx Trades
BTC Sept 21st 2750 short puts at 7.70, as ES tagged its high point earlier this morning, sold prev on 8-16 for 14.20…
gain near the 50% mark..
Resold the same puts for 7.50, for the rest of the premium against the original long side…
that gives me a 50% profit now, and the other half when it expires or is worth very little…
these were sold as SPX bottomed after my aug 9th reversal call…timing is everything …
#shortputs #fallingknife #closing HBI August…
#shortputs #fallingknife #closing HBI
August 1, followed Iceman in selling a couple January, 16 puts @ .65, closed today for .35, didn’t lose my shorts on this one.
#shortputs #closing TRTN January 19,…
#shortputs #closing TRTN
January 19, I sold a Feb. 16, 35 put after TRTN dropped to 40, February 16 it was below 28, rolled to March, then to October. Today it’s hovering around 39, bought the put today for 82, making 4.50 after the rolls. Still have an Oct. 40 put that originated in Nov. of 2017 that is profitable but no trading in it today.
TSLA rolling
#Rolling. A fun experiment trying to tame this ridiculous stock. Don’t try this at home.
BTC $TSLA Aug 24th 260/320 strangles for 8.90. Sold for 6.90 yesterday.
Sold TSLA Aug 24th 312.5/335 strangles for 9.75.
Sticking with this Friday’s expiration. Going to bed now.. can’t wait to see where this one is when I check the market at 4am.
#pietrade LABU STO the 10…
LABU STO the 10 DTE 85 put for 1.9. Cb 83.1 if assigned but more likely will roll. With the pull back in the biotechs there is good support around 85 for LABU.
SQ BTC the 70 put…
SQ BTC the 70 put expiring this Friday for 0.11. Sold for 0.95 last Thurs.
SVXY
STO August 31, 14 covered calls @ .52 following Iceman in trying to get some money out of this dead trade.I will roll them if I need to.
Last night in Tokyo
I’ll be on a plane during Wednesday’s session and back in Portland Thursday. This has not been easy with the market opening at 10:30pm. It’s too hard to stay up late when you’re old.
TSLA 5-day strangle
NOTE: There may be errors…
NOTE: There may be errors and omissions in this list. Please perform your own due diligence and confirm the earnings date BEFORE entering a trade.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Notable Earnings AM Mon:
CMCM, EL, ZOES
Notable Earnings PM Mon:
FN, NDSN
Notable Earnings AM Tues:
COTY, KSS, MDT, SJM, TJX, TOL
Notable Earnings PM Tues:
GSM, KEYS, MYGN, PSTG, SE, URBN
Notable Earnings AM Wed:
ADI, BITA, LOW, MOMO, RY, TGT, USAT
Notable Earnings PM Wed:
HTHT, LB, SNPS, WSM, YRD, ZAYO
Notable Earnings AM Thurs:
BABA, HRL
Notable Earnings PM Thurs:
ADSK, GPS, HPQ, INTU, ROST, SPLK, VEEV, WMW
Notable Earnings AM Fri:
BIG, FL, HIBB
Notable Earnings PM Fri:
None
TQQQ
My 69.5 calls expired on Friday so today I sold the August 31, 68 calls for .50cents against my 66.67 calls in 2020. I need .23 cents per week to cover the cost of my leap calls so am right on schedule so far.
WTW
#CoveredCalls – Big bounce today so stopped out on my over writing of the calls…
Bought to Close WTW AUG 24 2018 75.0 Calls @ .75 (sold for 4.13)
Still holding next week’s 73s…
#earnings EL Friday I sold…
#earnings EL
Friday I sold a Sept. 21 120/150 strangle for 1.71, bought today for 1.00.
Unrelated, I’m on the wrong side of SODA.
TRTN ites
2019 April and December exp dates open now…
LABU TWLO
#LongCalls #LEAPS – Small trades bringing in some lunch money…
LABU:
These are ratio’d so with this week’s looking safe selling another half a little early. This is a tiny 2×1 starter where I may add to the LEAPS eventually.
Sold LABU SEP 7 2018 98.0 Call @ 1.20
TWLO:
Earnings trade where I rolled ITM short calls to ITM bull put spreads. Selling against those now (hopefully safely).
Sold TWLO SEP 7 2018 84.0 Calls @ .61
TSLA
BTO NOV 18 405/410 BuCS .50
This is a flyer as per DK
TSLA Sep
Sold $TSLA Sep 21 250/240 bull put spread for 1.60.
Econ Calendar for week of 8/20/18
Expiration / Assigned / Roll / Closed Early / Trades
#optionsexpiration
$NFLX 340/345 BUPS Total Loss
$FB 160/170 BUPS Expired worthless as opposed to total loss
$FB 155/165 BUPS Expired worthless
$SPLK 115 Call Covered
$TRTN 35 call Covered Stock taken away Basis 31
$DBX 32.5 call Covered
$AAXN 65 call Covered
$TNDM 28 put Thank you @honkhonk81
#assignment
$M 8/17 40 puts Earnings trade gone awry. Perhaps profitable by Black Friday? Basis 38.95
$WTW 8/17 89 puts Earnings trade result. Will be waiting for the fat going back into account. Basis 85.20
#shortputs
Rolled
$MZOR 8/17 70 puts rolled to 9/21 at even Getting dizzy from rolling this one
Closed Early
$NFLX 8/17 315/325 BUPS at 2.10 STO at 1.75
$SPX BTC 8/24 2760/2785 BUPS at 1.00 STO at 2.70 on 8/10 Thank you @jeffcp66
Trade
$GOOGL STO 9/21 1180/1190 BUPS at 2.81
Enjoy the rest of the weekend. Thanks for all the thought provoking discussions.
TSLA dump
#Earnings #Rolling Forced to close out my strange… the stock way overshot my target range of the 330’s on Friday.
BTC $TSLA Aug 24th 332.5/340 strangles for 31.28. Sold for 18.60 on Wednesday.
This is an ongoing roll campaign… should have just stuck with the short calls, but I didn’t think the drop would be this fast so the puts became the problem. Will decide how to reposition next week.
Options Expiration for Aug 17
I’ve been aggressive in closing and rolling positions so not much left to expire in August.
Expiring:
$HES Aug 17 32.50 puts
$HSY Aug 17 85 puts
$HSY Aug 17 90 puts
$GWW Aug 17 310 puts
Assignment:
$GWW Aug 17 340 call (covered)
Have a great weekend everyone.
SPX stopped
#SPXcampaign Stopped $SPX Aug 31st 2860/2885 call spreads for 9.50. Sold for 6.70 on Tuesday. Too much strength to leave it over the weekend. Will wait for a new, better entry.
#shortputs #closing LH July 25,…
July 25, sold Nov. 160 put for 2.40, was a couple days early on this former #fallingknife, bought today for 1.10.
TRADES:
ESPR 9/21/18 STO 55.0 CALLS @2.15
MZOR 9/21/18 STO 50.0 CALLS @.65
TUR 9/21/18 STO 19.0 PUTS @.85
TUR 9/21/18 STO 22.0 PUTS @2.12
TUR 9/21/18 STO 24.0 CALLS @.60
#longcallspread GOOGL BTO Aug 17…
#longcallspread
GOOGL
BTO Aug 17 1220/1230 for $1
#earnings #shortstrangles EL Sold Sept….
#earnings #shortstrangles EL
Sold Sept. 21 120/150 for 1.71, only monthly expirations, high IV, prive hovering around 135.
#longputspread GOOGL STC Aug 17…
GOOGL
STC Aug 17 1210/1200for $1.60 (didn’t move quickly enough in first hour), bought yesterday for net $0 via delay 1 hour between buy 1210 and sell 1200 for SAME $1.10;
reenter 1210/1200 for 1.45, 1.50; close half for $3.00
Rolling a couple of dogs
Deep in the money short puts that have been hanging around for a while just to bring some red to my screen it seems.
Rolled $RRC Aug 17 22 puts out to Jan 18 2019 22 puts @ .05 credit
Rolled $AAL Aug 17 45 puts out to Nov 16 45 puts @ .27 credit
These should have been rolled earlier so I had to go further out to get credits. I’m feeling pretty good that we’ll see a turnaround in AAL. RRC, I’m less optimistic about.
#shortputs TUR Sold Nov. 16,…
#shortputs TUR
Sold Nov. 16, 19 put for 1.55
ADSK AMAT GLD PYPL RTN WTW
#LongCalls #LEAPS #CoveredCalls – Not a bad week for selling. Can’t wait until these are all (or most of ’em) #PureProfit. ADSK and PYPL weeklies are finally out of the money so selling can resume on them.
ADSK:
Bought to Close ADSK AUG 17 2018 132.0 Calls @ .05 (sold for 1.52)
Sold ADSK AUG 24 2018 134.0 Calls @ 3.00 (ratio’d for earnings next week)
AMAT
Sold AMAT AUG 31 2018 45.0 Calls @ .42 (replacing this week’s expiration that was sold for .87)
Earnings sucked so selling carefully now….
GLD:
Bought to Close GLD AUG 17 2018 116.5 Calls @ .01 (the rest of the partial from yesterday sold for .50)
PYPL:
Bought to Close PYPL AUG 17 2018 85.5 Calls @ .05 (sold for .36)
Sold PYPL AUG 31 2018 86.0 Calls @ .85
Sold PYPL SEP 7 2018 87.0 Calls @ .79
RTN:
Sold RTN AUG 31 2018 202.5 Calls @ 1.10 (still squeezing so ratio’d at the 200ma resistance)
WTW:
Sold WTW AUG 31 2018 73.0 Calls @ 1.15 (double selling covered calls with a stop on next week’s)
NVDA
#ShortPuts #IRA – Been looking for a chance to get involved in this one again…
Sold NVDA DEC 21 2018 210.0 Put @ 5.80
EOG conversion to put #fuzzy…
EOG conversion to put #fuzzy
BTO the 2020 EOG 115 put at 13.00 creating the 115 calendar with short expiring 35 days.
cb now 11.2 since the initial sale brought in 1.8. Another #pietrade #earnings gone wrong/bad and managing before it get too far ITM. Will manage this from put side.
Other reason was to reduce margin requirements so I can stay in some other trades that are finally working out.
With 69 weeks left only need to cover 0.17 per week for zero cost basis.
#earnings I think I am…
I think I am done with earnings trades for a while. The option prices do not adequately reflect the volatility. Yes the premiums rise into earnings but the move is bigger than expected so you still end up losing.
AMAT which I had almost recovered from previous earnings down 6.2% so will probably take another 12 weeks to break even. Now will have to sell below cost basis so will have to watch any reversal closely.
WDC, Mu total crap. Both beat earnings and expectations and have traded down 11-14%. At least MU looks like it may have found a base.
I can get same results using SMH for the chips without getting burned on earnings.
Be happy I did not sell puts in NVDA or it would have gone the other way 🙂
Have a great weekend!
Adjusting EWZ strangle
Position was a Sep 37/39 strangle. I’m probably late in this adjustment but I was on vacation most of this week and just catching up yesterday and today. I rolled the 39 calls down to 34 to go inverted by 3 points. Total premium is now 3.54 (2.57 for original position plus .97 for the roll) so I’m looking for a finish between 34 and 37 to take a .54 profit out of the trade. ETF is currently at 32.99.
TSLA
STC TSLA Aug 17 335.0/332.50 2.45 BTO 8-15 104.00 #supercharger
NVDA put spread
Sold $NVDA Sep 21 230/220 BuPS @ 1.55. I could be a bit early but the short strike (delta 22) is below recent support and below the 200 dma.
Good Morning
Good Morning
AMZN
STO 1730/1750 bull put spread @ .45 cent for August 24.
RTN
STO August 31, 205 calls @ .70 cents, long 195 calls in 2020.
NVDA earnings closed
#Earnings BTC $NVDA Aug 17th 240 puts for .24. Sold for 2.43 yesterday.
BTC NVDA Aug 17th 240/235 put spreads for .15. Sold for .87 yesterday.
ALRM Calls Rolled
#shortcalls
$ALRM BTC 8/17 52.50 calls and STO 9/21 55 calls at added .20 credit. Stock price 53.55
Options Bistro 