Buying call options ahead of earnings has been profitable

You can still have high earnings around the starting of a bear market. 2010-2019 is not the right time frame to test this. 1997-2010 would be better if possible.
 
From the Wall Street Journal Daily Shot of Feb 8, 2019. Does anyone employ this strategy of systematically buying call options before earnings releases? Are there really lots of stock options traders who don't know when earnings come out and therefore underprice options ahead of earnings? I don't know if the results include transaction costs.

**************************************************

5. Buying call options ahead of the earnings releases has been quite profitable this quarter.

B3-DC609_Dshot_NS_20190208034111.png

Source: Goldman Sachs, @WallStJesus
This give me some homework to do.
 
There's a lot of factors that go into earnings though, a big one being that typically (always?), the larger the operational size and/or market cap of the company in question, the more management attempt and/or succeed at managing their earnings in order to consistently beat the estimates. There was some research done, I can't remember where I found it but someone better at finding this stuff would probably be able to dig it up, that concluded that about 60-65% of companies beat the earnings estimates for any given quarter. Now, not included in that research but definitely available to be searched independently, there are companies that have higher estimate-beat rates than that.

If I were a betting man, my money would be on that strategy done in the backtest having positive EV, especially if it were done with S&P components or some kind of basket of large cap stocks.
 
I am trying to figure out the best earnings options strategy myself. Many players do straddles and some news organization always publishes the expected historic move for each company earnings on the day before. But I am not convinced that is the best play. I tend to think it is better to use OTM strangles and risk less but hope for a big move.

With a straddle you have look for high IV rank when you make the buy, plus hope for a big move. But you could always start with a straddle and add to the winning side the next day.

An IC can leave you ITM with a short calls or puts.

In a way, I think it is better to just wait until the next day and look for the direction and sell a credit spread - one ITM and one OTM (for the high delta)

Also - there is nothing wrong with going out a month or two with earnings plays - especially if you are collecting credit.
 
More from Marshall of Goldman Sachs:

How to Make Sense of the Stock Market in the Age of Algorithmic Trading
By Steven M. Sears
Barron's
Updated April 25, 2019 11:34 a.m. ET

...

On any given day, the options market now represents about 55% of the stock market’s notional average daily volume. This trend is even more significant in specific stocks. Options volumes have recently exceeded stock volumes for Amazon.com (ticker: AMZN), Apple(AAPL), Boeing (BA), Tesla (TSLA), Facebook(FB), Alphabet (GOOGL), Booking Holdings(BKNG), and Wynn Resorts (WYNN).

These themes, which are the subject of a much-discussed Goldman Sachs study, reflect major changes in the securities market. At a minimum, it means investors are increasingly using options to trade and control stocks—not the other way around, as had been true for decades. This means investors increasingly must understand options to invest in stocks.

These liquidity shifts also suggest that opportunities exist for investors—people, not machines—to profit from the normalization of options liquidity after market-moving events.


Investors are experimenting by buying call options on stocks, especially if they decline on earnings news, to catch rebounds or sudden jumps. This trade takes advantage of a pattern that increases options liquidity in advance of the event, only to sharply drop on earnings day, and then rebound.


The five days before an earnings report is the most attractive time to enter an earnings trade, and the best time to exit is four to six days after the earnings report, according to John Marshall, a Goldman options strategist who is doing pioneering work on market liquidity

...
 
Back
Top