$SPY #Options – #DayTrading today’s calls for a 50% gain

Posted on by diogenes227

The SPY 307 in-the-money call, expiring today, netted 50% for the day trade despite the initial entry being stopped out once at breakeven.

See tweet time stamps and the chart below.

FIRST TRADE ENTRY

SECOND TRADE – REENTRY

FIRST PROFIT TAKING

CLOSE OF DAY TRADE

THE STRATEGY

There are so many options strategies in the stock market the head spins – a straddle, a strangle, a naked and/or a covered put and/or call, a calendar, a condor, an iron condor, an iron butterfly (isn’t that a rock band?) and any combination of any of these for hedging purposes, for capital appreciation or preservation, for gambling. Mind boggling.

Buying options, just plain buying a call or a put, everyone will say is a “fool’s game.”

Regardless of whether a trader buys calls or puts on index ETFs like SPY or QQQ or IWM, or buys options on stocks, there are only three things that can happen – the option goes the trader’s way (good), or the option goes against the trader (bad), the option goes sideways with price decay over time (also bad).

Two out of the three possibilities for the option buyer are losers. What fool would want to play that game?

But is it really a fool’s game? Like everyone in options trading says?

For day traders it doesn’t have to be. If the trader is persistent, discipline and experience, it almost never is.

Let’s take SPY options as the prime example — very liquid across multiple strikes, tight spreads, hardly any time decay on a trade for only a day, a stop-loss is close by and immediate, and the profits, if there is a trend for the day, can be substantial, even rather astounding.

Also great for scalping on any time frame intraday but that, as they say, is another story.

Again, the key, as always, is persistence, discipline, experience, and an entry signal the trader is comfortable taking.

Today, again, was a fine day for the strategy.

(click on the chart for a larger view)

#DayTrading $SPY #Options – simplifying today’s put buy and sell for a 237% gain

Posted on by diogenes227

The 315 in-the-money put, expiring today, netted 237% on the day-trade buy signal near the SPY open with a sell of half at up 215% and the second half at up 260%. Had the trade been held to the close, it would still have netted approximately 220%.

See the tweets (for time stamps) and the chart below:

THE STRATEGY

There are so many options strategies in the stock market the head spins – a straddle, a strangle, a naked and/or a covered put and/or call, a calendar, a condor, an iron condor, an iron butterfly (isn’t that a rock band?) and any combination of any of these for hedging purposes, for capital appreciation or preservation, for gambling. Mind boggling.

Buying options, just plain buying a call or a put, everyone will say is a “fool’s game.”

Regardless of whether a trader buys calls or puts on index ETFs like SPY or QQQ or IWM, or buys options on stocks, there are only three things that can happen – the option goes the trader’s way (good), or the option goes against the trader (bad), the option goes sideways with price decay over time (also bad).

Two out of the three possibilities for the option buyer are losers. What fool would want to play that game?

But is it really a fool’s game? Like everyone in options trading says?

For day traders it doesn’t have to be. If the trader is persistent, discipline and experience, it almost never is.

Let’s take SPY options as the prime example — very liquid across multiple strikes, tight spreads, hardly any time decay on a trade for only a day, a stop-loss is close by and immediate, and the profits, if there is a trend for the day, can be substantial, even rather astounding.

Also great for scalping on any time frame intraday but that, as they say, is another story.

Again, the key, as always, is persistence, discipline, experience, and an entry signal the trader is comfortable taking.

Today, again, was a spectacular day for the strategy.

(click on the chart for a larger view)

#DayTrading $SPY #Options – today’s puts for 131%

Posted on by diogenes227

Today’s gain on two trades — 131%.

The in-the-money 315 put, expiring today, was in play triggered by a five-minute bar below the SPY open. See the chart below.

There are so many options strategies in the stock market the head spins – a straddle, a strangle, a naked and/or a covered put and/or call, a calendar, a condor, an iron condor, an iron butterfly (isn’t that a rock band?) and any combination of any of these for hedging purposes, for capital appreciation or preservation, for gambling. Mind boggling.

Buying options, just plain buying a call or a put, everyone will say is a “fool’s game.”

Regardless of whether a trader buys calls or puts on index ETFs like SPY or QQQ or IWM, or buys options on stocks, there are only three things that can happen – the option goes the trader’s way (good), or the option goes against the trader (bad), the option goes sideways with price decay over time (also bad).

Two out of the three possibilities for the option buyer are losers. What fool would want to play that game?

But is it really a fool’s game, like everyone in options trading says?

For day traders it doesn’t have to be. If the trader is persistent, discipline and experience, it almost never is.

Let’s take SPY options as the prime example — very liquid across multiple strikes, tight spreads, hardly any time decay on a trade for only a day, a stop-loss is close by and immediate, and the profits, if there is a trend for the day, can be substantial, even rather astounding.

Also great for scalping on any time frame intraday but that, as they say, is another story.

Again, the key, as always, is persistence, discipline, experience, and an entry signal the trader is comfortable taking.

Today, again, was a spectacular day for the strategy.

(click on the chart for a larger view)

#DayTrading $SPY #Options – Buying Puts and Calls

Posted on by diogenes227

There are so many options strategies in the stock market the head spins – a straddle, a strangle, a naked and/or a covered put and/or call, a calendar, a condor, an iron condor, an iron butterfly (isn’t that a rock band?) and any combination of any of these for hedging purposes, for capital appreciation or preservation, for gambling. Mind boggling.

But buying options…

Buying options, just plain buying a call or a put, everyone will say is a “fool’s game.”

Regardless of whether a trader buys calls or puts on index ETFs like SPY or QQQ or IWM, or buys options on stocks, there are only three things that can happen – the option goes the trader’s way (good), or the option goes against the trader (bad), the option goes sideways with price decay over time (also bad).

Two out of the three possibilities for the option buyer are losers. What fool would want to play that game?

But is it really a fool’s game, like everyone in options trading says?

For day traders it doesn’t have to be. If the trader is persistent, discipline and experience, it almost never is.

Let’s take SPY options as the prime example — very liquid across multiple strikes, tight spreads, hardly any time decay on a trade for only a day, a stop-loss is close by and immediate, and the profits, if there is a trend for the day, can be substantial, even rather astounding.

Also great for scalping on any time frame intraday.

Again, the key, as always, is persistence, discipline, experience, and an entry signal the trader is comfortable taking.

Today was a spectacular day for the strategy.

The 313 put, expiring tomorrow, Friday (6/12), despite a 12% stop-loss early, finished with a 206% at the end of the day trade.

(CLICK ON THE CHART FOR A LARGER VIEW OF THE TRADE)

#DayTrading $SPY #Options – Buying Calls and Puts

Posted on by diogenes227

The contents of this blog entry was first posted here a year or so ago about buying SPY calls and puts for day trades.

I am copying the contents of that post here in order make it easier for me to find. Plus, the current volatility in the market makes this strategy better than ever.

There are so many options strategies in the stock market the head spins – a straddle, a strangle, a naked and/or a covered put and/or call, a calendar, a condor, an iron condor, an iron butterfly (isn’t that a rock band?) and any combination of any of these for hedging purposes, for capital appreciation or preservation, for gambling. Mind boggling.

But buying options…

Buying options, just plain buying a call or a put, everyone will say is a “fool’s game.”

Regardless of whether a trader buys calls or puts on index ETFs like SPY or QQQ or IWM, or buys options on stocks, there are only three things that can happen – the option goes the trader’s way (good), or the option goes against the trader (bad), the option goes sideways with price decay over time (also bad).

Two out of the three possibilities for the option buyer are losers. What fool would want to play that game?

But is it really a fool’s game, like everyone in options trading says?

For day traders it doesn’t have to be. If the trader is persistent, discipline and experience, it almost never is.

Let’s take SPY options as the prime example — very liquid across multiple strikes, tight spreads, hardly any time decay on a trade for only a day, a stop-loss is close by and immediate, and the profits, if there is a trend for the day, can be substantial, even rather astounding.

Also great for scalping on any time frame intraday.

Again, I must stress the key, as always, is persistence, discipline, experience, and an entry signal the trader is comfortable taking.

I have included the chart below from today as an example – the SPY 278 in-the-money call, expiring Friday, up 106% to close the day trade. (I will probably edit this out of this post, along with the chart, as time goes by.)

(Click on the chart for a larger view)

#MarketTiming – six days up and what now? – UPDATED

Posted on by diogenes227

UPDATE: What now?

As suggested in the post below, I expected the market to move up this week, not as much as it did, but no matter.

Anytime one is on he right side of a six-day swing, either up or down, one cannot complain.

In this case, it’s six days up.

TQQQ, the 3x-leveraged and preferred trading ETF for the Nasdaq, gained 22% on the swing. Some major bellwether stocks have powered the six days, AAPL, MSFT, NVDA, AMZN FB, all up six days in a row; TWLO up six days and 73% on the move is by far the most spectacular example I follow.

Swing trading…what more can you say?

But what now?

This could stop right here. The NYMO was down today (see the chart below). How many times have we seen that mark the end, or at least a pause, after a four or more consecutive days up?

However, the all-important NYSI continues to rise so, unless this is going to drop right out of the sky, it’s probably a pause or a stall — it takes time to work off $2 trillion of Federal Reserve funny money spent in all the wrong places.

This has been a long spectacular rally since March, a fast up characteristic of bear-market rallies. If this is the end bullish traders and long-term investors who believe the bull market lives on will be in great danger.

If the market drops here and takes the NYSI negative, watch out…

An always remember there is no profit until you sell.

(click on the chart for a larger view)

#MarketTiming – one more hiccUP before the plunge?

Posted on by diogenes227

The bear market rally isn’t quite over yet…

I’m not one for fundamentals but in the current market environment that doesn’t matter since there are none other than the FED throwing in a couple of trillion dollars to replace a bubble that burst with yet another bubble.

A couple of trillion dollars…and not even going to the small businesses and everyday people who need it most (and can spend it to fuel a recovery) as an incompetent businessman slash so called President goes on babbling about what a good job he’s done killing 70,000 Americans so far and sinking the entire economy while blaming everyone and everything else for his personal incompetence. Up until now Herbert Hoover was the biggest historical disaster of a President in the last 100 years, but Donny Trump who brags about being best at everything may be only best at this.

So if you’re long-term investor and you are not selling into this good-luck rally, all I can say for the longer term is “good luck.”

However, NYSI is still rising and the NYMO, which is so far pulling back, probably needs to hiccup to one more high below a high before this is done.

That hiccup appears to have begun as today’s general market price action climbed out of the today’s opening gap down to finish positive.

The tweet Friday:

Cruise lines stocks cruising to zero

Posted on by diogenes227

I thought it strange this last week when the cruise-stocks had a bounce because, according to the news, NCLH (Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings) reported it was cutting crew, cutting expenses and had enough cash to last a year before going completely broke.

That lifted the entire sector?! Are investors paying any attention to this stuff?

At the moment, this sector, as everyone knows, as been in the pandemic news a lot. It is down 60% or so in the last three months.

No wonder.

Passengers and crew were trapped with a lethal virus in quarters nearly as tight as prisons and meat packing plants. There was the “celebrated” moment when President Trump stopped a Carnival Cruise liner from disembarking and made its passengers sit in a ship off San Francisco because he thought infection and death numbers would go up and hurt his his re-election chances.

Early on it was not known what the full implications of that was but now we know.

The Trump Administration, on orders from the boss, was botching the nation’s entire response to on-charging tragedy big time. The cruise companies, maybe more than any other industry, has been truly stuck between the most despicable President ever and the unforgiving deep blue sea. Even Joseph Conrad could not write this sea tale as disastrous as it is.

Right now, the stocks are basing (going sideways) to see what happens next. There is a lot of optimism they can recover once the economy reopens. That hope is so misplaced all I have to say to that is “Good Luck, fellas.”

Two massive problems currently rule the industry’s fortune.

Given all the bad news, customers are going to be a long time coming. Who wants to pay $5,000 to be on a floating death trap? At best, the cruise operators are going to have to give away the trips. At the risk of obvious understatement – let’s just say that will not be good for profits.

But the bigger problem might be who’s going to crew these ships?

Not only were the crews being infected and in some cases dying, but in addition, there are more than 100,000 still trapped on those ships worldwide who can’t get off, who can’t get transportation back to their home ports, who can’t see their families. These are people who have now have been quarantined for two months or more. They have long since realized nobody – not their employers, not the Trump incompetents, not the people they dutiful served — give a damn about them.

So the question arises are these companies ever going to hire any crews again, let alone experienced ones?

What a mess…

So just over that flat ocean horizon bankruptcy and the loss of all shareholder equity looms. Are investors paying any attention to this?

NCLH, CCL, RCL… Cruising to zero.

(click on the chart for a larger view)

#MarketTiming – another day, another dollar or two

Posted on by diogenes227

As market sold off it gaped-up gains Tuesday, the NYMO and NYSI did not turn down.

Today showed why traders always want to be on the same side as those two breadth indicators.

It’s been a great bounce and so far there’s not sign it’s done, except we’re running into a holiday in a bear market. I haven’t studied those occurrences but I would not be surprised if there’s a stall tomorrow.

No telling what more three days of news can bring during a world-wide pandemic.

Anyway, some highlights in this spectacular bounce suggested to start on on the open of March 23rd in this post: Reading history on the #MarginDebt chart. Since then UPRO, the SPX leveraged ETF, is up a whopping 60%, TQQQ is up 52%, TNA 45%; among the leveraged sector ETF’s I follow, ERX is up 82% and SOXL 74%.

Spectacular numbers.

So spectacular in fact that going into the weekend traders might want to move up to the edge of their seats to insure nothing goes wrong with the profits grabbed in this fierce bear-market rally. Investors can go on praying there’s more to come after the harrow plunge they’ve just seen. I hear a lot of happiness among those who did not buy and hold and bought sometime in the past two weeks and a lot of hoping from those blistered by what the hope is a “black swan” interruption of last year’s bull market.

I still believe this is a bounce to be slaughtered because of the unraveling of margin debt discussed in that link above but I guess we’ll see in the fullness of time.

In the meantime, this was my play for today, the SPY 267 in-the-money call expiring today, stopped out once but finished up 149% for the day trade.

Like I said above, another day, another dollar or two…in a spectacular week.

(click on the chart for a larger view)