Author: Bryan Halliday

We bought 20 more shares of CCJ today at 55.94. That brings us up to 150 shares total. We also bought a bull call spread in SNAP. The company reports earnings next week. Buy to open: SNAP Dec 20th (monthly) 12.00 strike call Sell to open: SNAP Dec 20th (monthly) 15.00 strike call Debit: 0.53 Max risk = 0.53 or $53.00 per spread Max reward = 2.47 or $247.00 per spread We already own a 1×2 call spread against our stock position in December. This spread will increase our bullishness in the stock further.

We rolled up the covered call in CCJ yesterday. That worked out in our favor. However, the stock is a little too high as of this update. So, we will pay the small premium and “buy it back” in order to retain our stock. Buy to close: CCJ Oct 18th (monthly) 58.00 strike call Debit: 0.24

This is our 2nd newsletter today. We have added another a long-term put butterfly in SPY. Because the overall stock market returns have been solid in 2024, it will often remain stable to finish out the year. However, when the calendar flips then the market could see a significant decline. So, by positioning this butterfly out in March. We are actually in great shape if the markets waste a lot of time going sideways and then closer to March get a decline in price. The details are as follows: Buy to open:  SPY March 21st (monthly) 560.00 strike put (ratio of 1) Sell to open:  SPY March 21st (monthly) 540.00 strike put (ratio of 2) Buy to open:  SPY March 21st (monthly) 520.00 strike put (ratio of 1) Debit: 1.00 – this order has filled Max risk = 1.00 or $100.00 per spread Max reward = 19.00 or $1,900.00 per spread

October monthly options expiration has arrived. A few updates and 1 adjustment below. We will need to monitor our CCJ covered call through tomorrow. We rolled it up to a higher strike making it more likely to expire OTM. The details are as follows: Buy to close:  CCJ Oct 18th (monthly) 55.00 strike call Sell to open: CCJ Oct 18th (monthly) 58.00 strike call Debit: 1.50 We will also need to monitor our covered call in SNAP. Although the 11.00 strike covered call is likely to expire OTM for a max gain. Our put butterfly trade in MSTR will expire OTM for a loss of the 2.10 debit paid.

We are going to roll-up and out on our covered call in EQT. The details are shown below. Buy to close: EQT Oct 18th (monthly) 37.00 strike call Sell to open:  EQT Nov 15th (monthly) 42.00 strike call Debit: 0.90 We are going to roll-in our covered call in CCJ. The details are shown below. Buy to close: CCJ Oct 18th (monthly) 55.00 strike call Sell to open:  CCJ Nov 15th (monthly) 55.00 strike call Debit: 1.27

We own 50 shares of NUE. We attempted to sell a covered call on Monday and did not get filled. We have decided to go ahead with selling that covered call today. The good news is that we have collected even more premium than our attempt on Monday (0.90 vs 0.75 on Monday). Please be aware, this is 50 shares uncovered so if the stock explodes higher, it creates some risk in the position. The details are as follows:

Sold to open: NUE Nov 15th (monthly) 175.00 strike call
Credit: 0.90 – this order has filled

The Put/Call ratio moved below 0.50 this week. That suggests that essentially nobody wants put options. They don’t want to hedge. They don’t want to speculate. It is a “sentiment” gauge and a contrarian signal. When nobody wants puts, it is usually a pretty good time to look at getting some. So, we have bought a couple of protective positions.

First, we bought calls in the VIX. This will be a very short-term trade.
Buy to open: VIX Nov 20th (monthly) 15.00 strike call
Debit: 3.35 – this order has filled
We have a GTC (good til canceled) stop loss on these calls which will kick us out at a loss if the call values drop further.
Sell to close: VIX Nov 20th (monthly) 15.00 strike call
Stop price: 2.75
GTC – make sure you place the protective stop loss as a GTC order so that it is live every day going forward.

Second, we bought puts in the SPY. This is a bit of a hedge and likely fairly short-term as well.
Buy to open: SPY Dec 20th (monthly) 575.00 strike put
Debit: 15.10 – this order has filled
Max risk = 15.10 or $1,510
This doesn’t have a stop loss but we will monitor the trade. Please be aware the risk of loss is much greater in the SPY trade vs the VIX trade which is a much lower risk. This SPY trade has the potential for at least a few hundred dollars of losses before we exit.