You have probably heard about using put options to lock in a gain on a stock that has moved up in price. This is also one of the ways investors can lock in gains on a long call position. We received an email from a PowerOptions customer with the following details: “Bought AUY Jan 20 2017, $1.50 CALL @ $1.19 a long time ago. Current price of the CALL is $2.85. I don’t own the stock itself. How do I lock in the profit but stay with the position, as I think that gold has a bright future? The only idea that crossed my mind is very simplistic: buy a protective PUT. For example, pay $1.41 for AUY Oct 21 2016 $5.50 PUT.” Let’s break down this position: Yamana Gold Inc. (AUY) currently at $4.21
Category: Stock Option Investment Advice
Long Straddle/Strangle Example for Earnings Season in this Market Environment
Straddle/Strangle Example Many of you know, I’ve been trading for over 50 years. Over that time, I’ve come to recognize market conditions that coincide with trading opportunities. Here are some of the conditions that led me to one of my latest trades… and an example trade you might love! The last two weeks of October is when most companies announce third quarter earnings. This particular October, following several years of bullish market conditions, stocks appear to be topping and consolidating. This topping process seems to be accompanied with increased volatility. In this mix of market environments, stocks with earnings disappointments are getting hit particularly hard while other stocks having positive surprises and large upward moves. This seemed to be an opportunity to speculate with an option strategy that might take advantage of these wide swings in stock price due to surprise earnings announcements. The long strangle is an option strategy…
A Balanced Approach for Portfolio Success
The Conservative Barbell Strategy: We recently reviewed a book written by Nassim Taleb called “The Black Swan”. In it, the author suggests an approach for investing called the Barbell Strategy. The approach is based on the concern that unexpected market events can happen with devastating impact to our portfolios. The Black Swan is about such events that are generally unknown, unpredictable, and cannot be planned against to mitigate losses. Because they are unpredictable they cannot be avoided, we need a way to protect assets as best we can against these unforeseen events. The Barbell strategy uses the two extremes: Ultra conservative positions at one end and highly leveraged, speculative positions at the other end of the risk range. The strategy advocates having most assets in very safe securities like treasury bills or conservative options and a small portion in high risk – high reward securities like long put or call…
Effectively Track and Manage your Options Investments
As we approach options expiration you need tools to properly track, evaluate and manage your options positions. All of this can be done using the Portfolio tools on PowerOptions. You can quickly create and enter new or existing positions into the Portfolio tools. Once a position is entered you can set Alerts to be notified when profit targets are hit or when losses may need to be managed. As you track your positions you can link to the Position Analysis tool to see your current liquidation and future expiration values as well as view various roll out opportunities for your positions. As you are viewing potential Roll Out Opportunities you can link to the Trade Simulator tool to see the before and after profit and loss graph of your current position compared to the potential adjustment. This video shows just how easy it is to enter positions into the Portfolio…
5 Keys to a Successful Option Spread Trading Plan
The key is likely to first develop a trading plan for your spread positions in conjunction with the tools on PowerOptions. A trading plan may consist of: What are my goals for monthly or annual income? What exposure am I willing to risk in the market? Should I look for lower probability trades with a higher return, or higher probability trades with a lower return and higher risk vs. reward ratio? What is most important in your trade selection: The underlying security? Minimum option premium? Volatility? % Return or % Annualized Return? % Probability? Difference in strike prices (risk on the trade) Time frame for an open position (weeklies vs. standard expiration). Detailed Exit Strategy, including what is an acceptable loss vs. management techniques in various situations. This may sound like a lot to cover but once you map out a trading plan the pieces will fit together regarding: What…
Conversions Are A Riskless Options Trade
Conversions, if you are able to receive a credit, are no risk options trades with a very limited reward. One example of a conversion is: Buy shares of SLV @ $18.73 Sell JUN 18 call @ -$ 1.08 Buy JUN 18 put @ $ 0.34 Net Debit = $17.99 Guaranteed exit/assignment = $18.00 Guaranteed Profit = $ 0.01 ADVANTAGES: 1. Possibility for a no-risk trade 2. Credit is received 3. Management is not necessary 4. Opportunities can easily be found with PowerOptions DISADVANTAGES: 1. Guaranteed Profit is extremely limited 2. After commissions limited profit might turn into a loss 3. Due to low profit, 1,000s of shares may need to be traded which hinders the retail investor 4. Opportunities may appear, then disappear quickly. I found this trade on PowerOptions, but by the time I linked to the profit and loss chart the trade showed a guaranteed loss of -$0.04…
Stock Insurance OR Portfolio Insurance – Revisited
With the addition of new and interesting securities to help hedge a stock portfolio, the question arises more and more: ‘Is it better to insure my stock directly or use a different hedge to insure my portfolio?’ This is a very important question which has many components to it. During a PowerOptions Open Forum Webinar on January 14th, 2014 this question was posed. The actual question was:
MORNING UPDATE: PriceWatch Alerts for BA, TSLA, AAPL, and More…
MORNING UPDATE: PriceWatch Alerts for BA, TSLA, AAPL, and More… February, 11 9:00 AM ET – PriceWatch Alerts for BA, ATVI, MNST, TGT, YPF, TSLA, DISH, BLK, MMM, RIG, AAPL, NPSP, GM, X, Market Overview, News Leaders and Laggards, Today’s Economic Calendar, and Index Support & Resistance Levels. PriceWatch Alerts for BA, ATVI, MNST, TGT, YPF, TSLA, DISH, BLK, MMM, RIG, AAPL, NPSP, GM, X, DLTR.
Weekly Options Crash Course for Options Expirations
When the weeklies were initially offered on standard stocks, you would have only the next week out option. The new option would be released on Thursday morning prior the current weekly option expiring on Friday.
Filter for MACD added to the PowerOptions Search
A new filter for MACD has been added to the PowerOptions Search tool for all strategies! This new filter (located in the Technicals tab) will allow you to search for stocks where the MACD is above or below the Signal Line and by how many days. You will also be able to screen for stocks where the MACD and Signal Line are above or below the Zero line. This filter will allow you to better screen for stocks with positive or negative momentum.