Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Know your options

I get a little extra cautious, nervous, and excited during OPEX week. The expiring of options add a lot to trading during the week as traders position themselves - and deal with trades that may be expiring. This week has an added dimension in that 2 of my trades are in stocks that have earning releases: AAPL (Apple Inc) & GOOG (Google).

To make things even more exciting, AAPL had some significant news come out over the holiday involving their CEO Steve Jobs. He has taken another medical leave of absence. I spent a fair amount of time coming up with my trading plan for AAPL today as I viewed it as a great opportunity. I ultimately decided to sell the FEB 300 put and buy the JAN 340 call once the market opened. The trade lasted less than 20 minutes and provided a net of 6.80 on average (scaled out). I then reviewed the action up to that point and elected to wait for the JAN 340 call to retrace (which it did) - I then picked some up at 5.60. I will hold these through earnings amc.

In terms of my GOOG option trade, I began to think that this may get even more attention because of the negativity towards AAPL that some may have. The action so far today solidifies that view. I currently have the following trade on:

L JAN 660 call
S JAN 590 put
L JAN 575 put

The above trade was done for a net debit of 1.90

There are a variety of ways to play these earnings releases, you just need to know your options.

No comments:

Post a Comment