Online Stock Trading Software

How did my option pricing lose $1.00 when there was little to no change on the stock?

Earlier today I received a call from a PowerOptions subscriber. He is the owner of a far out in time put option on MOMO and the stock was up about $0.35 in the morning (Stock MOMO, at $25.76 from $25.41 at close on FEB 14th). The put option he purchased was the 2017-JULY 30 strike. At close on FEB 14th the bid-ask spread was listed at $6.60 to $7.20 – figure a mid-point price of about $6.90. Note: A wide bid-ask spread is not uncommon for options that are far out in time and not actively traded. When he looked at his brokerage account this morning, it showed a value of $5.90, down -$1.00. But the stock had only moved up +$0.35. The delta of the put option was about -0.60, and increase of $0.35 in the underlying should have dropped the put price by only -$0.24. So, what gives?…

Stock Option Trading News

Using Weekly Call Options and Weekly Put Options for a Stock Earnings Event

Each quarter we get the barrage of earnings announcements and go through all the earnings figures of each company. Earnings announcements can cause wide swings in stock prices. Positive earnings events can send a stock into a gap up in price and conversely negative or disappointing earnings can result in a stock price sell off. The question then can be asked, “Is there a way to take advantage of these swings in stock price as a result of an earnings announcement?” The advent of weekly options has made it easier to play earnings announcements. Options have a time value depending on how much time there is to expiration of the option. By using very short time frames for option speculation, this time value can be made very small. Since we know when earnings will be announced and the price reaction to the announcement happens over a very short time, weekly…