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EWU

POST-BREXIT, EWU FALLING INTO A BUY AREAOn a fairly regular basis, I look for things to add to my covered call portfolio. While on occasion I'll dabble in individual underlyings, my preference is to look to exchange traded funds that represent an asset class (e.g., XRT (retail), XLF (financials)) or market (e.g., EWZ (Brazil), EEM (emerging markets)) so that my hat's not always hanging on a single equity in the class. Unless you've been hiding under a rock or have been stranded on a desert island, the "hot topic" of the day is Brexit, so it makes sense to look for exchange traded funds with exposure to the U.K. or Europe to see if something pops out -- EWU does. For one thing, it's awfully cheap -- especially when compared to SPY, IWM, and FTSE futures -- such that doing a covered call won't eat up a huge amount of capital if that's the option you go with here. On the other hand, it's almost too cheap to work it with a short strangle, since there's hardly any "meat" (i.e., premium) on its bones. Because patience generally pays off, I'm waiting for it to fall into this long-term support area between 14 and 13.25 before pondering a bullish setup and am setting an alert to remind me to again revisit the chart if it continues to collapse to that area. As an alternative, I can just start to sell puts in that buy area, hoping to get an assignment at a favorable price; otherwise, I'll just pocket the credit received in the event price doesn't break my short put (currently the August 19th 14 put is priced at about $50; that ain't exactly "huge premium"). Others on my "shopping list": XLF, XBI, and EFA ... .
AMEX:EWULong
by NaughtyPines
GOING FLAT ON IWM/SPY SETUPS IN ADVANCE OF BREXITAlthough I always hate to miss putting on trades in a high volatility environment and generally don't like to exit setups merely because "something is happening," Brexit may be one of those special situations where it is likely that whichever way Brexit goes, the movement may be overly large, whether it takes the form of a relief rally on Bremain, or a significant downturn on Brexit vote ... . Moreover, I would also like to devote some attention to plays in the non-US markets, so I'm watching the options playable Euro ETF's like FEZ (Euro Stoxx 50), HEDJ (Europe Hedged), EWG (Germany), EWU (UK), EFA (MSCI EAFE) and EWQ (France) (they basically all have the same trajectory; the question is which ones will be reasonably liquid to play via options ... ).
AMEX:IWM
by NaughtyPines