Nice!... my AAPL theta is melting too..

Oh my JASO.. oh geezz.. I left this faked me out and one ran away. Now already reached 9.20.
Tried to re-enter at 8.60 but it won't come back down anymore. Didn't have enough time to jump back yesterday
since I was too busy. Oh darn it.. maybe next time.

This post has been edited by danmooncake: Jul 16 2013, 10:22 PM

Of course.. that's what the premium comes in. high volatility = high premium.

high - use selling strategy (covered calls, naked puts, straddles, etc).
low - use buy strategy (naked calls, puts, calls-spread, puts spread).

Time (the expiration) is your enemy and if you're buyer/owner.
But, time is your friend if you're the writer/seller.
Use to your advantage!

Most people never wants to exercise the options.. they just want to trade it (profits from the premium as the stock price moves up or time decay).

Sometimes exercise may be viable if you think you can wait it out if the trade goes against you or
if you wish to own or get rid of the underlying stock anyway.

Before you play options, you must know the direction and price action of the underlying stock very well.

Remember, one contract equal 100 units of the underlying stock (except in mini-option, 1 contract = 10 units)
Don't buy big big (eg. 100 calls of AAPL), you could end up with 10000 shares of AAPL later if stuck (~ approx USD 4.3 mln).

This post has been edited by danmooncake: Jul 17 2013, 01:41 AM

Tonight, Uncle Ben will speak tonight again on his thoughts about the economy and so forth.
Market will react again.. let see how it goes.

I've shorted more 420/415 Puts spread for AAPL tonight.. that's it. I'm full now.
Will wait for Friday confirm money.

This post has been edited by danmooncake: Jul 18 2013, 07:17 AM

Sneaked in and took a peek.. still doing good so far. Bulls are in control.
Just one more day...

This post has been edited by danmooncake: Jul 19 2013, 08:16 AM

Time for another weekly pay cheque tonight.

As usual, futures red, traders cashin in after all time high again.
Not expecting big sell off or move but holding flat and slightly pull back would be good enough.

Another week to start off with full of anticipating buyers..people chasing here.
But, I got nothing much to buy here at this level (except Gold).

I'll continue to sell naked PUTs (working 2 last weeks) and wait for better price to come down.

Watching BIDU this week,. this baby is making its pre-earnings run. Might sell off later.
Going to buy dips later (100-103).

Also, fav.. baby: AAPL (beat expectation or else back to 380s or below).

This post has been edited by danmooncake: Jul 22 2013, 09:27 PM

Not me.. when do they report? What do you see ahead?

Not too bad ... -8% on knee jerk reaction.
Your PUTs side of the straddle could be working. Let see how it opens tomorrow since we can't trade options after hours.

I've yet to decide how to play AAPL. Maybe a -5%_to_+5% straddle too but market seems to pricing in more than 5% move already.


JASO finally broke 9.25 today and moved up to 9.57. Oh geesh...

This post has been edited by danmooncake: Jul 23 2013, 08:22 AM

Got my eyes on BIDU and the new one SRPT (pharma drug play) tonight.
No entry yet but conservative shorting weeklies PUTs side for SRPT seems good as it is IV and premium value is high.

I'll put AAPL aside for now until after the earnings. Too unpredictable now.

countdown - are u still in NFLX? Indeed got whacked down but looks like holding support at 250.

That's drawback. If the option market price in 5% move only and the actual move is less than 5%, you're toast.
Your long side strangle (both PUT and CALL) get eaten by the theta melt later.

But, if you've shorted it, you will be ok.

I'm just using that 5% as example only.. not necessarily apply to NFLX. I didn't study NFLX enough to know if this is true or not
but you may already know that ahead of time before you enter your position in your strangle, right?

For example, prior to earnings, what's that price of those options for both LONG and CALLS.. calculate your percentage from your underlying price.

So, your price movement got to move more than the what the option market is telling you for you to make money of long strangle otherwise go the opposite direction.

a) If you think the earnings will be a big one, big enough to cover the delta.. then long side will work

b) If you think the earnings will be ok and mediocre, but since option market already price in x% and anything x% or less will be short of your expectation, then short side strangle will work here.

Remember, if you're playing weeklies.. usually thelta melt also helps short side too because of timing to expiration is short.

If you willing to buy at 360, sell the 360 PUT now and collect the premium while you wait.

It's all about the number game. They already lowered the street expectation for this Q and the price action already reflected that. So, a beat here means good news from here. The July low at 388 now is confirmed bottom for the year.
Should be more upside from here.

The machines knew that and MM gaps it up to 430 above technical support line of 50ma.
IMO, safe to stay long and play with the bulls from here.
Time to put some money to work later.

This post has been edited by danmooncake: Jul 24 2013, 10:20 AM

AAPL definitely looking good again after the earnings yesterday. Stay long but keep stops at 430.

Casinos gaming stocks like LVS, WYNN, MGM and MPEL made their pre-earnings run but I expect them to be good but I think run up won't much now since they're already near 52 weeks high.

I missed the run of JASO to 9.25 eventho I spotted the trend.. but oh well, got whipsawed and it ran off.
But, the uptrend looks intact. Going to nimble some again with tightstop around 8.5 if there's a chance again.

Got a little calls side play for BIDU and just small PUT play for SRPT after huge reversal for the its experimental
drug after conference call. Will close 'em out tonight or tomorrow.

General market seems pretty high here. So, taking a breather is expected here.
Just watch and keep those stops. Bears can come out and play play anytime.

That's all I got for this week. Hopefully everyone is making money..

This post has been edited by danmooncake: Jul 25 2013, 07:54 PM

I do both...

One doesn't have to choose one or the other and can choose both.

Buy share and buy put to protect from downside or sell covered calls to earn money while you wait for price to go up.

Need to be flexible.

Nice... looks like they're want to see their IPO price again ($38).
But now got big gap below.

How about filing it first huh?

Hey countdown,

I'm not IT expert but looking at my PC, it got one physical 'port' on the display adapter card (DVI type). But, it has a Y-dongle. One DVI (many little pins, looks like a D shape) interface to TWO VGA (15 pins) dongle. This is how I hook up to two monitors.

No extra software needed. The OS (Windows) will recognize it from the display drivers that came with the PC.
All I need to do is to make sure to tell it which one is monitor 1 and 2.

It's good to multiple monitors for looking at various stocks!

This post has been edited by danmooncake: Jul 28 2013, 11:19 PM

At one time, I had a quad monitors (17") system. Pretty messy with all the cables.
Then, I changed it to a single 32" monitor (actually it's a TV). But, due to its proximity, find it more difficult to use.
Everything looks enlarged and too upclose...stocks window still doesn't stack well.

Finally, changed to dual monitors system (22" wide) actually works much better for me.

AAPL long side trade is working..

I'll target the exit around 455. Coming up soon..

This post has been edited by danmooncake: Jul 29 2013, 10:06 PM