Dangerous strategy on expiration

[arizonadreamer]

Quote from commiebat:

I guess it's no secret by now that the market can go horribly, horribly wrong in the final hour of trading.

Gonna take some people an awful lot of nickels to make back today's losses.

Yes, Fridays (expiration) are a notoriously bad time to be speculating in the market. Other bad days are Thursdays, Wednesdays, Tuesdays, and Mondays - - - to paraphrase a great writer.

AZD

 

[spindr0]

I agree with everything that guys said, particularly the statement that "This isn't going to hurt at all" :>)

Now this is stretching the OP's post a bit but hey, it's my nickel!

If one is a stock buyer via selling puts, prices have dropped and one is willing to own the stock at strike less premium received, selling NP's a week before expiration can be attractive. For an ATM put, you can get about 1/2 the premium for a one week write that you get for a 4 week write. This ratio tails off as the strike gets more OTM but you get the idea.

Of course, this is probably heresy since all ET participants are top shelf prima facie option traders

 

[rickf]

Quote from arizonadreamer:

Yes, that SPX settlement is very tricky.

The "safer" choice is the OEX.

For example, right now, with about 50 minutes to go, there is a bid for the 695 puts (and more for the 700 puts) with the OEX at 705. You want to take the chance that the OEX won't fall 1.5% more in that time? If so, (and again NOT a recommendation), you can sell a few.

Good luck.

AZD

Nah, IMHO you're still playing with fire, even on the indices....unless it was a reeeeally quiet day (and what expiration is?) I still wouldn't do it!

I bumped into the trader this morning and he said that when he got back from the gym it was -200 on the DJIA. He ran some errands and it was -300 an hour later. I asked if he did any of the "last minute" trades and he simply smiled and said "not in this market today." Guess there was some modicum of common sense present in the world yesterday!