Tesla short Put exit

 14 Jun

in the interest of full disclosure unlike most gurus on twitter that only post their winners. made a tactical decision today about the short puts ive been defending on TESLA at strikes near 1000 from earlier in the year. I am at risk of marking the bottom with my actions. as i review my twitter stream both on tesla specific commentary and general market, there are many that i follow that i respect still seeing further downside for general market in raw SPY points and/or a VIX blowoff. many continue to say that they still have not seen that panic/desperation point the will mark the bottom / and or a VIX above 40. will that happen i cant say..

as far as tesla, multiple technical analysis guys are targeting sub 600 and low 500s. i broke out the calculator so see if can withstand a drop to 500 with my short puts and came to the conclusion that i likely will get maintenance calls and be put in the situation of closing the puts, depositing more funds, or selling off other positions to meet any maintenance calls.

Since entering the short puts months ago i have sold numerous call credit spreads against (ie at higher strikes than the short puts) and have rolled week to week or to next month for credits, and have bought debit put spreads on the way down as hedges. so the actual "loss" is about half but the paper loss is a nice kick in the balls. i still have credit spreads working now and long Leaps and short some near dated calls but the defense of the short puts is consuming more and more of the buying power available. also that buying power set aside for the short puts is not really making me more than chump change now since the strikes are way higher, so rolling even from month to month is only a few hundred bucks. 

So point being, i closed out some short puts today leaving only a couple that are cash secured. now if stock returns to near 1000 without that next leg down i will be an idiot but right now in the near term its protect the account. the account value is unchanged after closing the puts, just have less cash now

on the subject of cash secured, ive been doing some math in my head and coming to the conclusion that since the short puts are 900+ strikes that it might be better to be "put the stock" come opex time.. looking at it like this. currently expires July monthly, last i looked, rolling out to August monthly same strike only nets me about $400.. thats for an entire month.. vs just being Put the stock (yes for that $900+ stock price), but with owning the shares im able to sell covered calls nearer dated, say every 2 weeks out for premium far in excess of that $400 monthly(such as the 800calls). will have to revisit this right before opex and bounce some numbers around.