Thursday Foolishness – More of the Same with One Trade
by Phil - January 5th, 2012 8:13 am
Our day is done, how’s yours?
That’s right, we already did our 3am trade where we caught the dead top of oil (and the dead bottom of the Dollar), where my 2:59 am comment to Members in Chat was:
Dollar at session low of 80.40 at 3am and oil back at yesterday’s high at $103.70 so oil (/CL) makes a nice short below $103.75 here but DANGEROUS pre-market trading as Iran could spout off at any moment and the trading is VERY THIN.
So that brings us back to the good old Dow (/YM) futures at 12,350 and they are just over that line at 12,351 but that’s the short of the moment as long as the Dollar is over 80.40 .
For the next hour, I did a blow by blow on the oil trade in Member Chat on the way down to $102.70 – a nice $1,000 per contract worm gotten by the early birds, where we took the money and ran ahead of likely morning manipulation back up to $103.50, where we can short it again on inventories (11am). The Dow slipped to 12,300 and paid a solid $250 per contract as well, paying for over 100 Egg Mcmuffins this morning by itself. If you want to see how we make decisions along the way down – it’s well worth going over this morning’s comments – there was also some good discussion of other topics this morning, including my pick for the best wide-screen TV.
We’re still just messing around with hit and run plays, waiting to see how the week pans out and next week we’ll be waiting to see how earnings pan out as well as what we expect will be a pretty major market pullback leading into the 10-year auctions next Wednesday at 1pm. Clearly the Fed freaked out and jumped in yesterday when TLT hit $118 so we are fairly comfortable with our prediction of a…
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DiggWill We Hold It Wednesday – Nasdaq 2,603 Edition
by Phil - December 28th, 2011 6:53 am
Watch the Nasdaq.
That’s the index we need to catch up to the Dow now that the S&P is halfway to goal at 1,297 (from our Must Hold line at 1,235). The Dow is in La La Land, led by MCD (up 31%), IBM (up 26%), PFE (up 24%), HD (up 20%) and KFT (up 20%) while this year’s Dogs of the Dow are BAC (down 59%), AA (down 43%), HPQ (down 39%) and JPM (down 22%).
While the losers may seem to outweigh the winners, that’s not how it works as the Dow is price-weighted so BAC dropping from $14 to $5.50 "only" costs the Dow about 68 points (roughly 8 points for each Dollar), IBMs rise from $145 to $185 added a whopping 320 points.
So a 26% rise in one component and a 59% drop in another nets out to a gain of 252 points! At the beginning of the year, they had roughly the same market cap ($150Bn) but IBM has gained $70Bn and BAC has lost $100Bn which, of course, translates into a net gain of 2% on the entire Dow – BECAUSE IT IS THE STUPIDEST INDEX ON EARTH!
Our Members, of course, know this. I wrote "DJIA: The Most Useless, Overused Tool on the Planet" back in 2006, when GM was still part of the Dow so no need to rehash it all here other than to mention the fact that a 30-component index has made 5 substitutions in the 5 years since I wrote that article only serve to highlight how ridiculous it is to use the Dow to draw long-term conclusions. The Dow is manipulated because it’s easy to and Uncle Rupert sits with the other Masters of the Universe to decide how to use this headline tool to make things look as good as possible in the US markets.
That’s why CSCO and TRV replaced C and GM in June of 2009. C was at $28.80 and is down a bit, GM went BK from $45 (which would have been a 360-point loss in the Dow) while CSCO was disappointing but essentially flat and TRV is up $20, adding another 160 points so a 520-point swing (5%) on those substitutions alone. In September of 2008, AIG ($135 at the time) was swapped for KFT ($32). KFT is just $37.70 but AIG was…
White Christmas Portfolio Wrap-Up
by Phil - December 24th, 2011 8:31 am
Merry Christamas!
I know it’s tacky to give cash but, as we closed our original, virtual $25,000 Portfolio early on October 20th and we were miles ahead of our $100,000 goal, we decided to do this bonus portfolio starting with a fresh virtual $15,000 set aside out of our $130,000 – risking 1/2 of the excess profits in an attempt to make 60% more ($10,000) in two months.
We started that Monday, the 24th of October with our GNW spread (which I also discussed on TV that day) and that Friday we put up the official post where, I will remind you, our stated goal was to make a little bonus money for the holidays AND to share some of that money with a worthy cause. I want to thank everyone who chose to donate to the NYC Food Bank, we got some really spectacular donations from some of you and I really appreciate it and I hope you have all gotten into the holiday spirit and helped to support those in need this season – it’s much appreciated and I thank you.
Just as importantly, I very much hope you were able to learn something following this portfolio. We never put much capital at risk, we took quick profits off the table and we worked our way out of most of our losses through rolling and adjusting – letting the trading range do most of the hard work. Most importantly, we had BALANCE – we selected trades in both directions – enjoying the wild ride from the up and down markets.
That strategy, in fact, worked very well!
As of Friday and since our last update on the 16th, when we had $41,465 of realized gains, we closed the following positions:
- 5 SCO Dec $37 puts sold for net $1.90, expired worthless – up $1,900
- 5 FAS Dec $40 puts sold for $2.40, expired worthless – up $1,200
- 10 TNA Dec $41 calls at net $1.50, out at $1.50 – even
- 10 FAS Dec $61 calls sold at net $0 (spread), expired worthless – even
- 10 TLT 12/23 $121 calls sold for net .74 ($740), expired worthless – up $740
- 10 GNW Dec $6 puts sold for .85, expired worthless – up $850
- 10 QQQ 12/16 $56 puts at .57, out at $1.05 – up $480
- 10
…
Bulls Feed On Large-Cap Financials Weekly Call Options
by Option Review - December 2nd, 2011 1:49 pm
Today’s tickers: JPM, GS, VLO & HRB
JPM - JPMorgan Chase & Co. – Financial names are on a tear today, and some options strategists are positioning for the good times to continue in the near term. Weekly call options on some of the large-cap financials are flying off the shelves this afternoon, as traders look to take advantage of the rally while it lasts. Shares in JPMorgan are soaring 8.2% to stand at $32.96, making the stock the best performer of the 15-largest holdings in the XLF, as of 12:30 PM in New York. Investors prepared to benefit from continued gains in the price of the underlying purchased in- and out-of-the-money call options with one week remaining to expiration. Bulls picked up roughly 1,800 in-the-money calls at the Dec. ’09 $32 strike for an average premium of $1.06 each, and bought another 3,000 calls at the higher $33 strike at an average premium of $0.39 apiece. Call buyers may profit at expiration next week in the event that shares in JPMorgan Chase & Co. exceed the average breakeven prices of $33.06 and $33.39, respectively.
GS - Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. – Similar to that observed on JPM, near-term bullish activity in Goldman’s weekly calls indicates traders are willing to shell out premium today to speculate on continued recovery in the price of the financial institution’s shares over the next five trading sessions. Goldman’s shares are up 5.6% at $99.75 in early-afternoon trade. Options players exchanged more than 5,900 calls at the Dec. ’09 $105 strike against open interest of 187 contracts, and appear to have purchased the majority of the contracts for an average premium of $1.05 a-pop. Investors long the call options may profit at expiration next week in the event that shares in Goldman Sachs surge 6.3% to surpass the average breakeven point on the upside at $106.05. Finally, bullish sentiment spread to the higher $110 weekly call where traders paid an average premium of $0.30 to buy some 630 contracts.
VLO - Valero Corp. – Financial stocks are not the only bright spots in the market today, as evidenced by the 5.0% rally in shares of oil refiner Valero Corp. to $23.22. Options traders hoping the stock will record many more green sessions during the next couple of months picked up January 2012 contract call options this morning. It appears traders purchased around 2,500 calls at the Jan. 2012 $24 strike for…
Full Throttle Friday – Dollar Dive Does Bears In
by Phil - December 2nd, 2011 8:28 am
Oh what fun this is!
Now the ECB is lending the IMF about $200Bn, which the IMF can lever up to lend Eurozone countries another $500Bn and that’s before the Fed and the BOJ and all the other partners in World Crime get together and pump even more money in. Nothing gives the old Futures a shot in the arm like MORE FREE MONEY and, interestingly enough, the ECB handing out cash Boosts the Euro, now over the $1.35 line.
This is, of course, FANTASTIC for our Monday trade ideas, which were:
FAS Dec $48/55 bull call spread at $3, selling the $40 puts for $2.40 for net .60 on the $7 spread. 5 in the WCP on that one. (Now net $4.95 – up 725%)
FXE Dec $132/135 bull call spread at $1.20, selling the $129 puts for $1.10 for net .10 on the $3 spread. (Now $1.45, up net 1,350%)
JPM Jan $25 puts can be sold for $1.20 (Now .65 – up 45%)
AA 2013 $7.50 puts can be sold for $1.28 (Now $1.05 – up 18%)
VLO June $17 puts can be sold for $2.05 (Now $1.40, up 32%)
- Gasoline (/RB) futures at $2.55 (Now $2.62 – up $2,940 per contract)
Now I know that these are the kind of results you get every week so, whatever you do – don’t subscribe to our Newsletter! Why would you want these ideas EMailed to you every morning before the market opens? If they make you money, then you have to pay taxes and paying taxes is evil, right? Premium Membership is sold out but you wouldn’t want to get trade ideas live during market hours anyway. Less than $2 per day, however, gets you our Annual PSW Report Membership and you are able to read our full posts every morning, as soon as they are published.
Speaking of Premium Memberships, congrats to all who followed us last week as it was a doozy! You can tell from our titles (and our Stock World Weekly Newsletter does a great recap of the action each week and is included with that Report Membership) how we turned bullish over the week:
Keep in mind, these are titles that go out in the "In Progress" posts that…
Thrill Is Gone Thursday – Already?
by Phil - December 1st, 2011 8:11 am
Yesterday was very exciting, but now what?
David Fry summed up yesterday’s action perfectly, saying "Wednesday’s massive rally was prompted by sudden global central bank intervention adding (printing money) liquidity (reducing the lending rate overseas to zero basically) to shore up sovereign debt in the eurozone. They basically set up a swap facility to do the job in the future. Is it a cure or a bailout? No, this is a handout. And it doesn’t solve the problems the eurozone is facing."
"But, it must be said that the European leaders must have hit a dead end in talks and a potential financial panic must have seemed likely. Mind you, Mr. Bernanke is perfectly comfortable with reflation and money printing. He’s been at it for a long time. It will take years for the Freedom of Information Act to discover how much money and to whom the U.S. has given free money. Americans and others will see price increases in all products and services as a result of a weaker dollar negatively affecting purchasing power. Beyond Moral Hazard issues this is the cost you’ll see and perhaps even wonder why."
It’s the classic "stick save" that was clearly (to us) telegraphed by the very low-volume blow-off bottom last week and now, in retrospect, it is also clear that the market manipulators and their media hounds were pulling out all the stops to get retail investors to SELLSELLSELL.
As I mentioned yesterday, I’ve been railing against the market manipulation and the media nonsense that had been going on each month and today we learn that Wall Street execs did, in fact, meet privately with top Fed officials in September, according to Fed documents, and they "recommended" Central Banks make a joint effort to address the Eurozone debt crisis. Don’t forget that our Fed works for the Banksters, not vice versa! In addition to knowing well in advance this move was coming, their suggestions included boosting the global economy by buying securities, a move that may yet happen as many investors believe yesterday’s swap announcement was a prelude to additional coordinated action.
You see, it’s not enough for Lloyd Blanfein (allegedly and for example, of course, a fine man like Lloyd would never do this) to know that the Fed is going to make a massive move like yesterday – there’s much more money to be made if…
Just Another Cyber Monday (Manic Edition)
by Phil - November 28th, 2011 8:21 am
INSANITY!
That’s what we have today (and what we’ve been having all month) as the markets celebrate the fact that neither the US consumer or the Euro is dead – yet. Holiday sales are apparently up 16.4% from last year with 10% of those sales being IPhones and Ipads so we can thank the actually dead Steve Jobs for saving the markets from a total meltdown this month as we were on track for the worst November EVER until today.
The DOOM meter was certainly set to 100 and, in fact, 100 is about how low the McClellan Oscillator went on Friday – to a state of oversold not matched since August 8th, when the Dow bottomed out at 10,600 so holding 11,200 in this protracted sell-off was a victory, of sorts, for the bulls and certainly a victory for those of you following our Big Chart – which made us perhaps the ONLY newsletter that was bullish on Friday, when I laid out my bullish case and right in the main post – for free – suggested long ideas on:
- Oil Futures (/CL): Was $95, now $100 – up $5,000 per contract
- Gasoline Futures (/RB): Was $2.50, now $2.54 – up $1,680 per contract
And, in Member Chat – our Morning Alert had the following trade ideas:
- FAS Dec $48/55 bull call spread at $3, selling the $40 puts for $2.40 for net .60 on the $7 spread. 5 in the WCP on that one.
- FXE Dec $132/135 bull call spread at $1.20, selling the $129 puts for $1.10 for net .10 on the $3 spread.
- JPM Jan $25 puts can be sold for $1.20
- AA 2013 $7.50 puts can be sold for $1.28.
- VLO June $17 puts can be sold for $2.05
We also speculated on an aggressive AMZN long play with the Dec $200 calls at $2.50 but, overall, we take this 2% bounce after a 10% drop with a grain of salt. As I said to Members in the alert: Just like we watched with amusement while things fell earlier this week, we should take a move up just as lightly until we cross back over our Must Hold Lines – to some extent, we have selling fatigue driving this move – keep in mind my bullish discussion on hyperinflation is more…
Contrarian Options Strategies Crop Up In Some Financials Ahead Of Holiday
by Option Review - November 23rd, 2011 1:16 pm
Today’s tickers: JPM, BCS, ARCC & YGE
Commentary to resume Monday, November 28th
JPM - JPMorgan Chase & Co. – JPMorgan blends in with the sea of red today, its shares trading lower by 3.2% to stand at $28.48, as of 11:55 AM in New York. But, fresh prints in weekly options covering the banking institution reveal some strategists are initiating low-probability bullish positions on the stock should shares rebound after the holiday. Call options expiring on Friday saw an influx of buyers paying as little as a penny per contract to prepare for a near-term rebound. Trading traffic in the front-week calls is heaviest at the Nov. ’25 $29 strike where more than 7,600 contracts changed hands against previously existing open interest of 340 positions. It looks like most of these calls were purchased for an average premium of $0.30 apiece. Investors long the calls may profit at expiration this week in the event that JPM’s shares rally 2.9% to exceed the average breakeven point at $29.30. Traders also purchased another 1,000 calls at each of the Nov. $30 and $31 strikes for average premiums of $0.06 and $0.01 each, respectively. Meanwhile, like-minded optimism appears to have spread out to contracts that expire one week from this Friday. Investors itching for a rebound picked up around 1,500 in-the-money calls at the Dec. ’02 $28 strike for an average premium of $1.28 a-pop. Call buyers make money if shares in JPMorgan Chase & Co. top the average breakeven price of $29.28 at expiration on December 2. Options implied volatility on the stock rose 13.8% to 53.5% in early-afternoon trade.
BCS - Barclays PLC – A burst of call activity on Barclays pushed the stock onto our ‘most active by options volume’ market scanner just before midday in New York. The seemingly bullish call buying on Barclays contrasts with the 3.0% move lower in the price of its shares to $9.32 this afternoon. More than 30,000 call options changed hands at the Dec. $12 strike against open interest of 3,863 contracts. It appears one investor purchased most of the calls, outright, at a premium of $0.15 apiece. The trader stands ready to profit at expiration in the event that the stock jumps 30.4% to surpass the effective breakeven price of $12.15. Shares in Barclays had topped $12.15 as recently as November 4.
ARCC - Ares Capital Corp. – Put activity on Ares Capital Corp. this morning suggests…
TGIF – Saved by the Bell or on a Highway to Hell?
by Phil - November 18th, 2011 8:10 am
Wheeeeeeeee, what a ride this week!
Since we went bearish on Tuesday afternoon, the Dow has dropped 450 points. That pushed our White Christmas Portfolio over the top (as we flipped bearish, of course) with a virtual balance of $26,075 including $2,565 of unrealized gains on our still-open (and still bearish) positions. That’s up $11,075 (73.7%) from our $15,000 start on October 24th and we’ll be getting back to cash and going for another $10,000 (our original goal) before Christmas.
How did we do it? We teach keeping trades short and simple in a choppy market as we stick to our trading range. Trades in the WCP were very much like the trade ideas I published Wednesday morning, from our Tuesday Member Chat at 3:21. As we had a little BS rally Wednesday afternoon, many of the trades were still makeable that day. In fact, in Seeking Allpha, where the post didn’t even go up until later that morning, Jamesbwood was able to take advantage of the XOM $77.50 puts at .14 (less than our original entry) and took a double off the table at .28 – a 100% day trade!
All of those trades ideas are great examples of the kind of trades we look for in our White Christmas Portfolio (our current, virtual, short-term portfolio) – ones we can get quickly in and out of with nice gains. We were quite satisfied with our oil shorts and cashed those out yesterday and, had President Obama followed my advice and sold those 140M barrels for $100 (could have gotten $102), he could have bought them back yesterday at $98.50 for a quick $210M profit – enough to pay for at least an hour’s worth of the deficit! Percentage-wise, he would have been better off subscribing and taking those trade ideas from our Member Chat. Those Wednesday morning trade ideas were:
- GOOG $625/620 bear put spread at $3.10 is a nice downside play – figure risking $1 to make $1.90.
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GOOG is at $600 and this spread will likely expire at $5 today – up 61.3%
- MMM $82.50 puts are $1, also a good trade for a crash tomorrow.
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MMM finished the day at $80.43 and the $82.50 puts were $2.35 – up 135%
- WYNN $130/125 bear put
…
Put Players See More Pain Ahead For Computer Sciences Corp.
by Option Review - November 10th, 2011 1:59 pm
Today’s tickers: CSC, SGY, JPM & UNH
CSC - Computer Sciences Corp. – Bearish traders snapped up put options on the provider of information technology services straight out of the gate this morning, a sign the already hard-hit stock may have further to fall before the current calendar year concludes. Shares in Computer Sciences Corp. opened sharply lower, one day after the company reduced its fiscal 2012 profit estimate and reported a second-quarter net loss of $2.88 billion. Excluding some items the company earned $0.94 a share in the quarter, more than the $0.68 a share anticipated by analysts, on average. CSC’s shares closed Wednesday’s session down 15.0%, and extended losses on Thursday, falling 8.0% this morning to an intraday low of $25.67. The stock was cut to ‘Underweight’ from ‘Neutral’ at JPMorgan today. Investors positioning for the stock to continue to decline picked up deep out-of-the-money November and December expiry puts that look for the price of the underlying to suffer additional double-digit declines in the near future. Bears populating the front month picked up more than 700 puts at the Nov. $25 strike for an average premium of $0.58 each, and purchased some 400 put options at the lower Nov. $22.5 strike at an average premium of $0.15 a-pop. Options volume on the stock is heaviest, however, in the December expiry. One trader appears to have purchased a block of 5,000 put options at the Dec. $20 strike for a premium of $0.30 each. The put player may profit at expiration next month in the event that CSC shares plunge 23.25% off today’s low of $25.67 to breach the effective breakeven price of $19.70. Finally, Dec. $22.5 strike puts were popular this morning, as well, with some 1,300 of the options having been purchased for an average premium of $0.59 apiece. Computer Sciences Corp. shares are down a staggering 55.0% off the February 8, 2010, 52-week high of $56.51. Options implied volatility on CSC is up better than 40.0% to stand at 69.2% as of 11:50 AM in New York.
SGY - Stone Energy Corp. – The independent oil and natural gas company popped up on our ‘hot by options volume’ market scanner today due to heavier-than-usual activity in its calls. Shares in Stone Energy Corp. are up more than 5.1% this afternoon to stand at $26.25 as of 12:50 PM ET, and it looks like some traders are gearing up for…
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Philip R. Davis is a founder Phil's Stock World, a stock and options trading site that teaches the art of options trading to newcomers and devises advanced strategies for expert traders...
Ilene is editor and affiliate program
coordinator for PSW. She manages the Favorites backup site
(