$GMCR #ShortPuts – Once the…

$GMCR #ShortPuts – Once the takeover offer for GMCR was announced I shorted a bunch of Puts for Both Jan 2017 and Jan 2018 for whatever I could get for them. I knew that whenever the merger was about to close, the options would collapse before being delisted.

I covered some of them today to get rid of the margin requirement.

Bought to close GMCR Jan 19 2018 75.0 Puts @ 0.02 – Sold for 1.50 and again at 2.00
Bought to close GMCR Jan 19 2018 70.0 Puts @ 0.02 – Sold for 1.00 and again at 1.50

These were sold in December and technically have 693 Days to Expiration. But should be delisted way before that.

SPX calls closed

#SPXcampaign Put in an order to close in case we dropped into the close, and it filled after the close;
BTC $SPX March 4th 1960/1985 call spreads for 7.70. Will work on rolls next week. I think a pullback happens next but had to clear this one away in case we awake Monday to another rally.

#OptionsExpiration for 2/26 Expiring: $NUGT…

#OptionsExpiration for 2/26
Expiring:
$NUGT 02/26/2016 70.00 calls
$NUGT 02/26/2016 76.00 calls
$NUGT 02/26/2016 30.50 puts
$UVXY 02/26/2016 85.00 calls
$UVXY 02/26/2016 110.00 calls

No assignments this week.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Options Expiration 2/26/16

#OptionsExpiration 2/26/16

— Expiring w/ max profit —
NUGT 30 puts
NUGT 68 and 70 calls
My lightest expiration in many weeks, since I closed or rolled several things early.
Have a great weekend all!

OPTIONS EXPIRATION, 2/26/16

—PUTS—
$ETE 2/26/16 Expired
—CALLS—
$ETE 2/26/16 EXPIRED
#optionsexpiration

#OptionsExpiration

All of these expired worthless

$NUGT $33 puts
$NUGT $36 puts
$NUGT $45 puts
$NUGT$48 puts
$NUGT $50 puts
$NUGT $75 calls
$UVXY $85 calls
$UVXY $100 calls
$UVXY $110 calls

#optionsexpiration

Well it was a long…

Well it was a long shot so I’m going to get max loss on the Broken Wing Butterfly on the SPX…$190 going once….

Closing ARMH

Bought to close $ARMH Mar 18 36 puts @ .20. Sold for 1.10 on 2/10. Taking my 80% max profit 3 weeks early. Who knows what this market will bring.

BIDU closed

#Earnings Bought to close $BIDU Feb 26th 175 calls for .20. Sold yesterday as part of a condor for 1.15. Closing early to avoid any last minute eruptions. Patience paid for me on this one; congrats to those that had the proper patience on PANW!

$SUNE Lost track of this,…

$SUNE Lost track of this, one of my all time trading favorites, mostly premium selling. Up 30% +/-, yesterday, same today, for a 70% change. Favorable court decision. OK to buy Vivant, also up in price. $ETE is my new $SUNE, but I’ll see Monday. Hey, I can have 2 girlfriends, right. ;>)

TSLA getting tired? Selling a call

Sold $TSLA Apr 15 240 call @ 2.25. Pairing this with the 120 put I sold yesterday to create a wide (120 point) strangle.

#PIN $ETE Will probably be…

#PIN $ETE Will probably be pinned @7.00 today. Most OI, except for the 6’s, and I don’t think that’s going to happen.

#Gold $NUGT

Gold and $NUGT really cratering now.

NUGT puts

#ContangoETFs STO NUGT March 11th 40 put for 1.70 (adding)
STO NUGT April 1st 30 put for 1.30

SPX call roll

#SPXcampaign #Rolling Sold to Open $SPX March 24th 2005/2030 call spreads for 7.20. Part of a roll from this morning’s stopped spread.

$ETE following honkhonk81’s lead on…

$ETE following @honkhonk81 ‘s lead on ETE, sold 2, Feb. 26., 7 puts for .40 this week, bought them back for .22 rolled them to next week for .52

$SPY BeCS April 8 198/200 for .94 followed Tony at Tasty

BTO SPY Apr2 189.5 Call…

BTO SPY Apr2 189.5 Call and STO Mar4 199.5 Call for a 8.83 Debit.
BTO IWM Apr2 99 Call and STO Mar4 104.5 Call for a 3.93 Debit.

SPX puts closed

#SPXcampaign Bought to close $SPX March 4th 1800/1775 puts for .15. Double position sold as part of a roll for 1.45 on Feb 18th.

PANW call side closed

Closed the 145/150 call side for 2.65. Leaving the put side to expire worthless. STO yesterday for 1.55. So taking a 1.10 loss instead of potentially more later today.

A TRADE:

$ETE STO 3/4/16 7.5 CALLS @.35 I find that I get more premium doing these short term calls, than with UVXY, NUGT, longer term calls. True, I use more contracts, but it’s also easier on my margin. Am I missing something?

Brokers back up!

Able to login to my brokerage account now from work. Last trade was on my phone and a little harder to figure out there, but glad to be back online with my broker now. 🙂

#Gold $/GC

Looks like Gold might finally be showing some signs of weakness.  The last 3 days have shown that strength has been sold into. Hasn’t broken down yet, but keeps making lower highs.

$UVXY Closed a March 18…

$UVXY Closed a March 18 65/75 BeCS sold Jan. 21 for 1.20, closed for .30, made .90

SPX roll

Rolled my 1960/1970 SPX today’s expiration, to next week for credit. I think this market goes down, so staying at same strikes and will try to get some more profit here instead of risking it today. Had originally STO yesterday for .70, and rolled for additional 1.80 credit today.

Adding to TLT

#LongCalls Adding to my TLT position on pullback to 21 dma:
BTO TLT Mar 18th 130 call for 1.70
BTO TLT April 15th 133 call for 1.42

TSLA, Sold 1 contract of the June 250 call @5.20

SPX IBWBF….from late yesterday

Sold right after the close yesterday for 9.05 and bought back this morning for 9.85…lost 80 bucks but was worth a shot. Now I know what an IBWBF is!

PANW closed

#Earnings Bought to close PANW Feb 26th 144/149 call spreads for 3.80. Sold as part of condor for 1.55. I got out for less than the 5.00 I would be charged if I allowed to expire ITM. You could also wait to see if it drops, or leg out for even better prices.

Broker blocked!!! :(

At a different workplace than my usual and it appears all brokerage websites are blocked here…used to not be that way. Hmm…could be an interesting day trying to trade on my mobile platform by phone.

SPX calls stopped

#SPXcampaign Bought to close $SPX March 4th 1975/2000 call spreads for 9.00 in premarket. Started already with some roll positions and will add more in coming days.

PANW and SPXW in danger today.

Took what looked like a safe PANW IC yesterday before earnings, then the pre-release junk happened and the call side will be threatened today. @Jeff, any thoughts on salvaging this?
Also have a $SPXW 1960/1970 call spread that looks threatened.
With the PANW, I was very aware of the possibility of this going bad, as all earnings plays are somewhat of a surprise, but we all hate to lose anything. Just talking out loud here and thinking what to do about these today.

VIX plummeting

#SPXcampaign The VIX closed below a key support level of 19.20, signaling the bulls are proving themselves further. VIX is at a decision level; will it proceed down to 16.93, signaling an end to near-term downside risk, or bounce off the B-bands and signal more volatility? SPX call spreads have been under pressure and I will be executing some rolls today. To start, I sold a put spread in pre-market:

Sold to Open $SPX March 18th 1850/1825 put spreads for 2.00. This is an aggressive position designed to offset my call spreads.

SPX Resistance for tomorrow Friday, Feb 26, 2016

Resistance for Tomorrow: 1960-62; 1977-1984; 2020-2023; 2031-32;
Support: 1897-96; 1880-79; 1863-62.

A Iron Broken Wing Butterfly…

A Iron Broken Wing Butterfly is normally a credit and it is made by selling A Call and a Put at the same (or close) strike and then buying the wings OTM….The difference between a regular Butterfly and the Iron Bfly is that on the regular Bfly you sell either 2 Calls or 2 Puts and then buy a lower priced Call or Put and a higher priced Call or Put. Normally the higher priced option ends up ITM and becomes somewhat difficult to close.
To make it into a broke wing, you can do either shorten the spread on one side or sell more spreads on one side than the other.
Hope this helps.

PANW pre-release?

#Earnings jumps 9% 20 minutes before close. Looks like trading halted.

STO SPX Feb 26 BWBF…

STO SPX Feb 26 BWBF 1935/1925/1920 for $8.10 Credit Max Loss is $190.

RLYP…down after earnings

March 17.5/15.0 BuPS completely in the money after earnings. Originally sold for 1.35 so with stock near low of the day I’m doubling down long on this thing. Sold to close the long 15’s for 1.40. This will give me the stock at a basis of 14.75 if it doesn’t recover and if it does recover by March expiration I’ll be bringing in twice the premium. Of course, if it goes to zero, I’ll be wishing I still had those 15’s!

$SPX call spread in 4/1

Sold $SPX Apr 1 2065/2090 BeCS @ 1.35.
Short strike is right in the middle of all that resistance from December.
Delta is 07, 1 standard deviation is 2058.
I’ll be pretty happy if I have to close this for a loss or roll it.

UVXY and NUGT mgt

Earlier today, made some adjustments for margin purposes…
BTC UVXY Feb 26th 60 call for .03. Sold for .30 yesterday
BTC UVXY Feb 26th 58 calls for .04. Sold for .35 yesterday
BTC UVXY Mar 11th 80 call for .34. Sold for 2.17 on Feb 2nd
BTC UVXY June 110 call for 4.50. Sold for 9.50 on Jan 25th
STO UVXY April 1st 29 puts for 1.50

STO NUGT March 11th 40 put for 1.55
STO NUGT March 11th 37 put for 1.05

#ContangoETFs #VXXGame

$NUGT new highest strike in June

Sold $NUGT Jun 17 94 call @ 10.00. Newest highest strike.

Closing put spread in SPX

Bought to close $SPX Mar 11 1665/1640 put spread for .10. Sold for 1.30 on 2/5.

#SPXCampaign

PANW earnings

#Earnings Sold to Open $PANW Feb 26th 110/115/144/149 iron condors for 1.55. Over its 11 past earnings reports, PANW’s Biggest UP move: 10.6%, Biggest DOWN move: -10.8%, Average move: 6.0%. These strikes are both 11.2% OTM.

BIDU earnings

#Earnings Sold to Open $BIDU Feb 26th 135/140/175/180 iron condors for 1.15. Over last 12 earnings, BIDU’s Biggest UP move: 11.0%, Biggest DOWN move: -15.0%, Average move: 7.8%. Short strikes are about 11% OTM.

Maybe a good day to…

Maybe a good day to go bottom fishing in the energy sector?

TSLA short put

Sold $TSLA Apr 15 120 put @ 1.30

SPX Support and Resistance Levels for Thu Feb 25, 2016

Support at 1916-17 and 1907-09 and then where it turned up yesterday at 1890-94….1897 is a 61.8% of the previous down move and 1876 is the 100% of that move.
Resistance is still at the 1945-47 level…for the SPX to move higher, it needs to break above this level…There is intermediate resistance at 1934-35 and 1939-41 Levels which could slowdown the SPX somewhat.
IMHO, today could be one of those boring days…good for Theta decay.

A TRADE:

$ETE BTO STOCK @7.04 To cover my short calls from this morning.

$GMCR #ShortPuts – Bought to…

$GMCR #ShortPuts – Bought to close 1 GMCR Jun 17 2016 30.0 Put @ .01.
Originally sold in November at 1.38 (before the takeover offer)

$NUGT #ShortCalls #NewStrikes – sold…

$NUGT #ShortCalls #NewStrikes – sold these on the open this morning. The weekly sales are new strikes.
Sold 1 NUGT Mar 04 2016 82.0 Call @ 1.10
Sold 1 NUGT Mar 11 2016 80.0 Call @ 2.45
Sold 1 NUGT Mar 18 2016 80.0 Call @ 3.60

FB covered puts

#Earnings #ShortStock
BTC $FB Feb 26th 105 put for .50. Sold for 1.60 on 2/3. Clearing puts so I can release this short stock position at lower levels. I think FB will be fine in long run but expect another trip down to 90’s in coming weeks.

Earnings Trade

STO $LB 3/18 $75.5 Put for .63
Company has beat earnings estimates last nine quarters
Not a volatile stock so I may have to keep it until expiration.

5-hour spread closed

#SPXcampaign Bought to close $SPX Feb 26th 1850/1825 put spreads for .20. Sold this morning for 1.30.

NUGT tornado trades

#ContangoETFs STO NUGT March 11th 37 put for 1.20
STO NUGT March 11th 35 puts for 1.05
STO NUGT March 18th 30 puts for .80

$NUGT

The action in this thing is just crazy.  Like trying to predict a tornado.

$AMBA bought back for .25…

$AMBA bought back for .25 the Feb. 26, 46 covered calls I sold last week for .37 which were a roll from Feb. 19, 44 calls that I sold for 1.00, which were rolled up and out to the .37. AMBA
earnings are next week, if there is justice in this world AMBA will kill and shoot up to about 80.

SPX call spread

#SPXcampaign Sold to Open $SPX Mar 24th 2025/2050 call spreads for 1.60, with SPX at 1910.

STC XOP Apr 2nd 27.5…

STC XOP Apr 2nd 27.5 Put for $4.02 Bough for $3.29, since the crude seems to be moving higher now.
Apparently a report that Shell is closing their shale production in the US caused the stir.
So now I’m short the Mar 18 23.5 Puts.

TRADES:

ETE
ETE STO 2/26/16 6.0 PUTS @.22
ETE STO 2/26/16 7.0 CALLS @.20 A 2.5 day, margin economical trade. ;>)
Got beaten up a bit this morning in NUGT ;>( , so I thought I would try a different stock.

Are SPX Dailys next?

#SPXcampaign I have joked for awhile that with the advent of weeklys we would eventually see “Dailys”, where stocks like AAPL and SPY and indices like SPX will have different options series expiring EVERY trading day. Well, it looks like we’re getting closer to that craziness…. (thanks to @alsumde for bringing this to my attention):

Extended Listings For Equity, ETF, ETN And Index Weeklys Options. Check Wednesday rule starting on 2/23/2016

In January 2014 CBOE issued Regulatory Circular RG14-010 re: “Expansion of Number of Expirations Listed in S&P 500 Index Weeklys Options (SPXW).” The circular provides that CBOE will list out and maintain six consecutive SPXW expirations at once, not counting the current expiration.

SPX Weeklys options (part of SPXW) are options that are listed to provide expiration opportunities every week. SPX Weeklys expiring at the end of each week (End of Week – EOW) are typically listed on Thursdays and expire on Fridays. As of February 23, 2016, CBOE began offering Wednesday Weeklys (also part of SPXW), which are typically listed on Tuesdays and expire the following Wednesday. (Note that EOW Weeklys or Wednesday Weeklys are not listed if either would correspond with a currently listed option, i.e. regular 3rd Friday or SPX End of Month – EOM options).

SPX Weeklys are PM-settled on the last trading day, typically a Friday for SPX EOW Weeklys, or a Wednesday for SPX Wednesday Weeklys. As with other PM-settled index options, the exercise-settlement value is calculated using the last (closing) reported sales price in the primary market of each component stock. On the last trading day, trading in expiring SPX Weeklys closes at 3:00 p.m. (Chicago time). All non-expiring SPX Weeklys continue to trade until 3:15 p.m. (Chicago time). For standard PM-settled, S&P 500 options that expire on 3rd Fridays, see ticker SPXPM.

These options are already tradeable at Interactive Brokers. They will be nice to use for rolls or occasional short-term spreads. This morning I sold the 1850/1825 spread for 1.35… got up toward 2.00, now is only .70. With the Wednesday options, there will be more opportunities for short-termers in these volatile markets.

BIB stock

Messing around again trading around a core position. This thing almost always bounces if it sells off at the open. In at 39.25 and 38.25 this morning. Out now at 39.80 for a scalp.

$SPY #ironcondor STO March 11…

$SPY #ironcondor STO March 11 183/179/195/198 for 1.26. The trade has been on all morning, just filled on the way up. I’ll be a little concerned with the short 195 call but these are easy to roll.

NUGT call spreads…question

Currently short June 50/70 bear call spreads. Sitting here looking at the long 70’s and seeing a bunch of 10 bagger gains….(of course the 50’s are bigger losers). Running the analyze tab on TOS the account could easily handle NUGT at 100 with all of the short calls naked so with that in mind…

Should I:

1. Do nothing
2. Book half the long 70’s
3. Book all the long 70’s
4. Book the longs and roll the short 50’s out and up
5. Some combo of all of the above

What would you guys (gals) do?

EDIT…could roll the short 50’s to Sep 60 or Jan 80 for even.

#contangoetfs

$SPY March 31 (Thursday) BuPS…

$SPY March 31 (Thursday) BuPS 182/177 for 1.00

PNRA put

#Earnings STO PNRA March 18th 190 put for 1.50. Partially offsets my 210 calls. Squeezing a bit of premium out of this one after taking a small loss on an earnings play. It seems to be hitting resistance but also has remained resilient through market turmoil.

UVXY nibbles

#VXXGame STO $UVXY Feb 26th 60 call for .30
STO UVXY Feb 26th 58 calls for .35
STO UVXY March 4th 70 calls for .63

SPX same week puts

#SPXcampaign Sold to Open $SPX Feb 26th 1850/1825 put spreads for 1.30, with SPX at 1899. These expire Friday.

SPX Support Levels

GM. Today’s support levels for the SPX are the same as yesterday’s.
1930-28; K-Node at 1917-20; top of gap at 1896-1900; 1894-95 and 1860-62.

#Gold $NUGT

With Gold looking like it is on the next leg of a break out.  I’m going to be reducing short calls today and adding more short puts.  $GDX and $NUGT very strong right now.  Reducing overall delta and just getting out of the way for the time being and will look for opportunities to re-enter trades at a later time.

#contangoetfs

SPX pre-market close

#SPXcampaign In pre-market fill, bought to close $SPX Feb 26th 1980/2005 call spreads for .20. Sold for 1.35 on Feb 10th.

Like clockwork…

SPX resistance at 1950 and VIX support at 19.20 both held like clockwork and markets start tumbling again. TLT resuming its uptrend, and Gold also spiking again, with NUGT hitting its highest level since July 2015 at the open. Trade safe!

#VXXGame trades at the close…

#VXXGame trades at the close
I put on the following trades at the highest strikes in expirations where I didn’t yet have any positions.
Sold $UVXY Apr 15 90 call @ 2.20
Sold $UVXY Apr 1 (weekly) 115 calls @ .70

SWHC

Got called out of stock last Friday. Today taking another way and STO Mar 18 20.00 put for 0.25.
Would actually like to see it go there and buy the stock, but I’ll take the cash also any time and do it again next month if it looks good.

Gold

On daily chart, coming close to completing a wedge/flag for the last 8 or 9 day’s.  Lower high’s, higher lows. Something likely to happen soon.

TRADES: @fuzzball Hey, you’re my…

TRADES: @fuzzball Hey, you’re my kind of guy, a gunslinger. ;>)

TRADES: @jeffcp66 KMI BTC 3/18/16…

TRADES: @jeffcp66

KMI BTC 3/18/16 17.5 CALLS @.92 STO @.97
NUGT STO 3/18/16 30.0 PUTS @.85
NUGT STO 3/24/16 30.0 PUTS @1.15 Thanks to Jeff. I had calls, so matched them with puts, for very little margin use.