With the highest implied volatility out of the four indices (S&P, Dow, Nasdaq, and Russell 2000), the Russell 2000, RUT or IUX (symbology will vary by platform, apparently), offers good premium selling as an alternative to playing its ETF counterpart, IWM. Given the value of the underlying and its accompanying options, having more "meat on the bone" allows you...
PCLN announces earnings tomorrow before market open, so look to put on this play before today's close. As noted in my post early this week regarding this week's earnings play prospects, PCLN's options are somewhat illiquid, so look for a fill of any setup at or above the mid price and resist the urge to chase price for a fill ... . You can naturally play with...
TSLA announces earnings tomorrow after market close, so look to put on any volatility contraction play (short strangle/iron condor) before then. You'll naturally want to tweak these strikes if there is any movement during the market day ... . Short Strangle Feb 19th 111/180 short strangle Probability of Profit: 74% Max Profit: $404/contract Buying Power Effect:...
DIS announces earnings today after market hours, so look to put on any setup before New York close. Here are the two "classic" setups: Feb 19th 82.5/100 short strangle Probability of Profit %: 74% Max Profit: $127/contract Buying Power Effect: Undefined Feb 19 77.5/82.5/100/105 iron condor Probability of Profit %: 72% Max Profit: $86/contract Buying Power...
Unfortunately, I was fiddling around so much with setups in index ETF's and GLD last week that I didn't get a chance to do a single earnings play ... But it's all good. Naturally, if volatility remains high in SPY, DIA, QQQ, and/or IWM, I'll continue to work those. However, while I'm waiting for some kind of bounce to occur to leg into the short call side of...
With earning season quickly wrapping up, I'm look to put on a few high IVR/IV plays to bridge the gap between now and mid-January when the whole dog and pony show starts up again. With an IVR/IV currently at 82/82 and having just announced earnings a few weeks ago, SCTY is one of those possible plays. As usual, I will go short strangle: Dec 31st 19/39 short...
And earnings season slogs on ... . Next week there are bunch of biggies, but not all of them are worthwhile options setup plays, primarily due to liquidity. GOOG's option liquidity has never been the greatest, and CMG and LNKD have always been horrid, so right off the bat I would pass on those for options plays. GILD -- announces earnings on 2/2 (Tues) after...
I'm looking to put on a couple more plays to bridge the gap between the end of this earnings season and the next, but worthwhile +70 IVR non-earnings announcement plays look to be somewhat hard to come by. Post-earnings, FIT's IV remains high (70) (it currently doesn't have a 52-week ThinkOrSwim IVR, since it hasn't been around long enough) and the premium is...
NFLX announces earnings on Tuesday 1/19 after market, so look to put on any premium selling play shortly before NY close. Here are two possible setups, which may have to be tweaked, depending on price movement in the underlying: Jan 29 80/128 short strangle Probability of Profit %: 77% Max Profit: $246/contract Buying Power Effect: ~$1041 Break Evens:...
Next week is literally hopping with potential earnings announcement plays. I've tried to pick out the ones that (1) have > 70% implied volatility rank; (2) offer greater than a 1.00 credit ($100) for the "classic" one standard deviation short strangle setup; (3) have fairly good liquidity with options prices; and (4) offer weeklies, but there are also a few...
With an implied volatility rank of 76 and an implied volatility of 56, an XOP short strangle is a good premium selling play here, with the standard 45 day setup yielding about 1.00 in credit for only $275 or so worth of buying power. Here's the setup: Feb 19th 23/32 short strangle Probability of Profit: 71% Max Profit: $97 Buying Power Effect: ~$275 Break Evens:...
As an alternative to the IWM play (posted below), here's a QQQ setup: Feb 12 103.5/116.5 short strangle POP%: 75% Max Profit: 1.55/contract BPE: Undefined Break Evens: 101.95/118.05
With oil absolutely tanking, a wide variety of premium selling plays in oil and gas have come to the forefront. I'm going to play the increased volatility in this sector via OIH short strangle (IVR 62/IV 41). Ideally, I'd wait for IVR to pop to 70+, but my thinking is that oil will drop and then proceed to consolidate, after which volatility will collapse: Jan...
And, before you research this underlying, the answer is, "No, it is not the bordering-on-porn men's magazine, Maxim"; it's an integrated circuit company. This is another longer-term play I'm looking to work to bridge the gap between now and the beginning of next earnings season. In any event, MXIM post-earnings IVR/IV is currently at 91/38. Standard short...
Although most of the ideas I've published recently have involved earnings announcement plays, I'm always on the lookout for volatility in the SPDR's or other sector ETF's. Currently, the highest IVR SPDR that pops up on my screener is XOP. XOP, OIH, and related individual underlyings have continuously been at the volatility forefront for several weeks running...
The last play I found for next week is ULTA (IVR/IV 71/48). It announces earnings on Thursday after market close. The unfortunate thing is that weeklies aren't available, but the Dec expiry is near enough in time to not be too much of a problem. Here's the setup, which may need to be tweaked between Monday's open and the announcement: Dec 18 150/190 short...
AMBA (IVR/IV 48/92) announces earnings on Thursday, 12/3, after market close, so look to put on any play before NY close on that day. In this particular case, the IV is higher than the IVR (which is in the 48th percentile for the IV range for the past 52-weeks. so the IVR could conceivably pop even higher preearnings than it is currently; this will make for even...
AVGO (IVR/IV 52/61) announces earnings on Wednesday (12/2) after market close, so look to put on a play before market close if you want to take advantage of the volatility crush post-earnings. Here's the standard setup, which in all likelihood will have to be tweaked between now and earnings: Dec 11 115/145 short strangle POP%: ~70%+ Max Profit:...