Posted on

Trade Alert 1/13/2025

Hello Investors,
Today we discussed the personality traits most needed for trading long options or long straddle (long vol) types of trades. And why many traders are unable to do so successfully. In addition, we took profits in our QQQ put butterfly and will continue to hold the SPY put butterfly a little longer.
Sell to close: QQQ March 21st (monthly) 510.00 strike put (ratio of 1)
Buy to close: QQQ March 21st (monthly) 475.00 strike put (ratio of 2)
Sell to close: QQQ March 21st (monthly) 440.00 strike put (ratio of 1)
Credit: 6.46
Locks-in a profit of +2.16 or +$216.00 per spread
Have a great week!
Posted on

Trade Alert 1/8/2025

We are exiting our entire PLTR position today for a small profit overall. Remember we get to include the short put that expired last month in our overall calculation. So, while the current position does NOT show a big profit. We made a couple hundred bucks of profit in the short Dec 27th option that expired worthless for a max gain. After yesterdays adjustment, we have a cost basis of 8.53 in the spread. We have exited today for 9.33 credit. The result is a profit of +$80.00 overall.

Sell to close:  PLTR May 16th (monthly) 70.00 strike put
Buy to close: PLTR Jan 17th (monthly) 67.50 strike put
Credit:  9.33
Profit of $0.80 per spread (this includes the income from Dec 27th put that expire for a profit).

Posted on

Trade Alert 1/7/2025

We rolled down the short puts in our PLTR diagonal. We have taken profits in our NUE diagonal spread as well.

Buy to close: PLTR Jan 17th (monthly) 72.50 strike put
Sell to open:  PLTR Jan 17th (monthly) 67.50 strike put
Debit:  1.70

Sell to close: NUE Apr 17th (monthly) 125.00 strike call
Buy to close:  NUE Jan 17th (monthly) 130.00 strike call
Credit:  8.45
Profit of $2.57 or +$257.00 per spread

Posted on

Trade Alert 1/6/2025

Today we are looking to roll down our NKE short calls. However, this order has not been filled at our credit price. If it doesn’t get filled at 0.45 credit, the order will cancel away and we will stick with what we have for now.

Buy to close: NKE Jan 17th (monthly) 81.00 strike call
Sell to open: NKE Jan 17th (monthly) 75.00 strike call
Credit: 0.45
Day order only, if it doesn’t get filled we will cancel the “roll down”.

Have a great week!

Posted on

Trade Alert 12/27/2024

We are adding to a couple of stock positions today. In addition, we have some diagonal spreads hitting their first (short-term) expiration today. We will go ahead and sell additional short-term options against those positions before the weekend arrives. The current short-term options will expire worthless this weekend.

Bought an additional 100 shares of SNAP stock and sold covered calls against all of our shares as follows:
Bought 100 shares of SNAP at 10.89
Sold to open: SNAP Feb 21st (monthly) 16.00 strike calls (sold 2 contracts because we now own 200 shares total)
Credit: 0.28

Sold another short-term call in our NKE diagonal spread
Sold to open: NKE Jan 17th (monthly) 81.00 strike call
Credit: 0.41

Sold another short-term call in our PLTR diagonal spread
Sold to open: PLTR Jan 17th (monthly) 72.50 strike put
Credit: 1.95

Posted on

Trade Alert 12/23/2024

Hello Investors,
We passed December monthly options expiration this past weekend. Unfortunately, a couple of our 1×2 call spreads didn’t end up in-the-money. Having them expire did open up the ability for us to sell covered calls or add more spreads. In the case of NUE, we only own 50 shares of stock. So we have decided to add a diagonal call spread against our stock and possibly sell another OTM covered call if/when the stock spikes upward. We own 200 shares of CCJ. We have a January 1×2 call spread covering 100 of the shares. We sold a covered call today against the other 100 shares as shown below. Both orders have been filled!
Our NUE Diagaonal Spread did get filled just as we got off of class.
Buy to open: NUE April 17th (monthly) 125.00 strike call
Sell to open: NUE Jan 17th (monthly) 130.00 strike call
Debit: 5.88
Max risk = 5.88 or $588.00 per spread
Max reward = unlimited after Jan expiration
Sold a covered call against 100 of our CCJ shares.
Sell to open: CCJ Feb 21st (monthly) 65.00 strike call
Credit: 0.82
Have a very Merry Christmas!
Posted on

Trade Alert 12/19/2024

A few trades/adjustments made today.
We own 100 shares of EQT stock. We have purchased a call spread to go along with our current covered call.
Buy to open: EQT Jan 17th (monthly) 45.00 strike call
Sell to open:  EQT Jan 17th (monthly) 50.00 strike call
Debit: 0.86
Max risk = 0.86 or $86.00 per spread
Max reward = 4.14 or $414.00 per spread

We are entering into a few longer dated bearish positions in the broad markets SPY and QQQ as shown below.
Buy to open: SPY April 17th (monthly) 580.00 strike put (ratio of 1)
Sell to open: SPY April 17th (monthly) 540.00 strike put (ratio of 2)
Buy to open: SPY April 17th (monthly) 500.00 strike put (ratio of 1)
Debit: 4.08
Max risk = 4.08 or $408.00 per spread
Max reward = 35.92 or $3,592.00 per spread

Buy to open: QQQ March 21st (monthly) 510.00 strike put (ratio of 1)
Sell to open: QQQ March 21st (monthly) 475.00 strike put (ratio of 2)
Buy to open: QQQ March 21st (monthly) 440.00 strike put (ratio of 1)
Debit: 4.30
Max risk = 4.30 or $430.00 per spread
Max reward = 30.70 or $3,070.00 per spread

Posted on

Trade Alert 12/16/2024

Hello Investors,
Today we entered into a new trade on Nike (NKE). This has been a badly lagging stock through 2024. We are playing it for a bounce back in the new year (January effect). It is a higher risk strategy especially given that the company reports earnings on Thursday of this week. The details are as follows:
Buy to open: NKE April 17th (monthly) 80.00 strike call
Sell to open: NKE Dec 27th (weekly) 84.00 strike call
Debit: 4.79
Max risk = 4.79 or $479.00 per spread
Max reward = unlimited after Dec 27th expiration date
Have a great week!
Posted on

Trade Alert 12/12/2024

Hello Investors,

As expected the news has hit that the Nippon/U.S. Steel deal will be rejected by the Govt. The steel stocks are reacting to that news with selling pressure the past couple of days. We have positioned for this outcome with a protective put spread in U.S. Steel (X). The interesting part is that X is holding up a little better than the sector. Which means, much of this is probably already priced into that stock specifically. We will take a quick profit in our put spread as a bounce back in the shares seems likely.

Sell to close:  X Dec 20th (monthly) 37.00 strike put
Buy to close: X Dec 20th (monthly) 32.00 strike put
Credit:  3.19
This locked-in a profit of +1.40 or +$140.00 per spread

Posted on

Trade Alert 12/9/2024

Hello Investors,
There is news circulating around U.S. Steel (X) and a potential buyout from Nippon Steel a Japanese corporation. They are seeking regulatory/Governmental approvals. The market is pricing in a big move one way or the other. We have purchased a very short-term Dec 20th put spread. This is a protective position against our 100 shares of stock. However, it could work as just a speculative trade but understand that the max risk is a very real possibility as the stock will likely surge one way or the other based on the outcome of the negotiations.
Buy to open: X Dec 20th (monthly) 37.00 strike put
Sell to open: X Dec 20th (monthly) 32.00 strike put
Debit: 1.79
Max risk = 1.79 or $179.00 per spread
Max reward = 3.21 or $321.00 per spread
In addition, we discussed our PLTR trade and that an “exhaustion” high would be ideal at current levels. If the stock continues much further, we would need to either exit or roll up the short puts to best manage the position.
Have a great week!