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THE WEEK AHEAD: HAL, NFLX, AA, UAL EARNINGS; EWZ, XLE, SLV, IWMHIGHLY LIQUID OPTIONS SINGLE NAME EARNINGS (LISTED CHRONOLOGICALLY IN ORDER OF ANNOUNCEMENT AND SCREENED FOR >50% 30-DAY IMPLIED): HAL (13/61/13.9%),* Tuesday, before market open NFLX (25/50/11.3%), Tuesday, after market close AA (18/69/15.9%), Wednesday, after market close UAL (13/64/14.8%), Wednesday, after market close From a bang for your buck perspective: AA ranks first, UAL, second, followed by NFLX, and HAL. I already have a covered strangle on in UAL and don't anticipate putting on more single name risk in the IRA (which is my primary focus running into retirement), but will naturally post a play should I get into one. EXCHANGE-TRADED FUNDS WITH >35% 30-DAY AND RANKED BY THE PERCENTAGE THE FEBRUARY AT-THE-MONEY SHORT STRADDLE IS PAYING AS A FUNCTION OF STOCK PRICE: EWZ (18/45/10.3%) XLE (23/42/9.7%) SLV (25/42/9.4%) GDX (12/38/9.2%) XBI (18/37/8.7%) KRE (16/36/8.7%) EWW (15/36/7.5%) I'm already in everything here but for KRE and EWW (the lowest bangs for your buck on the list) and the February monthly is a bit short in duration here for me (34 days) and March a tad long (62 days), so I may not do much this week in these, although going out to March with another rung in my GDX, SLV, and XBI positions isn't out of the question. BROAD MARKET RANKED BY 30-DAY IMPLIED: IWM (24/32/6.8%) QQQ (22/30/6.4%) SPY (16/24/4.8%) DIA (13/23/4.6%) EFA (14/20/3.8%) In spite of the fact that IWM and/or RUT have the higher 30-day, I may look at adding a July (181 days) rung to the SPY short put ladder I have on in the IRA, targeting the strike paying at least 1% of the strike price in credit (which would currently be something like the 240), and do the kind of "opportunistic rolling" I've been doing with shorter duration rungs. (See Post Below). Although most frown upon going out this far in time, it's a way to deploy otherwise underutilized buying power that will earn something >0% while I work shorter duration setups or wait for a higher implied volatility environment and/or greater weakness. Additionally, my goals for the IRA are somewhat modest from a return on capital standpoint: I'm not looking to hit homers or be an incredibly attentive investor, opting for a once a week or even a once a month schedule of looking at things, making adjustments as appropriate, and/or taking off stuff approaching worthless that doesn't merit hanging onto due to the amount of time left in the contract. * -- The first metric is the implied volatility rank or percentile (i.e., where the 30-day is relative to where it's been over the last 52 weeks); the second, thirty day implied; and the third, the percentage the at-the-money short straddle in the February monthly is paying as a function of stock price.
NYSE:HAL
by NaughtyPines
OPENING (IRA): INTC FEBRUARY 19TH 42.5 SHORT PUT... for a .70/contract credit. Notes: As with my BA trade (See Post Below), targeting some options highly liquid single name for premium selling. Here, it's the beaten-down Intel, with the short put lining up nicely below support. 30-day at 44.8%, expiry-specific at 41.6%. I generally like to sell premium in single name at >50% implied, but occasionally settle for less when there's nothing better "at the top of the board," so to speak. One of my New Year's resolutions is to not be so lazy with these plays, so compared monied covered call setups with delta metrics similar to those of going naked short put, the advantages and/or disadvantages of going with a particular expiry over just defaulting to the monthly, and whether something like a long call vertical or long call diagonal would make any sense here. I used to do these comparison and contrasts much more often, but it takes some additional time, but thought I'd set out the basic process of deciding what setup to go with here, even though I'm probably not going to do that with each and every trade I take. COVERED CALL VERSUS NAKED SHORT The February 19th 42.5 covered call would have a max profit of .60 currently with a break even of 41.90; the 45 monied, 1.14, with a break even of 43.84. For contrast, the 42.5 naked has a 41.80 break even, so you get a smidge (.10) more out of going naked versus going with the 42.5 monied. The 45 monied, with a 2.6% ROC at max, has a better return, but a break even that is nearly $2 higher than both the 42.5 monied and the 42.5 short put, so the trade-off there is less room to be wrong and therefore a higher return on capital. Both of these types of plays, however, have high buying power requirements, particularly in a cash secured environment, with the cash secured naked short put costing 41.80 to put on, with its primary advantage being ease of trade of management. CHOICE OF EXPIRY The other thing I've tended to be lazy with is choice of expiry. Here, there may be an advantage to "shopping" for the highest implied expiry, which -- in this case -- isn't the February 19th monthly; it's the expiry nearest Intel's earnings announcement, which is the January 22nd weekly with an expiry-specific implied of 47.1%. To get any short put to line up nicely with that support around 44, you're going to have to sell something like the 17 delta 44, which is paying around .52 right now for 23 days' of "work." On an annualized basis, you're probably going to get more bang for your buck out of going with the January 22nd versus going with the February monthly, which is more than twice as long in duration. The January 22nd 44's ROC%-age is 1.12% at max; 17.8% annualized while the February 19th 42.5 is 1.67% ROC at max, 12.0% annualized. Again, however, the trade-off is less room to be wrong versus getting in and out of these plays rather quickly to maximize annualized return on capital. LONG CALL VERTICAL/LONG CALL DIAGONAL When working with smaller accounts, long call diagonals have been one of my favorite plays to go with when I can't or don't want to afford a covered call or a naked short put, but want to do something synthetically that mimics a covered call. Given where Intel is at currently, I think it would set up nicely for either a one-off long call vertical or diagonal. Here's a couple plays with similar delta metrics to going with a naked short put with a delta value of between 16 (2 x the expected move) and something more aggressive, like a 30 delta. The first example is the February 19th 37.5/45 long call vertical with a delta metric of around 20. A 7 1/2 wide, it would cost around 6.55 to put on, with a max profit metric of .95 and a 44.05 break even with a 14.50% ROC at max -- a whopping 103.8% annualized. What's not to like? The primary disadvantage is that one generally doesn't "manage" one-off debit spreads -- they either work fantastically or you take them off for a loss (e.g., 2 x max profit). Naturally, you can go with something far less aggressive than a monied, but one of your goals here should be taking profits relatively quickly, churning in and out of plays to maximize return on capital, rather than sitting out endlessly in an underlying without locking realized gains in on a regular basis. The second, a diagonal, where you buy a high delta, longer-dated back month call and sell a shorter duration call, working it like a covered call. My general preference is to go at least "skip month" in duration for the back month, so I'd probably buy the April 16th 37.5 (90 delta) and sell the February 19th 74 delta 45, yielding a net delta metric of around 18. As with the static long call vertical, it's a 7.5 wide, but going longer duration with the back month costs a little more. Here, the whole setup costs 6.78 to put on, with max profit being the difference between the width of the diagonal (7.5) and what it cost to put on (6.78) or .72, an ROC%-age of 10.6% at max, 75.9% annualized. The advantage here is that you have opportunities to roll the short call to reduce cost basis further and therefore increase your ROC, but have a timer of sorts when you will have to exit the play, win or lose, at April expiry. Here, I'm taking the "ease of trade management" route,* but will consider doing more monied short call verticals and/or diagonals going forward, particularly in some of the smaller accounts I'm working. * -- To be completely honest, I hit click and send and got a fill before doing this post, but may do a separate play in one of the smaller accounts I'm working.
NASDAQ:INTC
by NaughtyPines
OPENING (IRA): KRE MARCH 19TH 42 SHORT PUT... for a 1.08/contract credit. Notes: I already have some January on, and there is no February currently, so going out to March with 30-day still >35% at 36.5% and expiry specific at 38.4%. As with my other IRA short put trades, I'm fine with getting assigned, selling call against, particularly since it has a small dividend to pay you while you wait to exit any covered call profitably. ROC: 2.64% at max as a function of notional risk; 9.6% annualized at max.
AMEX:KRE
by NaughtyPines
4
OPENING (IRA): IWM JANUARY 22ND 170 SHORT PUT... for a 2.10 credit. Notes: Opening a short put nearest the 16 delta in the broad market instrument having the highest 30-day implied on the board. Here, it's IWM with 30-day at 27.5% and expiry-specific at 29.5%. ROC: 1.25% as a function of notional risk at max; 10.14% annualized at max. For smaller accounts, consider going spread with the short leg camped out at the 16 delta, the long out from there to generate at least 10% of the width of the spread in credit or a similar spread in RUT (e.g., January 22nd 1645/1695, paying 5.20 as of the writing of this post).
AMEX:IWM
by NaughtyPines
ROLLING (IRA): TLT JAN 15TH 165 COVERED CALLS TO FEB 19TH 163... for a 1.00/contract credit. Notes: A continuation of my TLT covered calls. (See Post Below). Rolling out at >50% max to the strike paying around 1% of the strike price, which is the 163 in February, currently valued at 1.66. I'm fine with being called away, since my last acquisition was around 110, and I think the buying power could be better utilized in something with higher implied volatility (30 day is currently 14.9% here). By the same token, that 1.66 for the 163 short call is 7.67 annualized or 4.9% as a function of stock price. That isn't hugely sexy, but when you add that to TLT's current yield of 1.56%, I could think of worse places to park my money for a little bit while I ramp up other positions in the new year.
NASDAQ:TLT
by NaughtyPines
OPENING (IRA): SPX JANUARY 29TH 3290/3340 SHORT PUT VERTICAL... for a 5.10 credit. Metrics: Max Profit: $510 Max Loss: $4490 Break Even: 3334.90 Delta/Theta: 2.6/6.75 ROC: 11.4% at max; 5.7 at 50% max; 83.22% annualized at max; 41.61 at 50% max. Probability of Profit: 87% Notes: A 10%-er in the expiry nearest 45 days in duration, opened late in the session. For smaller accounts, consider selling a short put vertical in SPY where the credit received is at least 10% of the width of the spread.
SP:SPX
by NaughtyPines
THE WEEK AHEAD: SLV, GDX, XLE, IWM/RUTWith two shortened market weeks in a row for Christmas and New Year's, I probably won't be doing a ton here, but figured I'd do a post for how exchange-traded funds are looking in the waning weeks of 2020 ... . EXCHANGE-TRADED FUNDS ORDERED BY PERCENTAGE THE AT-THE-MONEY SHORT STRADDLE NEAREST 45 DAYS IS PAYING AS A FUNCTION OF STOCK PRICE: SLV (32/46/11.9%) GDX (18/43/11.0%) XLE (25/42/10.7%) EWZ (14/40/10.0%) XBI (21/36/9.1%) KRE (18/36/9.3%) I'm currently in small XLE, EWZ, KRE, and GLD positions, but will consider adding on weakness if any comes my way and the implied volatility sticks in there. One thing I don't want to do is to constantly follow high implied volatility, only to find myself grossly overweighted in energy, Brazil, and regional banks, however, so don't want to go too crazy adding in sectors that have been high in the list week in and week out over the past several months. BROAD MARKET: IWM (22/29/6.9%) QQQ (19/26/6.5%) SPY (13/22/4.9%) Pictured here is an SPX 50 wide set up to pay at least 10% of the width of the spread, or around 5.00/contract in the expiry nearest 45 days, which would be the February 5th weekly (currently 47 days until expiry). I would ordinarily opt for a higher implied volatility RUT setup, but there currently isn't a February 5th expiry available. You can certainly go with the January 29th (40 days) or the February 19th (59 days), with the preference being to put these on in a down day or days. Smaller account should consider going with SPY or QQQ spreads* with the appropriate combination of of contracts and spread widths commensurate with your account size. BOND FUNDS: TLT (1/15/3.5%) (1.609% Yield) EMB (11/8/2.6%) (4.024% Yield) HYG (7/10/2.1%) (4.917% Yield) AGG (29/9/1.9%) (2.252% Yield) In the IRA, I've been selling HYG short put here of 30 days' duration or so for a credit that is around the monthly dividend. With the December 18th short put having expired worthless, I'll look at adding some in the January 22nd cycle, where the 85 is paying .41 at the mid. As I've pointed out before, the premium in bond funds generally stinks, but I've been using this strategy as a way to deploy buying power that would otherwise be sitting there earning virtually nothing while I await down days or a higher volatility environment. * -- Unfortunately, NDX isn't as liquid as either SPX or RUT, so I virtually never trade NDX spreads, opting instead for equivalent sizing in the QQQ's (e.g., 5 10-wides).
SP:SPX
by NaughtyPines
THE WEEK AHEAD: GDXJ/GDX, XLE, KRE, SLV, IWM/RUTEARNINGS: No options liquid underlyings announcing earnings this week that meet my criteria for a volatility contraction play, although ORCL (24/31) and WORK (2/33) both announce and could be played in some other way. EXCHANGE-TRADED FUNDS RANKED BY THE PERCENTAGE THE JANUARY AT-THE-MONEY SHORT STRADDLE IS PAYING AS A FUNCTION OF STOCK PRICE: GDXJ (14/41/12.1%) XLE (25/41/10.4%) KRE (23/40/10.6%) SLV (28/41/10.2%) GDX (15/38/10.2%) EWZ (15/39/10.0%) BROAD MARKET EXCHANGE-TRADED FUNDS RANKED BY THE PERCENTAGE THE JANUARY AT-THE-MONEY SHORT STRADDLE IS PAYING AS A FUNCTION OF STOCK PRICE: IWM (23/28/7.1%) QQQ (20/27/6.3%) DIA (15/21/5.2%) SPY (12/20/4.8%) EFA (17/24/4.4%) Pictured here is a RUT January 22nd 1655/1705 short put vertical with the short option leg camped out at the 16 delta. Markets are showing wide in the off hours, but look to get at least 10% of the width of the spread out of any play, with the preference being to put something on in a down day with the accompanying rise in volatility and expansion of the "probability cone." A smaller alternative would naturally be in IWM, where I'd look to get at least .50 out of January 22nd 162.5/167.5 5-wide. For those who like to swim naked, the IWM January 22nd 162.5 (15 delta) and was paying 1.91 as of Friday close (1.15% ROC at max as a function of notional risk; 8.93% annualized). * * * On the IRA/retirement account front, I'll be looking to programmatically deploy buying power in broad market over medium to long-term time frames over the next several weeks and then turn to focusing on shorter term plays, so you're likely to see some apparently oddball things in my ideas feed that won't make a ton of sense looked at in isolation and won't be for everybody not only due to buying power effect, but due to duration. I'm using SPY here, but one can certainly do something similar in another of the cheaper (a relative term) exchange-traded funds with high liquidity that will allow you to ladder out in time without giving up too much to lack of liquidity in longer duration. Essentially, it will look like a short put ladder, but with the rungs put on over time in increasing duration in similarly delta'd strikes or in strikes which pay a certain ROC %-age relative to the strike price (e.g., the SPY February 19th 321 short put, paying 3.27; the March 19th 300 short put, paying 3.02; the April 16th 283, paying 2.87, etc.), after which the individual rungs will be separately managed. Although this isn't particularly buying power efficient relative to defined risk spreads, I'm shooting for a setup that is relatively set and forget running into retirement where I don't necessarily have to pop my portfolio open on a daily (or even weekly) basis to manage trades, but can go for fairly lengthy periods of time without having to touch or manage rungs and with modest expectations as to ROC %-age. As a "quasi-cash" option, I'll also continue to deploy idle buying power in things like HYG puts (See Post Below) just that I'm not earning 0% of 0 and where I'm comfortable taking on shares and selling call against. Point in fact, that is probably not a bad stand-alone setup for an extremely conservative investor who isn't keen on taking broad market bullish assumption positions at all-time-highs where a number of people are calling "bubble" week after week. That being said, even this type of setup isn't riskless, as we saw in the March "sell everything" dip. At some point, you will potentially have to take on shares ... .
TVC:RUT
by NaughtyPines
2