ITB bearish trade in home builders'So with the FED hiking rates another .25 bps in June (96% odds as of right now) I am making a bearish trade in the home builder ETF. I have never traded through a rising rate environment so.......take it with a grain of salt. I am buying the 40 put in October and selling the 36 put in October for $1.12 This is a defined risk trade for a debit (not really the Tasty Trade way) With an Implied Volatility Rank of 14% I am going to allow this for my smaller account since the risk/reward ratio is more inline with growing a small account (risk 1.12 to make 3.80) I would have defaulted to a 3 wide spread but the 36 strike had considerable more open interest for 20 cents more. This trade may work because the overall market tanks or the market could continue rallying and make it price in even more hikes.....I am not really sure what will happen but I have come to really hate those long sideways horizontal channels that can tend to plunge. I have 130 days for this trade to play out and no way of adjusting without adding risk other than rolling out for time (which usually only works if it goes against you) I can not see home sales continuing at this pace if interest rates continue going up and something has to give.
Options-strategy
SEDG - buy the dipSEDG (Solaredge) was sold off rapidly in the past 3 days, which was unsurprising, given the massive run-up after earnings. It is now near a support level: approximately the price it was hovering around pre-earnings, presenting a good opportunity to go long.
This play is risky. The stock is still a "falling knife".
Short term target: $54 - $58 monthly calls
Lending Club could see $5.50 by Mid next week.Investors are loving what they heard on the call with LC executives. I'm expecting healthy gains until the end of the month. Be mindful not to enter at a peak and chase gains, I'd say its a good time to enter a options trade on this. 3.50 strike in the money with a straddle for downward movement, track the gann fan lines for support and resistance. Look for confirmation in support of the fan lines for a movement to the upside should signal an enter.
Once this post positive on moving averages I expect institutional and computer generated buying. Saddle up. I'm already in @ 2.79 and I'm about to double down on an options play. I'll be in this long.
FACEBOOK! CAN WE GO LONG?I'm actually anticipating a break out of this trend line towards the upside target of 186.00/188.00/192.00.
Now I would only consider getting in on this trade possibly towards the 178.00/180.00 level depending on volume. However I think that a break out on this stock towards our TP's is probable!
Volume: 19.844M
EPS: 6.27
Market Cap: 513.081B
P/E: 28.67
TP: 186.00/188.00/192.00
Neutral trade on IYR,58% probability (Strangle)The Implied Volatility Rank of IYR is at 65 and with a down move of around 6% in the last 20 days, I expect we are going to start a correction soon around the value area. So I decided to sell a Strangle to collect some premium. With 37 days to expiration I Sold the 80/76 Strangle for 0.95 credit. That will give me a 58% probability to make money, but if I close it when the price of the strangle reach 0.48 my probabilities jump to 80%, so that's the plan.
The Trade:
Expiration = Feb 16
Sell 80 Call
Sell 76 Put
Credit Received = $0.95 ea
Probability of profit 58%
Put sale on MU for February normal expiry?MU opened and closed below its 100 day SMA on the daily time frame. I can definitely see some more downside down to $39 and maybe even the 200 day SMA on the daily time frame, which is also the 50 day EMA on the weekly time frame.
Weekly chart:
Considering a $37 Feb put sale for a limit of $0.40 or better. I wouldn't mind owning shares in MU :-)
LRCX Showing Bullish Charts Leading into Earnings tonight Trend Analysis:
-->Looks to be breaking resistance at $215. Strong earnings will likely allow the price to break through.
-->Hit support early today around $208
Indicators & Overlays:
-->MACD looking to cross over close to 0
-->DMI+ looking to cross over DMI- in an upward trend
-->RSI showing resistance at 40 and moving upward back to the 80 range
GE - Time to bet on a rebound?THE BACKDROP
GE closed at $32.25 on Dec 20 2016, at the top of its long term trading channel. The stock has lost 50% since, closing at 16.26 yesterday. This downfall has been ugly, with heavy selling volume, especially most recently. There is no telling how much lower the stock will go. Currently, the stock looks oversold on all time frames and could be ready for a bounce-back on any marginally positive news - Perhaps as early as this week when the earnings are announced and we start to hear about measures to fix the business…
THE TRADE
I do not like to catch falling knives, and would not normally be compelled to enter a stock with disappointing fundamentals and such an ugly technical configuration. However, there is an options trade which looks interesting at this stage, and might be worth considering ahead of earnings publication in 2 days. Look to get synthetically long close to the money, and to finance such position by selling a longer, further OTM put.
THE SETUP
1. Sell $15 SEP PUT and cash in $0.94/share (indicative).
2. Buy $17 JUN CALL and pay $0.92/share (indicative).
THE OUTCOMES
If the stock trades up, capture synthetically the full upside.
If the stock trades down, the worst case is to hold GE at $15.
If the stock remains range-bound —> No impact.
THE ALTERNATIVE
For those looking for risk-less opportunities, and do not mind paying for them, look to trade only the second leg (buy call)...
BABA - Triple-topping: What to do with the upcoming earnings?BABA’s exceptional run seems to be triple-topping. While the long-term trend remains up, the short and mid-term pictures look like they have turned to the downside. The company should announce earnings on Feb 1 before market open and I would wait for this catalyst to go long, just in case any fundamental disappointment should take us lower to confirm the poor, current technical picture. In line with the strategy I proposed on NFLX (see below), the game consists in buying synthetic upside exposure ahead of earnings. If the stock breaks out, you will be exposed to the upside. If the stock remains range-bound, you will lose a small premium. If the stock disappoints and tanks, you could decide to lose your premium or to sell a put to make your lost premium up.
1. BUY BABA Feb 16'18 $182.5 CALL = $6.90 (3.78%)
OR
2. BUY BABA Feb 16'18 $192.5 CALL = $3.32 (1.82%)
A SIMPLE BUT EFFECTIVE OPTION WRITING STRATEGY.A simple but effective option wrting strategy for a monthly income:
Underlying concept :
a) Strategy - Writing nifty call and put options simultaneously.
b) Strike selection - Call and put strikes approximately above / below 100 points from market price at the time of entry.
c) Adjustment post position - For every 100 point or close to 100 point change in nifty, square both call and put and write fresh call and put as per point b. Continue this till expiry.
Example:
A) 01/01/2018 - Nifty at 10435
1) Write 10600 strike call at 76.
2) Write 10300 strike put at 64
B) 05/01/2018 - Nifty at 10558.
3) Square off s.no.1 at 90 with a loss of 14.
4) Square off s.no.2 at 36 with a profit of 28.
5) Write 10700 call at 47.
6) Write 10400 put at 55.
C) 11/01/2018 - Nifty at 10651
7) Square off s.no 5 at 61 with a loss of 14.
8) Square off s.no.6 at 29 with a profit of 26
9) Write 10800 call at 26.
10) Write 10500 put at 44.
D) 15/01/2018 - Nifty at 10740
11) Square off s.no.9 at 43 with a loss of 17.
12) Square off s.no. 10 at 20 with a profit of 24.
13) Write 10900 call at 16.
14) Write 10600 put at 32.
E) 18/01/2018 - Nifty at 10817
15) Square off s.no. 13 at 23 with a loss of 7.
16) Square off s.no. 14 at 15 with a profit of 17.
17) Write 11000 call at 7
18) Write 10700 put at 29.
F) 19/01/2018 - Nifty at 10895.
19) Square off s.no.15 at 17 with a loss of 10.
20) Square off s.no.16 at 12 with a profit of 17.
21) Write 11100 call at 4.
22) Write 10800 put at 23.
G) 23/01/2018 - Nifty at 11083.
23) Square off s.no.21 at 40 with a loss of 36.
24) Square off s.no 22 at 6 with a profit of 17.
and so on.....
Net PnL : -14+28-14+26-17+24-7+17-10+17-36+17 = 31.
Net PnL per lot : Rs 2,325
Margin required per lot (NRML) : Around 1,40,000 for both call and put.
No. of days in the above eg : 23.
Return : 1.6% for 23 days.
Annualised return : 26%.
A capital of Rs 10 lacs would provide an income of Rs 23k plus.
Assumptions :
In the above example, all prices taken at close of the day. Hence actual trading might not replicate the above return. There could be increase or decrease depending on the exact time of trade during the day. The above example assumes current month's maturity. Income can be increased by opting for next month maturity.
Risk factors:
This strategy is naked sale of call and put. Hence theoretically risk is unlimited and unknown while returns are limited and known. However, the unlimited loss scenario is a 6 sigma event, which is the underlying strength of writing options IF RE-ADJUSTMENT IS DONE AS AND WHEN REQUIRED. This strategy might end up in loss if there is a very significant gap up / down beyond the premium received.
Important:
I have not backtested this strategy. Use at your own risk. The objective of this is to share info and not a recommendation to trade.