Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Options education330: selling puts

another free video podcast from the Options Industry council: heres the link Selling puts


OIC330P: Selling Puts

Podcast Objective:

Podcast objective is to explain different scenarios while calculating returns when selling puts.




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CLOSING $MA credit put spread entry

17aug - this credit spread will expire at max profit today, could have gone a bit higher in hindsight. stock did not threaten the credit spread at all.

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1aug - earnings are now out, looks like small revenue miss..still good fundamentals.. as of right now only down 9, not quite the big whoosh down i was hoping for but still able to take a position. stock sold off a bit down to the 50day which seems to be holding now. as a minimum, any new credit put spreads would have to be at/below the 200day moving average, but im more comfortable with being at/below the support line at 390 which has held going back to march.

Sell to open the Aug385/390 credit put spreads at .40

Trademonster analysis tab shows this trade to have a 91% probability of max profit, not much premium but its the level im comfortable with.. the levels drive the strike selection not the premium amount.

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31july - with earnings tomorrow morning, ill be watching for a selloff on some type of europe disappointment or slowing growth. id like to see some selloff to the 390-400 level which is near the 200day and the support line from june. if that happens ill be looking at new credit put spreads then..price them out if it happens.. have to be carefull with mastercard spreads since the bid/asks are wide. might have to look to SEP also. always use limit orders. if a selloff happens i will also watch Visa closely, might get an entry there also


Monday, July 30, 2012

Closing the $aapl credit put spread entry

31 july - using the rule of that if a credit put spreads gains 40-50% in 1-3 days i take profits, with the objective of possiblly reinitiating the same spread on a pullback.. plenty of time left for Aug opex for a reentry.stock is up $15 since entry.

Buy to close the Aug560/565 credit put spread at .32

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30 july - aaple up nearly 30points since earnings.. stock has rebounded and everyone loves it again with news about possible iphone5 release in sep. , friday stock closed back above 50day and continued the move up today filling the gap from earnings.. with that i looked at new credit put spreads for Aug:

Sell to open the Aug560/565 credit put spreads at .65

the 570ish level lines up with some support from before earnings and was also the max level the bears could take the stock down on earnings, so my spread is right under that level... at time of entry Trademonster analyze tab showed the spread to have an 82%probability of max profit at opex.

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Thursday, July 26, 2012

Options Education 320 - Options Pricing

another free podcast from the Options Industry council , heres the link Options Pricing



OIC320P: Options Pricing

Podcast Objective:

Review options pricing, delta and time decay and to introduce the key components of theoretical pricing


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7/26 Fast Money web extra $S $VZ $ERIC $CLWR

fast money web extra tonight, the desk talks about Sprint, here is the video clip sprint clip . not interested in the space. not even a little bit




$V chart and setup

good earnings and outlook for Visa. no europe exposure like mastercard. what im watching for now is some kind of pullback to the 50day..whether on mastercard earnings comments or other macro headlines.. if that happens..ideally in a quick 1-2day move to juice the put premiums, i will be pricing out some credit put spreads at/below the support line near 111...so probably the 110/105 spreads... decent premiums have been hard to come buy on visa for a while.. might take a look out to SEP options as well if the 50day hits to see how those are looking.


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$AMZN put calender for earnings

27july- the trade looked good for all of about 5minutes after earnings were released, the street apparentaly giving AMZN a pass for not making any money and having a 200+ PE.. i will now let the weekly put expire worthless and hold the Aug195put which is worth about 50cents now, stock is up 13 so far today. could just as easy be down that much tomorrow.. 3 weeks to go till aug opex and if stock moves down a bit the Aug195put might get a bump to my breakeven which is what i paid for it.

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26july-i have not been in AMZN the entire quarter. the huge gap from last earnings kept me out of any newcredit put spreads. with earnings tonight im making a low premium bearish trade.. the IV for the weeklies is 180ish..that nuts.. that also makes calender spreads a good bet if you get the direction right..options also pricing in about a 20dollar move..my bet would be bearish move..margins, europe, whatever... my assumption when i look at price moves is that the options market has the move priced in pretty well.. so about at 20move when i put this on earlier during the twitter monthly outage gets the stock to about 195ish... although way outside of the bollinger band, the 195 level lines up nicely with the gap fill level from previous earnings..
   so im doing the weekly/Aug 195 put calender
Sell the weekly 195 puts
Buy the Aug 195 puts for 1.35 per lot..

not alot of premium to outlay.. risk less to make more.. Trademonster analyse tab shows this trade has a 7 to 1 payout ratio which is pretty good for a calender.

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Wednesday, July 25, 2012

7/25 fast money web extra - $USG brian kelly callout

on fast money web extra tonight its sort of a fast fire on brian kelly for his repeated bullish calls on USG which was down 20% on earnings miss.. heres the clip USG clip he says he bought more, but his arguments to buy would seem like reasons to not buy for me.. then the usual guy adami clown show






Options Education - Early Exercise parts 1 and 2

a two part audio podcast from the Options Industry council talking about the early exercise of options:

Part 1 --> Part 1 audio 12minutes
Podcast Objective:
OIC Instructor Marty Kearney and Jeff Huddleston of the OIC Help Desk speak with host Joe Burgoyne about what investors need to understand about Early Exercise. Topics covered on the show include reasons why Early Exercise may happen and how it can impact American-style options versus European-style options.


Part 2 --> Part 2 audio 13 minutes
Podcast Objective:
Host Joe Burgoyne continues his conversation on Early Exercise with Jeff Huddleston of the OIC Help Desk and OIC Instructor Marty Kearney by discussing the early exercise of puts and the level of randomness that takes place in the early assignment process.




Tuesday, July 24, 2012

7/24 Fast Money web extra $CAT

tim talks about CAT ahead of earnings tomorrow in tonights web extra, heres the clip CAT clip .. another chart that is ugly... avoid this name for now..stick to something that is working..no knife catching


7/24 Options Action segment - $CLF $BTU

mike talks a bit about the options activity seen today in CLF ahead of earnings, heres the video CLF clip  tim and dennis gartman chime in as well. CLF chart just plain ugly


$AAPL opening segment from Fast Money

in case you missed it here is the first 12minutes of Fast money which is all about AAPL , heres the video clip AAPL segment .. AAPL looks to have finished trading after hours at about 567.. right where the options had it priced at..lets see how it opens... lets see if the "id like to buy it lower" crowd shows up



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how i'm positioned for $AAPL earnings

first off...my diagonal spreads that i continue to have are doing my heavy lifting for me on AAPL..those being the short 600 and 580weekly calls to go with 2014DITM leaps.. so a bit of a selloff is ok with me to keep that juicy premium... taking a small portion of the premium i took in from those and took some flyer positions one for an upside move, other for downside.

weekly 635/645/655 call butterfly for .70--- the 645 strike lines up with the all time high were many are expecting resistence..was going to do a 15wide but honesty screwed up the order and didnt double check. so if stock jumps into that box ill make some off the call flys and the weekly short calls get rolled to the august expiration.

weekly 550/565/580 put butterfly for 1.50 - gets to the area of where the options are pricing in a move...will be good opportunity to get into credit put spreads if it drops like that..and will likely let the weekly short calls expire at max profit or at least buy back on the cheap

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$CF chart and setup

had a one day breakout and now 4days down in a row..never did get into that put spread,,was hoping to get in at 205ish for a sep spread..will keep watching though... earnings still look to be on 2aug so likely no entry till then.. would like to see stock get back to the moving averages in order to enter credit put spreads ideally at/below the support line around 155. if for some reason it whooshs down to the moving averages i may take a half size position on credit put spreads at that level since IV will remain elevated ahead of earnings..setting alert at 185 for now to get on radar

long $AAPL but worried

if you are long AAPL stock or DITM and have a bearish short term thesis on earnings.. look at doing a weekly put spread collar:

Sell the 620 call
Buy the 595/575 put spread all for zero

you are capping your upside at 620 but give yourself a $20 wide put spread as a downside hedge. lets say you have 300 shares or 3 LEAPS.. you dont have to do this for the ENTIRE position..if you have some other strategy..say outright covered calls.. you could do this put spread collar on just a portion of your position to give yourself some added downside protection




$AAPL ratio spread to boost upside

did you buy 100shares of AAPL or maybe a DITM call today for a bullish play on earnings? put on this cheap ratio spread to get double upside potential up to 630..

in addition to your long stock or DITM call, add the july27weekly:

july27weekly 615/630 ratio spread for an additional $1.00 (buy a 615, sell two of the 630's)

just the ratio spread portion profits from about 615-645, with max profit being a pin at 630 on friday. you are not naked short that extra 630call, its covered by your existing long stock or your DITM call. your ratio profits on up move while concurrently your stock/call is gaining as well



Monday, July 23, 2012

7/23 Fast Money Web Extra - oil $EOG $USO

good short segment on the fast money web extra tonight..no nonsense..just murphy and josh brown having opposing viewpoints on what to do with oil here , heres the video oil clip .. i dont trade futures but my proxy for oil is EOG




some thoughts on $AAPL

the day before earnings here is what im thinking about apple.. most are on the long side of the boat as usual with some conversations about slower iphone sales because of iphone 5 rollout next quarter.. ive already got diagonal spreads with weekly 590 and 600 short calls.. i will also look at a cheap long trade later on but im ok if stock trades flat or down some in order to collect that juicy weekly premium from the short calls.. im thinking that if apple either misses or is inline either because of slower sales or Europe weekness, the spinmiesters on cnbc will play it up that iphone 5/new ipad/apple tv is coming next quarter so any pullback will be buying opportunity..so im not concerned if stock does indeed selloff a bit for the week before calmer heads prevail and stock rebounds..plus apple is so good at managing the news flow.
   so not a large trade but just something to get a few more bucks if it sells off for the week.. im looking at the 550/565/580 put fly.. the day prior weekly options still pricing in about 32-33 point move.. i always assume the options market has it priced pretty much on target..so that gets it down to about 565.. that also lines up with some support and also pretty close to the bottom bollinger band

so if youve been following you know i like diagonal spreads..but you dont have to just sit there and hope for premium decay..you can take low premium tactical trades to further protect downside moves.
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Friday, July 20, 2012

7/20 Options Action Web Extra - $LVS

scott doing the options action web extra as usual, tonight answering a viewer email about being down in LVS. heres the video LVS video . that sure is an ugly chart.. viewer seems to want to keep owning the shares but trying to figure out way to recoup some loss.. hence scott suggests the 1x2 call spread.. usually called a ratio spread, backspread, trade repair, CPR. scott suggests the Aug 42/44 ratio spread . so buy one 42, sell two of the 44's.. this gives you double upside up to 44 and just the ratio profits from 42-46.. at same time the stock is gaining. you would want to do one of these for every 100shares you own. scott says you should do this only if long the stock.. true.. but you can also do this if you have an in the money call , such as a LEAP.  good web extra tonight

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Thursday, July 19, 2012

Fast Money web extra $PANW $CSCO and bullshit

joe talks PANW which IPO's tomorrow and then out of nowhere Tim sends it off the rails with some nonsense ...sad sometimes. heres the clip web extra




Fast Money Trade of the Day $YUM

tim has the trade of the day, its at the end of the clip YUM clip .. how much the new ceo of Yahoo is going to make is more important apparently.


$GOOG strategy and trade

havent had a position in a while. strong move today prior to earnings. with the stock split apparently not happening until oct im more comfortable trading this again. i added a weekly/aug 620 call calender for earnings today. if for some reason GOOG sells off, 560 area has been solid support for months. GOOG has been a good one to fade the move the past few quarters..so if my upside call is wrong and it has some silly selloff..ideally id like to get credit put spreads under 500. not very likely though. i would assume that the 560 area holds again.. will see what option prices look like tomorrow though. if i go with credit put spreads will have to use the .20 delta as guideline since the only good support level to shoot against is that low near 475.  also a big selloff would be a good opportunity to look at getting into some 2014 Leaps.

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Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Fast Money Trade of the day $F

josh brown has the trade of the day with Ford.. heres the clip ford clip .. i consider the ford and GM to be in the same category of airlines..that is to never own them.


Options Action $GOOG

options action segment has mike talking about a few large options trades seen today on GOOG ahead of earnings tomorrow, heres the clip GOOG clip .. ill be pricing out some call calenders tomorrow to see if there is a trade there

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7/18 Fast Money web extra $VVUS $INTC $TIF $HON $VIX

tonights web extra is a pops and drops segment, guy talks VVUS, karen TIF , josh on INTC, dan hits the VIX, heres the video web extra

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Options Education 264 - Part 2

part 2 of the previous free video from the Options Industry Council, free video

OIC264P: Developing A Trading Strategy 2

Podcast Objective:

Learn how to better understand which options trading style works best for you with this new podcast series from OIC that covers both basic and advanced strategies, the Greeks and various trade-offs when it comes to risks and rewards.




Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Gartman on Ferts $CF $MOS $POT $AGU $RNF

denis gartman on fast money tonight talking the corn crop and fertilizers, here s the clip gartman clip .. was thinking along these lines today, after seeing this will be taking a look at a put spread in CF.. would like to get into a long position on CF but as run too much recently.








7/17 Fast Money Trade of the Day - $IOC

grasso with the trade of the day brings up one ive never heard of in the energy space, here the clip IOC clip

mentions that joint venture is hinging on the elections in Papa New Guinea... guess you can figure out i will not be jumping into that one.


7/17 Options Action $FCX

really odd trade covered during the options action segment on fast money today, heres the clip FCX clip
selling the Nov 30 puts and buying twice as many july32puts... you dont see that often.. so this trader is thinking stock moves down on earnings this week.. but will stay above 30 at nov opex. seems like trying to thread the needle and seems overly complicated.  there are simplier trades to do IMO to take a short term bearish position.




7/17 Fast Money web extra $IBM

with guy off the desk there are on topic discussions about IBM ahead of earnings tomorrow. tim and stephen comment on the stock, heres the video IBM clip .. ive got IBM on my watch list but have not had a good entry for a while. premiums for credit put spreads have been weaker as of late as well

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Monday, July 16, 2012

7/16 Options Action segment - $EBAY

fast money has not done a "trade" by the guys in a few days.. maybe all those bricks getting thrown up there. ahem..cough..cough.. Mike.. so the options action segment is getting to be a discussion of a large options trade seen during trading today.. today scott talks about a risk reversal spotted on ebay. heres the video.. options action . scott mentioned the wide range... an alternative to this is to make it a call spread risk reversal instead . this trader does not need to hold it to opex (ie and be above 43) to make a profit.. a quick few dollar move on earnings might get a decent profit. especially since this risk reversal only cost a penny.




7/16 Fast Money Trade of the Day - $LLY

pete has the trade of the day with LLY, heres the video clip trade of the day . health care is one sector i avoid so definately not interested in this one.




7/16 Fast Money web extra - $INTC

good discussion for a change.. pete and guy discuss INTC before earnings tomorrow, here is the clip web extra



Options Education 263 - developing a trading strategy

another free video by the Options Industry Council, Options video

OIC263P: Developing A Trading Strategy 1

Podcast Objective:

Learn how to better understand which options trading style works best for you with this new podcast series from OIC that covers both basic and advanced strategies, the Greeks and various trade-offs when it comes to risks and rewards.


 

Thursday, July 12, 2012

7/12 Fast Money Trade of the Day - $WLP $UNH

stephen wiess has the trade of the day tonight, i avoid the health care space so i have no interest. mike khouw adds some comments about options activity.. guy answers a viewer question, heres the video trade of the day clip

this chart doesnt make me interested in it either



7/12 Fast Money Web extra $NILE $LNG $MRK $KBH $HD

tonights web extra is the Pops and Drops edition with NILE LNG MRK KBH HD getting the mention with adami acting the fool again unfortunately. heres the video web extra






$MA chart and setup

likely no entry for me until after earnings on 1aug, but a pullback to the 390ish support line gets me interested in a new entry. might get that pullback since MA has decent exposure to Euro zone. my July Iron condors are looking ok for now. will price out levels if/when it hits there..alert at 400 to get on radar




Options Education 262 - Part 5-Option Fundamentals

another free podcast video by the Options Industry council, options video


Podcast Objective:

Provide realistic expectations of the outcome of the options trading. Basic terminology will be explained as well as providing a better understanding of how options delta impacts the option premium.




$AMZN setup and chart

going to be a whole quarter that ive been watching AMZN with no position. like ive said before, im not comfortable putting on new credit put spreads with that big gap still hanging out there from last earnings. will likely take this quarters earnings to take it that low. will need to see it under 200 again to get interested.. premiums have been pretty weak as well. will keep on watch list. never know what can happen. setting alert for 201 to get it on my radar

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Wednesday, July 11, 2012

7/11 Fast Money Trade of the Day $TIP

have to admit i never have looked at this name, and probably never will after this show.. BK has the trade of the day with the TIP bond fund, heres the video video clip with the trade at end of the clip.



7/11 Fast money web extra $WMT $TGT $SVU

Josh talks about TGT a bit, karen chimes in with some on SVU, and of course adami does his usual comedy bit and wastes half the air time on nothing. heres the clip web extra





max profit today on $AAPL July credit put spread entry

20 july  going to be another trade expiring at max profit today with stock near 606 now.
sell to open July 565/570 credit put spread at .42
expiring today at zero for $420 profit on 10 lot

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11july- per my previous posts about wanting to add credit put spreads to the ITM short calls i have, stock dropped a few bucks real quick and happened to be near computer when alerts went off. currently have some july 580short calls as part of diagonal spread.. so with stock near 600, was looking for credit spreads obviously at /below that 580short call strike, best case under the support line near 565, 2nd best under the 50day ...based on the premiums still left for july i went with the 565/570 credit put spread, Trademonster analyize tab shows that spread to be 82%probability of max profit at time of entry. this is a strategy based soley on that some short calls are ITM so there is a built in hedge.

sell to open July 565/570 credit put spread at .42

not much premium but wanted that probability to be above 80% .






Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Options Education 261:Options Fundamentals, Part 4

another free video podcast from the options industry council, free video link

Podcast Objective:

Describe how to understand premium, time value, and intrinsic value and different things to consider when developing an options strategy.








me watching stocks today

a real snoozer today, heres me watching stocks today


give it a few seconds to load:







Monday, July 9, 2012

$VOD Fast Money Trade of the Day - pete

9july - well.. its a trade at least. Pete like VOD has his trade of the day, but at end of clip he admits hes not in it yet..i have no interest in stocks that move in a $5 dollar range from the last 18months. odd to see pete pick this name, here is the video clip VOD clip


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7/9 Fast Money Web Extra - Health Care

Grasso talks about health care on tonights Fast money web extra, very uninteresting space for me. heres the video web extra