re: Options Trading Thread

This week was a big week in options for me. Like a lot of options traders, I had a pretty large (25%) drawdown in my account when I started trading. I promised myself I would not deposit more capital until I worked myself out of the hole. So I went positive this week for the first time since that drawdown. Now I'm looking forward to adding more capital and initiating more/larger positions.

I've had really good results with 3-10day IC on spx/spy. The IV just hasn't been there to go further out.

Went in light on some weekly MSFT short puts around 7 delta - 221 strike. IV wasn’t great, but enough to put on a small trade. The stock initially popped up to 252 after earnings came out, but then sunk back down to the 240 level on poor guidance and a larger than expected profit decline. That’s taking the wind out of the S&P futures right now, but we’ll see how it shakes out tomorrow.

Managed to sell some jade lizards on TSLA before the close. Looking good there so far. MSFT short puts look very safe. Now just keeping an eye on some 4055c SPX short call verticals that expire tomorrow. Likely sell some naked calls on CRWD tomorrow (which will turn covered after Friday). And my IBM short puts still look safe, although the stock is taking a hit after earnings - but I don’t mind taking shares at 131.

Anybody else doing some earnings plays?

EA completely blew through the expected move (+/- 5.88). Still falling like a rock in AH from 128.68 close to 115.40 right now. I haven’t had time to read the earnings report, but it must have been fairly horrible.

IF is an “iron fly”… could be an iron condor (a strangle with protective wings) or an iron butterfly (a straddle with protective wings).

You might see me use JL (jade lizard), which is a naked short put combined with a short call vertical.

Thanks boss!!

Meanwhile, in my positions.....

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This is a dangerous game indeed.
I bought a few shares of Google from $85-90 not too long ago, so I've been watching the stock.

Well, I caught a dip this morning and made 15% on puts (ex. 2/10) in about two minutes

Delta neutral SPX short synthetic strangles (expiring 2/9). Some UNG, URA, AAPL, AMD, EA and BP short calls expiring this week. Probably do something (short weekly strategy of some type) on DIS going into earnings on 2/8. We’ll follow the price and IV action and decide Wednesday afternoon if a jade lizard is appropriate.

Nice play you made on the GOOG puts the other day.

Dive deep into some TastyTrade YouTube videos and you’ll soon be suggesting strategies for me.

Basically I’m just selling iron condors on SPX that look a bit like strangles - using low delta, (roughly) equally spaced short puts and calls, then buying VERY wide long wings (calls and puts) for a net credit. Doing actual strangles on SPX would be VERY capital intensive.

A jade lizard is just a naked short put combined with a short call spread.

Trading short options on QQQ is attractive because the IV (premium) tends to be relatively good.

Apart from these earnings trades on individual equities, the low VIX has sucked the premium out of the market lately.