Expirations Week plays

Eliot Hosewater · Jul 21, 2006

Quote from Eliot Hosewater:

Still waiting for DIA 109 puts to get filled @ 0.15.

Edit: Got 'em. (Now Dow will have another 200 point up day.)

OK, sold the 109 puts for .40. I had an order in to sell at .60 and it got real close, then I chased it down to .40. You know what they say "Money in hand is better than Bush in the White House" or something like that.

I gotta start buying more than 10 contracts (famous last words?).

forex-forex · Jul 21, 2006

Quote from forex-forex:
You are risking $9650 for $350.00. One bad trade will wipe out 27 such trades.

Quote from jllm03:
"Ching, Ching" sitting at .05 til the EOD.
GOOG 350p spread.

I wouldn't call it a "Ching, Ching", you earned the $350.00 for the amount of risk you took.

How many times in 27 will a stock move more than 10% during earnings? For a tech stock I would say more than once, that puts the odds against you.

forex-forex · Jul 21, 2006

Quote from Eliot Hosewater:

OK, sold the 109 puts for .40. I had an order in to sell at .60 and it got real close, then I chased it down to .40. You know what they say "Money in hand is better than Bush in the White House" or something like that.

I gotta start buying more than 10 contracts (famous last words?).

That was a good trade - I think you had DIA Calls and then switched to Puts all in less than a week. 5x return on the Calls and 2.5x return on the Puts, correct?

Eliot Hosewater · Jul 21, 2006

Quote from forex-forex:

That was a good trade - I think you had DIA Calls and then switched to Puts all in less than a week. 5x return on the Calls and 2.5x return on the Puts, correct?

Yeah, something like that.

I risked $350 and made $1190 profit (not counting commissions, etc). Not too shabby. I bought the calls on Tuesday. Now if I wanted to publish a newsletter I could say "I made 30,000% annualized ...".

Thanks for the DIA puts idea. I wouldn't have thought of that.

Edit: Of course DIA is now dropping like a rock. 109 puts just touched .70. Oh well, I still made a profit.

Russ32 · Jul 21, 2006

Quote from Eliot Hosewater:

Yeah, something like that.

I risked $350 and made $1190 profit (not counting commissions, etc). Not too shabby. I bought the calls on Tuesday. Now if I wanted to publish a newsletter I could say "I made 30,000% annualized ...".

Thanks for the DIA puts idea. I wouldn't have thought of that.

Edit: Of course DIA is now dropping like a rock. 109 puts just touched .70. Oh well, I still made a profit.

Hindsight is 20/20, I wouldn't kick myself in the butt over that profit taking.

jllm03 · Jul 21, 2006

Quote from forex-forex:

I wouldn't call it a "Ching, Ching", you earned the $350.00 for the amount of risk you took.

How many times in 27 will a stock move more than 10% during earnings? For a tech stock I would say more than once, that puts the odds against you.

Well the object of trading is to "Make a Buck"...Yes, there was a lot of risk for the reward, but the only regret was that I entered the spread a day too early. The 350p was up over a full point yesterday...It looked good at the time, and I took the cash...

forex-forex · Jul 21, 2006

Quote from jllm03:

Well the object of trading is to "Make a Buck"...Yes, there was a lot of risk for the reward, but the only regret was that I entered the spread a day too early. The 350p was up over a full point yesterday...It looked good at the time, and I took the cash...

I figure you will last a few more months before the BIG one hits you.

jj90 · Jul 21, 2006

Hmm, I should really switch over to not so volatile underlyings. GOOG has killed me 2 expirations in a row going long directional.

Nicktan · Jul 23, 2006

Hi all,

U talking about scalping options?

Nicktan

jllm03 · Jul 24, 2006

Quote from forex-forex:

I figure you will last a few more months before the BIG one hits you.

Normally I do NOT do initiate an option spread in the last week. but with the earnings on Thursday, and all indication looked like it would be close to what was expected, I did not see a 50 point drop in the works.
This was a "Gift" for the taking. 350 was too far off, in my opinion, to worry about getting caught ITM.
I do not play the "Set and Forget till expiration".
I actively monitor the spread once it is in place, and know when to bail it out (before it hits the break even point).
Now I will be sitting back and waiting and watching GOOG to see how it looks around 15 days to go before the AUG exp. (I like to only have about 10-14 days so the Theta works for me).

The only deviation that I may do on this round of GOOG would only be if it keeps it's downtrend for the next week. If it gets near 360 or 350 range I would entertain buying a couple Deep ITM LEAPS (08) on a CCI reversal. Could use them for a CCalls later on if back above 400.
...But as we can see...every trader has their own style and tactics. The overall goal is the MAKE MONEY...and that is what I am doing.