Get started

Premium-selling

SPX Weekly RangesHere are the past 7 weeks of PVI Volatility Ranges for SPX . The Ranges are computed every weekend from a myriad of data points and ratios (Index, Volatility variations, SKEW, HV, IV, etc...) We compute the ranges on the weekend, along with our roadmap & Game Plan for the week ahead. Some of us enter their first tranche on Sunday nights or early Monday (depending on confirmation from Futures ). We do NOT sell fixed Deltas for our credit spreads, but rather utilize the data driven from our volatility algo for the specific Index (primarily SPX ). The PVI Weekly SPX Credit Spread portfolio is up just over 47% YTD with 20 straight weeks of profits and zero drawdowns. The ranges have been breached 3 times since the start of 2021 (by an amount greater than 10 SPX points). The system is NOT designed or programed to be perfect, it is to provide us with the most competitive SPX weekly Range with the highest VALUE between Premium & Expectancy
SP:SPX
by VeteranWS
4
Selling Naked 16 Delta Strangle in TwitterMorning Options Sellers. Its hard to find good premium these days with the absolute volatility crush this past month, however I like this play in Twitter. Sell the May 21 16-delta strangle in $TWTR for $222 in premium per one-lot. That means selling the 85 CALL and selling the 60 PUT. Delta at position opening here is actually flat to slightly bearish, but starts out with $8.65 dollars a day in theta decay... nice. I still think Twitter is way undervalued and there are so many feature they can add to the platform to draw in more revenue, so I'm actually bullish the stock long term. But until May, I say the price stays within range. Collecting $2.22 in premium means our break-evens on this strangle are $57.78 and $87.22. As this price moves and starts to test either of our strikes, be ready to roll up or roll down the untested side to collect more premium and adjust those break-evens. We'll see how it plays out, but I like the play here with TWTR IV Rank of 40.2 today.
NYSE:TWTR
by nicetri
$SPX - Short Or Long? Range 3706-3818I'm not sure if SPX is going to continue doing what it has been for most of the week as usually the last day of the week can be a turnaround day. SO I've drawn up a lot on this chart that I've hidden but, I'm looking for two thigs to happen and either way I don't think it can go wrong. 1. The day starts at 9:30 a.m NY time and it moves up into the box I have set between 3798.6-3818 at that point I would should as has been the case for the last two days and the price will reach for a low that would be lower than yesterdays low between 3722-3706. 2. Or the the day could start and thE price reach into that low mentioned above 3722-3706 but we see a rebound at the end of the week and long the SPX at this point until it hits the box above around 3798-3818. 3. There is a third option I see less likely but still likely, and that is as the day starts, price reaches just below 3722 before longing just above it's current high 3783 before plummeting further down. I'm waiting til 9:30 to make a better informed decision but I just wanted to put my thoughts out there as the possible scenarios as to what I believe will happen wIth then SPX. I'm leaning toward option 1, but that's just me. Will Update at 9:30 or just post the idea to short or long. And my finger will be ready to press either button on MT4. OANDA:SPX500USD
OANDA:SPX500USD
by BodiesXWix
THE WEEK AHEAD: M EARNINGS; GDXJ, XOP, QQQ, IWM, VIXEARNINGS: M (87/58) announces earnings this week and has the most appropriate rank/implied volatility metrics for a contraction play. Pictured here is a narrow short strangle in the September monthly that is almost a short straddle, set up this way primarily because M is trading at 19.43, which Is smack dab in the middle of the short strikes. It's paying 2.25 at the mid-price with delta/theta metrics of -4.39/3.11. For those looking for more room to be wrong, the 17/22 short strangle is paying .89 which is a somewhat marginal play at 50 max (.45). Given the fact that it has been somewhat hammered, I could also see taking a bullish assumption short put shot with the 22 delta 17 strike paying .52, the 31 delta 18 paying .83, and the 42 delta 19 strike paying 1.25. For those looking to potentially acquire, it pays an annualized dividend of 1.51 with a yield of 7.39% at current share price. EXCHANGE-TRADED FUNDS: SLV (98/26) GDX (97/34) GDXJ (94/40) TLT (88/14) GLD (87/16) XOP (46/39) Having worked through setups on all of these, only GDXJ and XOP appear to present worthwhile nondirectional premium selling opportunities in the September monthly with their respective at-the-money short straddles paying in excess of 10% of the value of the stock. The GDXJ September 20th 42 short straddle is paying 4.68 versus 41.84 spot (11.2%) with the 37/49 short strangle camped out around the 16 delta paying 1.09. Similarly, the XOP September 20th 22 short straddle is paying 2.29 versus 22.29 spot (10.3%) with the 22/23 short strangle straddling current price paying 1.81 should you want a more delta neutral setup with a smidge of room for intratrade adjustment without going inverted. BROAD MARKET: EEM (37/20) IWM (33/22) SPY (31/18) QQQ (31/21) EFA (17/15) As with the exchange-traded funds, I'm looking for setups whose at-the-money short straddles pay more than 10% of the value of where the stock is currently trading.* Because background volatility in broad market is lower than in the exchange-traded funds which are, in turn, lower than that in single name as a general rule, you'll have to go farther out in time to get paid more than 10%. Only QQQ and IWM meet the 10% test without going crazy far out in time (although I recognize that some might consider going out to February for a play is "crazy far out"). The QQQ January 17th 186 short straddle is paying 19.23 versus 186.49 spot (10.3%) with the January 17th short strangle set up around the 16 delta strikes -- the 160/207, paying 4.40. Similarly, the IWM February 21st 151 short straddle is paying 16.02 versus 150.62 spot (10.6%) with the 16 delta February 21st 130/168 paying 3.86. VIX/VIX DERIVATIVES: For you "Vol Heads" ... . VIX closed at 17.97 on Friday with the August /VX contract trading at 18.48, so the term structure is in contango from the front month to spot. M1-M2 is also in a smidge of contango, but M2-M5 are in backwardation, presenting a wonky S-shaped term structure. Look to potentially add VXX/UVXY bearish assumption setups on VIX pops back to >20 ... . * -- Although you're certainly free to sell at-the-money straddles in these instruments, I'm using the short straddle value as more of a test to see whether the premium is sufficient to be "worth it." If it isn't worth It at-the-money, then out-of-the-money short strangles are probably aren't worth it, either.
NYSE:M
by NaughtyPines
3
THE WEEK AHEAD: M EARNINGS, XOP, TSLA, FCX, X, TWTR, BIDUPictured here is the only earnings announcement-related volatility contraction play with the metrics I'm looking for: greater than 70% rank and greater than 50% 30-day (it was 68/55 as of Friday close). Setup Metrics: 3.40 credit, break evens at 20.60/27.40, -8.20 delta, 3.1 theta. Obvious alternatives would be the April 18th 21/27 short strangle paying 1.21 with break evens at 19.79/28.21, a delta of -4.5, and theta of 2.43 and -- for those with a defined risk bent -- the 19/22/26/29 iron condor in the same expiry, paying 1.23 with 20.77/27.23 break evens, a -2.64 delta, and a theta of 1.15. On the exchange-traded fund front, the highest volatility remains in petro, with OIH, XOP, and USO taking the top three spots for 30-day implied at 31, 30, and 29, respectively, followed by EWZ at 29, and GDXJ at 26. With the exception of GDXJ, however, all of these are in the lower one quarter of their 52-week range (GDXJ's in the 31st percentile). As with last week, I'll continue to sell premium in XOP, albeit smaller than usual, reserving buying power for a richer volatility environment. Single names with earnings in the rear view ranked by 30-day: TSLA (12/49), FCX (24/43), X (18/43), TWTR (8/38), and BIDU (24/35). I'm in a FCX slightly bullish short straddle at 14 as a kind of quasi-bullish copper play, and have gone with a "not a penny more" short put in X (See Posts Below). As alternative plays, the X April 18th 24 short straddle is paying 2.83 (.71 at 25% max) with the 21/27 short strangle paying .84 (.42 at 50% max) The TWTR April 18th 32 short straddle is paying 3.61 at the mid (.90 at 25% max) with the 28/35 short strangle paying 1.19 (.60 at 50% max) in the same expiry. Spreads in both TSLA and BIDU are unattractively wide.
NYSE:M
by NaughtyPines
THE WEEK AHEAD: ADBE, COST EARNINGS; OIH, XOP, UNG DIRECTIONALSPersonally, I'm not doing a ton here beyond looking at cleaning up remaining December cycle setups and evaluating whether there are poo piles that should be looked at for the taking of tax loss in the margin account before year's end. Nevertheless, here's an outline of what's potentially playable in the coming week ... . ADBE (81/49) announces earnings on Thursday the 13th after market close. The 20-delta, January 18th 210/270 short strangle is paying a whopping 8.05/contract at the mid price, with the 25-delta January 18th 215/220/265/270 paying greater than one-third the width of the wings at a mid price of 2.13. Markets are showing quite wide at the moment, particularly in the defined risk setup, however, so it may prove unattractive at New York open from a liquidity standpoint. COST (76/31) also announces on Thursday after market close, but the background implied isn't generally what I'm looking for in an earnings-related volatility contraction play (generally, >50% is where I draw my "picky line"). On the exchange-traded fund front, petro leads the pack, with OIH rank/implied metrics coming in at 95/47, XOP at 79/44, and UNG at 72/86. With OPEC reaching an agreement late last week as to production cuts, I lean toward bullish assumption setups with time to work out/reduce cost basis, since it will take awhile for any cuts to appear in the pipeline. For example: an XOP June/Feb 25/34 upward call diagonal,* 6.55 debit/contract, break even at 31.55 versus 31.54 spot, max profit on setup of 2.45, 72.8% debit paid/spread width ratio. I'm already in a similar OIH bullish assumption setup, which is proving to be a "pulled the trigger" too soon type of thing. The back month in the OIH setup is in April, so I've still got time to reduce cost basis and for the trade to work out in some fashion, even though it's a bit of a rough sled here. With UNG in particular, I continue to look at a bearish assumption seasonality play, but markets on any given setup have been ugly wide, no matter what type of setup I seem to look at, and lack of liquidity is not your friend when doing an options setup. For broad market premium sellers: SPY (47/30), IWM (78/25), QQQ (69/27). * -- Buy the June 25, sell the February 34.
AMEX:SPY
by NaughtyPines
PREMIUM SELLNG: NEXT WEEK REMAINS A "WASTELAND"Another week of wasteland for premium selling, with EWZ again topping the volatility charts for non earnings plays, although I may go small with an IWM setup in the May monthly (it's the most volatile amongst the index ETF's, which ain't saying much). I've got one more short-term RUT/IUX setup on that I will need to address, but other than that, it's going to be a light week trading wise from where I'm sitting right now. Although you can naturally dip your toe into some of the more volatile individual underlyings pre earnings, my preference is to keep powder dry until the actual announcement is upon us before diving in, and there simply isn't anything on next week's earnings calendar that meets my standards for "options playability." So, in the absence of some monumental sea change here, I'm going to be mostly hand sitting for the week on options plays, but may dabble with scalping /ES intraday and/or look for another opportunity to go long volatility in a VIX derivative, assuming we get to around VIX 13-ish.
AMEX:EWZ
by NaughtyPines
2
TRADE IDEA: SPY JUNE 17TH 177/181/215/219 IRON CONDORWhen volatility is low such as it is now in shorter term expiries, you have a couple of different choices when selling premium in broad-based market instruments like SPY, IWM, QQQ, and DIA: (a) sit on your hands, waiting for volatility to pop to a level such that less-than 45 DTE setups are more profitable; or (b) look farther out in time for volatility to "regularize" in more time-distant expiries. (Naturally, there is nothing to prevent you from continuing to put on premium selling setups in this environment, but they're subject to the vagaries of volatility expansion, which is the opposite of what you generally want when selling premium). In this particular case, I'm looking to keep setups in queue in the event that this lower volatility hangs about for several weeks and, after looking at the implied volatility for April, May, and June, have concluded that implied volatility in SPY options doesn't begin to "regularize" until the June expiry: April's IV is 17.2%; May's, 18.7%; and June's, 19.9%, after which the IV%-age pretty much hangs around the 20% area for the remainder of the year. Here's the setup: June 17th 177/181/215/219 Iron Condor Probability of Profit: 61% Max Profit: $104/contract Buying Power Effect: $296/contract Notes: Naturally, this is quite far out in time, and a lot of stuff can happen between now and then. Consequently, I like to keep these longer dated setups small relative to my 45 DTE and under setups, so that I don't have a ton of buying power tied up while I'm waiting for the statistical probabilities to play out.
AMEX:SPY
by NaughtyPines
SOLD GDXJ APRIL 31 23/31 SHORT STRANGLEAs with the XOP play, selling premium where the volatility is and that's in gold issues (GDX, GG, GDXJ) and oil (OIH, XOP) right now. I filled this earlier today for a $98 credit. The current metrics are: Probability of Profit: 72% Max Profit: $90 per contract Buying Power Effect: Undefined Notes: At the suggestion of FractalTrader (that you very much for your ideas, by the way), I'm playing around with what I can do graphically here with options setups, so that it's easier to visualize where price has to "sit" for the duration of the setup. If you have traded options before, the vast majority of platforms display a range of prices horizontally, with prices below current price on the left, current price in the middle, and prices above current prices on the right, so it's a bit of a challenge to adapt an options platform view (which only consists of a horizontal "price axis") to a candlestick chart. In any event, this is a short strangle, so I want price to remain between my two short option strikes for the duration of the trade -- above the 23 short put and below the 31 short call ... . I'll look to take the whole setup off at 50% max profit.
AMEX:GDXJ
by NaughtyPines
IUX/RUT 80% POP FEB 29TH 895/905/1050/1060 ICWith a paucity of meaningful earnings plays to work this week and having exited all of my Feb index plays, I'm looking for something short-term to bide my time as my core March index setups work themselves out. I'm not yet ready to move into the April monthly (it's still a bit far out) for index setups, so a short duration, high probability setup is a good way to keep engaged without tying up buying power for substantial periods of time. The setup metrics: RUT Feb 29th 1740/1750/1965/1975 Probability of Profit: 82% Max Profit: $98/contract Buying Power Effect: $902 Notes: As you can see by the metrics, the probability of profit is great; the risk-reward is not. As with all setups of this type, there is typically a trade-off between probability of profit (which generally requires a wider setup) and your defined risk, which represents the max loss you would experience if you allowed the setup to go to expiration without doing anything in the event of a test of one of your sides ... . All that being said, I generally treat these as scalps. Although I shoot for 50% max profit for the setup, I usually look to get out of the trade for a smaller profit if that 50% max isn't fairly immediately realized.
I
by NaughtyPines
RUT/IUX MARCH 31ST 805/815/1060/1070 IRON CONDORWith 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 to go wider with your iron condor, increase the probability of profit of the setup, and still get something for your trouble (the only way you can do that with IWM is to increase the number of contracts involved). While I ordinarily place the short put side of my index ETF, SPX, or RUT iron condor setups at one standard deviation out (84% probability OTM), here I've gone somewhat out to the 94% probability OTM strike for the short put; on the call side, I ordinarily set up the short call at the 75% probability OTM short call, but here I've gone out to the 80% strike. Here's the setup: RUT/IUX March 31st 805/815/1060/1070 Iron Condor Probability of Profit %: 73% Max Profit: $210/contract Buying Power Effect: $790/contract Notes: Look to take the entire setup off at 50% max profit and/or balance the setup's fairly delta neutral disposition by rolling sides in toward current price if you've still got 25 days or more until expiration ... . I put something like this on last week while waiting for my Feb SPY IC's to finish out, but neglected to post it here ... .
I
by NaughtyPines
PCLN -- FEB 26TH 947.5/957.5/1212.5/1222.5 IRON CONDORPCLN 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 the width of the wings and/or or the width of the short option strikes to give you a setup that fits your risk tolerance. Here's the metrics for the basic setup: PCLN Feb 26th 947.5/957.5/1212.5/1222.5 Iron Condor Probability of Profit %: 71% Max Profit: $341/contract (that's the mid price; I regard the likelihood of a fill there quite small) Buying Power Effect: $160/contract (not sure that's correct, but it's what the software's telling me if you shoot for a fill a 3.41) Break Evens: 954/1216
P
by NaughtyPines
TSLA EARNINGS PLAYSTSLA 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: Undefined Feb 19th 106/111/180/185 iron condor Probability of Profit: 70% Max Profit: $101/contract Buying Power Effect: $400 Notes: I'm probably not going to play this one, since I'm still working off FB and have DIS and BIDU on, as well as a bunch of other index ETF balls I'm juggling ... .
NASDAQ:TSLA
by NaughtyPines
DIS EARNINGS PLAYSDIS 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 Effect: $414 Notes: You can naturally play with the width of the iron condor wings to increase/decrease buying power effect and/or max profit potential. As always, look to take the setup off at 50% max profit post-earnings or a side at or near max. In the event a side is tested, look to roll the tested side out for duration to a later expiry and then sell an oppositional side against the rolled side for a credit that exceeds the debit paid for any roll and look to exit the rolled out setup for scratch (total debits paid minus total credits paid = 0) and to redeploy your buying power elsewhere. They are, after all, meant to be quick and dirty plays ... .
NYSE:DIS
by NaughtyPines
THIS WEEK'S OPTIONS WORTHY EARNINGS PLAYS -- DIS, BIDU, TSLAUnfortunately, 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 those on strength, maybe I'll be able to fit one of these plays in just to keep myself entertained. CVS -- announces on 2/9 (Tuesday) before market open. Implied volatility rank: 83/implied volatility 31. I'll have to look at that one closer to earnings. The implied vol number suggests that while volatility is temporarily high, it's just not one of those underlyings that are very volatile generally speaking. DIS -- announces on 2/9 (Tuesday) after market. Its implied volatility rank isn't quite where I'd like it (63; >70 is better), but you never know what'll happen going into the last couple of days here. BIDU -- announces "some time" on 2/10, which could be before/after market (you'd think they'd know at this point ... ). High implied volatility rank (83) plus high volatility (58) equals good premium. I would probably just look to put on a play on Tuesday if the premium looks attractive (it does right now; even for an iron condor setup). WYNN -- announces "some time" on 2/10. Rank: 95/implied 80. This little guy is not for the faint of heart. I've been in and out of WYNN several times this year as a non-earnings premium selling play and it whips all over the place, with a Daily 14-Period ATR of between 3 and 4 bucks ... . TSLA -- announces on 2/10 after market close. What's not to like about a TSLA play? Implied volatility rank is at 100 and the implied volatility is 82. Beaucoup premium ... . There are naturally a bunch of others announcing earnings, it's just that they're not necessarily good premium selling plays due to their implied volatility, so they'll probably just have to be played some other way ... .
NYSE:DIS
by NaughtyPines