Tastyworks

This is a cool feature. Sort your watchlist by earnings date and easily see if it’s before or after the bell. Very nice!

Earnings

GWW

#IRA – Filled on another small one. Risk reduction…former #FallingKnife trade.

Bought to Close GWW APR 20 2018 160.0 Put @ .90 (sold for 3.80)

#shortputs OKTA

Sold Feb. 16 30 put for 2.00 potential #pietrade

NFLX Earnings

#Earnings -Thanks @Jeff for the reminder. Taking a page out of my “Turbocharge Your Fuzzy” post from last week. Looking at NFLX…where would I be happy setting up a #Fuzzy or a #SyntheticStock position? I would say right where Jeff was selling at the 50ma looks pretty good. If it doesn’t get there then great premium. If it does get there I can live with the entry for a new long position.

Sold NFLX JAN 26 2018 205.0 Put @ 2.69
Sold NFLX JAN 26 2018 202.5 Put @ 2.13
Sold NFLX JAN 26 2018 200.0 Put @ 1.68

EDIT…strange numbers on the fills since I did it as a single entry for 6.50 total.

Earnings trades

#Earnings
BTC $STZ Jan 19th 220 call for 1.65. Sold for 2.35 on Jan 4th. Still got another one to buy back before the close
BTC $AA Jan 19th 53.5 puts for .60. Sold as 53.5/59 strangles for 1.00 on Wednesday. Still holding more to cover before the close.

Sold $NFLX Jan 26th 200 put for 1.78. They announce Monday after the close so I’m starting my position now in case it rallies higher before the report.

Closing RRC to avoid assignment

Bought to close $RRC Jan 19 16 puts @ .15. Sold for 1.40 on 8/30.

Closing $EFX about 3 months early

Bought to close for near minimum value:
$EFX Apr 20 60 puts @ .04. Sold for 1.45 and 2.00 on 9/13.
$EFX Apr 20 55 put @ .02. Sold for 2.30 on 9/15.

XBI

#fuzzy #syntheticstock BTC Jan19 89call $0.05 STO Jan 9 $0.51… STO Jan26 90call $0.49..
Core is Jun 85/85/82 $5.78….$0.40 per week to cover max loss.

KR

#syntheticStock – Popping out of a tiny squeeze so giving it some room.

Rolled KR JAN 26 2018 29.5 Calls to KR FEB 9 2018 30.5 Calls @ .07 debit

Rolled KR Feb 2 29.5…

Rolled KR Feb 2 29.5 Calls to Feb 9 30.5 .24 debit more room upside

TLT

#PerpetualRollingStrangles – I won’t go into the details but added some protection for the bond collapse everyone is talking about.

Rolled DITM puts out and down
Still sitting on short calls near ATM
Added a June #FuzzyBear for some protection since delta was getting too long

Leaving it unhedged for now. Still enough time to sell to cover max loss…

REGN

#SyntheticStock – This one is working nicely. No crazy moves (yet). Earnings on the horizon (Feb 8 est) so still selling prior to that.

Bought to Close REGN JAN 19 2018 380.0 Call @ .20 (sold for 1.80)
Bought to Close REGN JAN 19 2018 380.0 Call @ .25 (sold for 1.80)

Sold REGN JAN 26 2018 380.0 Call @ 3.00
Sold REGN JAN 26 2018 380.0 Call @ 3.10

Strange fills. One for 2.80 credit and one for 2.85…

ISRG

#CoveredCalls – Earnings next week so rolling out but not up. I’d rather have the downside cushion. Love the premium in an earnings week. Wish they were all like this…

Rolled ISRG JAN 19 2018 420.0 Call to ISRG JAN 26 2018 420.0 Call @ 5.85 credit

GLD

#SyntheticStock -weekly getting run over again and I was very careful selling them… 🙂 Hard to predict that move (again). Trade is out to 2020 so plenty of time. Debit roll picking up 1.07 of upside.

Rolled GLD FEB 2 2018 122.0 Calls to GLD MAR 16 2018 124.0 Calls @ .93 debit (that erases all the weekly sales so far)

$SVXY Sold Feb 16th 100…

$SVXY Sold Feb 16th 100 Puts @ 2.05. with SVXY @ 131.90. Should have ask for more

ADSK

#SyntheticStock – I’ve got 2 of these going…

ADSK #1:

Rolled ADSK FEB 9 2018 108.0 Calls to ADSK MAR 2 2018 111.0 Calls @ .69 debit (picking up 2.31 of upside)

ADSK #2:

Bought to Close ADSK JAN 19 2018 115.0 Calls @ .05 (sold for .47)
Sold ADSK FEB 2 2018 116.0 Calls @ .95

UNG and Tastyworks

#SyntheticShortStock – Just for fun I funded an account over at tastyworks. Taking a short position in UNG with spring right around the corner. Also, it’s a slow mover with a slight bit of contango in it and just reversed split recently. Low maintenance to get accustomed to the platform over there. So far I like it.

Haven’t found a place to copy and paste my trades to here so I’ll go the brief route:

Jan 2018 25/25/27 synthetic short with disaster call @ 2.23 debit and 4.23 max loss

4.23 max loss with 52 weeks remaining need to sell 8 cents per week to cover worse case scenario

So:

Sold UNG Jan 26 2018 puts @ .22

#shortputs TRTN Sold feb. 16…

#shortputs TRTN
Sold Feb. 16 35 put for .90, TRTN down a little over 1.00 to upper 37s

Seeing STZ

#earnings
Closed “Early”
$STZ BTC 1/19 210/220 BUPS @ 1.90 STO @ 1.75 Small loss

MU, EXAS

#Fuzzy – BTC MU Jan19’18 45 calls for 0.03, sold for 0.31.  Looking to sell for next week.

STO EXAS Jan26’18 51.5 calls for 0.80

CELG

STO February 16, 115 covered calls @ .78

Closed Early GS Earnings Trade / Rolled NTNX Put / Earnings AMZN

Non Earning Earnings Trade
$GS BTC 1/19 250/255 BUPS @ 2.20 STO @ 1.00

#rolling
$NTNX Rolled 1/19 37.50 put to 2/16 37.50 pit @ 1.10 added credit and 30 days more of risk.

#earnings
$AMZN STO 2/2 1240/1250 BUPS @ 3.00

#ntnx

Rolling #CoveredCalls Won’t have much…

Rolling #CoveredCalls
Won’t have much access to the market this afternoon so taking care of a couple of rolls this morning.
Rolled $ATVI Jan 19 $65.5 calls to Feb 2 $66 calls for even
Rolled $RCL Jan 19 $124 calls to Feb 2 $125 calls for $0.65 credit

SPX calls sold

#SPXcampaign Sold $SPX Feb 9th 2875/2900 call spreads for 1.55. Missed the fill at highs and got caught in the plunge. I sold no call spreads in this expiry last week because we were in an Upside Warning.

Good Morning

Good Morning

Closed Early SPX SQ / SPX Campaign / Short Puts WYNN SVXY / Short Calls EXAS

$SPX STC 1/19 2765/2785 BUCS @ 18.70 BTO @ 2.92 Thank you @jeffcp66
$SQ BTC 1/19 35/40 BUPS @ 65% profit

#spxcampaign
$SPX STO 1/22 2755/2780 BUPS @ 2.20

#shortputs
$WYNN STO 1/26/170/175 BUPS @ 2.20
$SVXY STO 2/9 110 puts @ 3.00 Thank you @fuzzballl

#shortcalls
$EXAS STO 1/26 50 call @ 1.80 I will probably be assigned some stock tomorrow. If these are called away my position size would stay the same.

Jan 18

Not a lot to report here. The SPY double #Fuzzy performed well today (but really, and @hcgdavis already knows this, it’s just kind of a glorified double calendar–I doubt it will stay in the toolbox. It was nice to have a day where hedges actually got to work a little.

I’m working on a new Fuzzy derivative. Anyone a Don Kaufman fan? Don is at a site called Theo Trade. He sent out a video (free) last night for a trade called a “Risk Twist” trade. Perfect for continuing with trend participation without fear of reversal. His trade is a 7DTE 85-delta long call coupled with a 90-day broken wing reverse 1×3 put butterfly. I know, that’s a mouthful. It’s kind of a franken-fly. I modeled it, it was ok. Net long delta gives you trend participation, coupled with some protection. But I knew I (we) could do better! I must say I’ve got a couple great Fuzzy partners that help with tweaking and testing of fuzzies, @MamaCash and @Kathy111.

Enter…the “Fuzzy Twist” 7DTE 85-delta long call, 90 day Fuzzy bear (unhedged). This is a pretty nice trade for trend continuation (at extensions) with downside protection that kicks in almost immediately.

I put a bunch of them on today to gauge performance. Here’s one you can throw into an analyze tab to check out, pay attention to the t+1 line (purple line):
QQQ:
1. Jan 26 161 call @ 4.71
2. Apr -165 call @ -5.29
3 Apr 165 put @ 4.84
4. Apr 167 protective call @ 4.21

I’ve got these on the Q’s, SPY, DIA. You can be sure I’ll report back on their value, but I’m kind of psyched that it’s a tool to keep me in the trend at extensions.

Sue

#twistedfuzzy

SteadyOptions Trial

Taking a free 10 day trial here. Been following him awhile on Twitter and seems to do pretty good. Specializes in buying pre-earnings straddles. Maybe I can stumble on to something here that we can use…similar to some Whiz trades that eventually became the #SyntheticStock and #Fuzzy trades here.

Would be fun to have pre, current, and post earnings trades going!

I’ll keep you posted. 10 day trial and then I’ll probably stick around another month with earnings really cranking up….

https://steadyoptions.com/

No trades…

…just a theta decay day for me. If we get government shutdown, will it be a BTFD or something bigger? If they avert it, will another blistering rally commence?

Have a good evening

I am off to the gym.

#goldminers $NUGT BTC Jan 19…

#goldminers $NUGT

BTC Jan 19 $31.5 for $1.90, sold Jan 2 for $2.90. Not as good as expected but it could have been much worse. I own stock at $38 from Sept 14 near its peak, when will I learn about stops?

SPX March Hedge

#RocketManHedge -Last put sale was aggressive and open to a lot of whipsaw risk so closing it until after the shutdown gets resolved. Plenty of time to re-sell next week and still get out of the overall hedge in the green.

Bought to Close SPX JAN 19 2018 2790.0 Put @ 4.10 (sold for 9.70)

Market

We have broken above the 2.60 level on the TNX but, I want to see if we stay above that level or this is a false start. If we stay above 2.60, the next resistance is 3%. Not good for stocks if it breaks 3%. If we go into backwardation on the SVXY, we could see a big move because I think there are a lot of shorts in the futures contracts and when it turns, there is no liquidity.

BTO SPY Feb 9 278/280/278…

BTO SPY Feb 9 278/280/278 Bear #Fuzzy #Hedge Jan 26 276 net cost after comm .16
I know under water at this time

STC (I think) SPY Jan…

STC (I think) SPY Jan 19 #Fuzzy net profit 227.50 10 days 270/268/273 276 #hedge
Closed it

#coveredcall $SVXY Well the $134…

#coveredcall $SVXY
Well the $134 Jan 19 covered call bought yesterday for $131.50 went south pretty fast. I rolled the Jan 19 $134 call to Jan 26 for a $2 credit this morning when SVXY near bottom ($129.80.) Funny now it is back over $134.

#pietrades #shortputs AMAT I saw…

#pietrades #shortputs AMAT
I saw AMAT in the list, I have a 52.50 put expiring tomorrow, so I sold a Jan. 26 57.50 for 1.09, stock is at 57.58, apparently recovering from the chip issue

AAOI

#ShortStrangles – Still slogging away on this. Considering tripling the size and rolling it into #SyntheticStock . Might get me out of it sooner..

Bought to Close AAOI JAN 19 2018 37.5 Calls @ .05 (sold for .90)

Sold AAOI JAN 26 2018 34.5 Calls @ .70

SPX

Why are there 2 different options showing tomorrow’s date? Is there a PM settled on the monthly expiration now along with the usual one that settles at the Friday open on monthly expirations?

#SyntheticStock #Fuzzy – I’ve been…

#SyntheticStock #Fuzzy – I’ve been watching everyone trade this recently so thanks for getting it on my radar. Weeklies with decent premium and a little pullback. Exactly what I look for to get in these types of trades. I’m going hybrid again…in between a 90 day Fuzzy and a full blown LEAP. Taking it out to July to give it some time.

Sold EXAS JUL 20 2018 50.0 Puts @ 7.55
Bought EXAS JUL 20 2018 50.0 Calls @ 7.37
Bought EXAS JUL 20 2018 48.0 Puts @ 6.50

This gives a net debit of 6.32 for the Jul 2018 position. Add the 2.00 point max downside and get a max loss possibility of 8.32. Based on that, and the 26 weeks remaining in the trade I only need to average about 32 cents per week in sales to cover the absolute worst case scenario.

So:

Sold EXAS JAN 26 2018 51.0 Calls @ 1.15

CMCSA

#UOA over there today?

EDIT…it’s now a hashtag 🙂

XBI

#Fuzzy – BTC XBI Jan19’18 90 calls for 0.05, sold last week for 0.54. Waiting to sell for next week, the stock is bouncing after running down this morning. I’m liking this ticker (at the moment)!

Also closed a short term #Fuzzy in CRM that I hadn’t admitted to, stole the idea from @smasty160, made 0.78 on that one. Thanks Sue!

#pietrades

Jan 17 #Fuzzy Well I…

Jan 17 #Fuzzy
Well I flattened out a LOT today. I’m pretty bad at picking tops, but I’m ready to take a little break and see if the market is too. On each of my closed index fuzzies I retained a single long put, just to tuck away for safe keeping. I took losses on closing out the index fuzzies this morning before the rally really took off, and I took a loss and closed out EXEL. This is what I built up the fuzzy profit cushion to handle though. So the new net profit on CLOSED fuzzies is $42,595 (since 2nd week of December). A huge amount of risk has been cleared off my table for now.

Open Fuzzies: MU 1, MU 2, EXAS 1, EXAS 2, JPM, GWPH, and a new one on DIS.

I ventured into the world of Double Fuzzies today with SPY. So I have a SPY long fuzzy, hedged, and a SPY Fuzzy Bear, Hedged, in the same account. This is 8-fuzzy legs, maybe a tarantula? The bear is a 278/278/280 for 1.86 with a Jan 26 276 hedge @ .98.

#pietrades Here are some specifics…

#pietrades

Here are some specifics for what I think makes a good PIE stock for weekly trading.
1. perceived volatility but actually stays in a range. The higher the value the wider the range can be and still work.
2. ATM or OTM premiums of $1 or better. The more you get up front the less you have to recover later.
3. Weekly options.
4. Good volume (BX fits the bill except for the bid-ask spreads), I got hammered getting out of a trade last week. $300 profit was trimmed to 120 so it is off my list.
5. Steady pivot points or long term support/resistance. If it moves out of the ranges establishes a new range quickly.

So here is a list I am looking at broken down by size of account.
Small account AAL, GM, DAL, HAL, LNG, BAC (limited), ERX (triple), EXAS (new addition, thanks), AMAT, XOP, MU, AMD, NKE (not the best but can work), UNG since the split, INTC, TMUS, LUV

Medium account can move to WDC, SWKS, GILD, XBI, MA, V, WMT (a little bit), MON, BIB (no weeklies), UAL, RCL, WYNN, MAR, UTX, AMGN, UPS, CAT, NSC, ANDV (previously TSO and my biggest income producer, not as good since the merger), UDOW, IBB, VLO, UPRO, TQQQ, CELG, JPM, FB, AAPL, EXPE, UPS, TLT @fuzzballl suggestion

For those with really big accounts GS, BA, AAPL with some volume, SPY, LRCX, FDX, COST

Keep in mind a lot of these just went booster stage so I would wait until they establish a new range.
Also if I am assigned puts at a pivot point and have some buying power left I will often go CC with straddle puts at the assignment price. Juices returns a little more but also adds risk.

Please post any other tickers that look like they would work.

Fast Money

Wow…what an exchange between Rich Ross and Dan Nathan. It’ll be on YouTube for sure. Thought there was going to be punches thrown. Crazy!

Closed some Puts early

#SPXcampaign Bought to close $SPX Jan 24th 2775/2750 put spreads for 3.10. Sold yesterday for 6.70.
I had three put spreads close to ATM so I took off this one with a decent profit. If we get a pullback I want to be selling new spreads, not scrambling to manage threatened ones.

#OT Henry at SMM posted…

#OT Henry at SMM posted a tweet from T. Boone Pickens “At 89, anything with the word “crypt” in it is a real turnoff for me.” Very nice.

TEVA

#CoveredCalls – Sold covered stock at 14.97. DITM 15 strike calls not really rollable so closing it and saving exercise fees. Small loss….stock basis of 15.08 on a few shares…

#coveredcalls $SVXY buy at $133.57,…

#coveredcalls

$SVXY buy at $133.57, sell Jan 19 $134 call for $2.02, if exercised 1.86% ROI

Rolling already

#SPXcampaign #Rolling #CondorRoll Already rolling the call spread I sold this morning.

Closed $SPX Feb 15th 2870/2895 call spreads for 3.25. Sold this morning for 1.80.
Sold Feb 15th 2890/2915 call spreads for 1.50.
Sold Jan 22nd 2780/2755 put spreads for 2.10.

EXAS

STO July 20, 30puts @1.20

#pietrades

GLD /GC NUGT

Somebody dumping some gold all of a sudden…

Short Puts BABA

#shortputs
$BABA STO 2/16 175/180 BUPS @ 1.90

Closing Early STZ Puts

#shortputs #earningstrade
$STZ BTC 1/19 220 puts @ 1.20 STO @ 2.35 on 1/4
Still holding $STZ 1/19 210/220 BUPS

WYNN

#ReverseRolling – I’ve been in this thing for a year just selling and rolling. It’s been a sweet ticker with great premium but really running now. Closing the last of my short puts and reverse rolling the DITM short calls to very bullish bull put spreads.

Bought to Close 3 WYNN JAN 19 2018 170.0 Puts @ .25 (sold for 9.00 accumulated after a couple rolls)

Reverse Rolled the calls for $270 total credit (.54 per new spread avg) but had to increase size from 3 closed to 5 open to get the credit.

Bought to Close 3 WYNN JAN 19 2018 140.0 Calls
Sold 5 WYNN FEB 16 2018 200.0/170.0 Bull Put Spreads

Now the big picture:

Aggressive put selling for last few months has now brought in $8343 in premium. That was for 3 contracts but now has to be spread over 5 contracts giving me a basis in the new position of:

200/170 BuPS @ 16.68

If WYNN rallies then it’s all good. If WYNN tanks I’ll roll all of this into #Fuzzy positions wherever the stock finally ends up. Breakeven on the spread of 183.32. Anything around that and I’ll have to decide whether to roll or go #Fuzzy

Whew!

guess it is a Rocket Ship

#SPXcampaign Sold to Close $SPX Jan 19th 2765/2785 call spreads for 18.10. Bought for 3.20 on Jan 10th.

Ripping up again. The 2 call spreads I sold earlier have each gone against me by 50% already. I’ll hold overnight but will have to consider rolling if the rally continues tomorrow.

VXX put sold… yep, you read that right

#VXXGame #LongPutDiagonals #SyntheticShortStock
Sold $VXX Feb 16th 25 put for 1.15. Just trying this out ahead of some possible consolidation. I will NOT let this go ITM, but I would like to chip away at some of the loss I took in selling puts months ago. I forgot to sell some short term calls yesterday, which I had been planning on a spike.

Closing Early EGBN

#longcalls
$EGBN STC 1/19 55 call @ 7.00 BTO @ 5.30.
Allowing the companion 1/19/55 put to expire. (I hope)
It is so nice when companions cooperate.
Thank you @honkhonk81

AA earnings

#Earnings #shortstrangles
Sold $AA Jan 19th 53.5/59 strangles for 1.00. Biggest UP move: 9.5%, Biggest DOWN move: -11.4%, Average move: 4.8%. Expected move is 2.98. So this strangle is a bit aggressive, being inside its expected and historical moves. But I also noted that many of the post-earnings moves could be faded on the first day, and that the moves have been smaller in recent quarters. In any case, totally manageable at the stock price of 56.20.

SPX hedge through April

With my current #RocketManHedge looking like it has a good chance of turning a decent profit ( in spite of moving against me from almost the first day) I’m adding another out about 90 days.

#SyntheticShort out through April expiration…

Synthetic short stock with a protective call. 49.00 debit with max loss of 59.00:

Sold SPX APR 20 2018 2800.0 Call @ 57.55
Bought SPX APR 20 2018 2800.0 Put @ 54.90
Bought SPX APR 20 2018 2810.0 Call @ 51.65

With 13 weeks for the trade to run need to collect 4.55 per week to cover the max loss so:

Sold SPX JAN 24 2018 2785.0 Put @ 8.00

Rolling MHK

#longcalls
$MHK STC 1/19 260 call BTO 2/16 270 call at 6.00 credit. Second roll for this trade. Have taken out total of $15 in credits.

NUGT new highest strike in June

Sold $NUGT Jun 15 54 call @ 2.30

SPX calls sold

#SPXcampaign Sold $SPX Jan 26th 2820/2845 call spreads for 4.25. Provided we’re not on another rocket ship higher, this should be closable within a couple days.

#longcallspread

Rolled FB Jan 29 to…

Rolled FB Jan 29 to Feb 2 170/167.5 .39Cr now total credit is .21+ .39 =.60 – 7.50 comm

Rolling SVXY

Buying Time
$SVXY BTC 1/19 97.5 put STO 3/15 105 put at 3.40 debit. Still up on trade but ……

Rolled IWM #Hedge Jan 29…

Rolled IWM #Hedge Jan 29 160 Call to Feb 2 .31 reduced cost debit

Feb EXAS

Sold $EXAS Feb 16 45 puts @ 1.85

$SVXY $UVXY

I entered some orders before the open as the day job was going to keep me away from the market.
These were the fills I got.
$SVXY Jan 26 $92 puts @ $0.60
$SVXY Jan 26 $90 puts @ $0.40
$SVXY Feb 2 $95 puts @ $0.80
$SVXY Feb 16 $85 puts @ $1.35 (added to position)
$UVXY Mar 16 $19 calls @ $1.05
$UVXY Mar 16 $9/$11 call spreads @ $0.51

Would have done better if I had been able to watch the market. @optioniceman got some great fills.

AMZN

#SyntheticStock – Using this little dip to get my core up to the 50ma. Eventually the weekly will become rollable again. Goal is to get it expired or closed for minimal debit at some point.

Rolled June 2019 1100 synthetic up to 1150
Rolled June 2019 700 disaster put up to 760
Rolled Feb 2018 1060 call up to 1110

Did it all for a 2.84 debit. I’ll take that out of the 40 points of weeklies sold earlier…

$SVXY #ShortPuts Sold to open…

$SVXY #ShortPuts Sold to open Feb 9th 110 Put @ 3.00

#shortputspread #bitty FB After FB…

#shortputspread #bitty FB

After FB dropped the other day I sold a Jan. 19 170/175, looked good yesterday, flirting with 176 now, decided to take the small loss

VIX

It seems strange that the market is up and the vix is also up. There seems like there is a lot of volume in the SVXY again.

#Bear call spread $BABA Buy…

#Bear call spread $BABA
Buy to close Jan 19 190/200 calls for $0.15, sold Jan 9 for $2.15,
freeing margin to sell $UVXY calls.

GILD rolled 16 DTE 76…

GILD rolled 16 DTE 76 put out a week and up to 77.5 for 0.86 credit. Sold for 4.15 off a bunch of rolls and has now been converted to a #fuzzy. It was down to 0.25 and going skiing tomorrow so will not be trading.

Bitcoin…

What’s the best TOS ticker to follow?