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USO

THE WEEK AHEAD: ROKU EARNINGS; USO, SMH, EWZ, GDXJEARNINGS: ROKU (64/83) announces earnings on the 13th (Thursday) after market close and looks to be the best play out of earnings announcements occurring next week from a volatility contraction standpoint. Pictured here is a fairly straightforward short strangle camped out around the 17 delta in the March cycle, paying 5.62 on buying power effect of around 12.50 (45% credit received/effect ratio) on margin. For those looking to define their risk, consider the 90/100/150/160 iron condor, paying 3.37 on buying power effect of 6.63 (50.8% credit received/effect ratio) or some iteration of that where you look to receive one-third the width of the widest wing in credit. There is some call side skew here which you may to consider accommodating via a ratio'd short strangle or a "double double."* EXCHANGE-TRADED FUNDS WITH EXPIRY IN WHICH AT-THE-MONEY SHORT STRADDLE IS PAYING GREATER THAN 10% OF STOCK PRICE: XLE (59/22), July FXI (54/24), August SMH (51/27), May USO (48/39), April XOP (45/36), June EWW (43/19), September EWZ (33/27), May GDXJ (15/27), May GDX (10/24), June My general tendency here has been to go with the shortest duration that's paying first (assuming that I'm not already in a play), and then consider longer-dated thereafter. Here, the shortest duration that's paying is in USO (April), followed by SMH, EWZ, and GDXJ (May), and then XOP and GDX (June). BROAD MARKET FUNDS WITH EXPIRY IN WHICH THE AT-THE-MONEY SHORT STRADDLE IS PAYING GREATER THAN 10% OF STOCK PRICE: EFA (45/13), December EEM (42/20), September QQQ (37/19), September IWM (34/18), September SPY (30/15), November I've been working SPY longer-dated for quite some time now just to have something on in a constant state of theta burn where shorter duration isn't paying. Just for comparison's sake, the EEM September 37/49 is paying 1.14 on a buying power effect of 4.35 (26.2%); the QQQ September 195/257, 5.77 on a buying power effect of 22.94 (25.2%); and the IWM September 142/183, 3.78 on a buying power effect of 16.50 (22.9%) versus the SPY November 280/367, 8.23 on a buying power effect of 33.24 (24.8%). FUTURES (EXCLUDING CURRENCY/TREASURIES): /CL (52/40) /ES (51/16) /NG (30/39) /SI (30/18) /ZC (29/18) /GC (24/11) /ZS (15/18) /ZW (8/37) VIX/VIX DERIVATIVES: VIX finished the week at 15.47, with the February, March, and April /VX contracts going for 16.07, 16.27, and 16.70, respectively. The term structure has lost a good deal of the steepness we were enjoying just a few weeks ago when M1-2 contango was at a whopping 19.16% and M4-7 at 6.24% (it's currently 1.25 and 3.45%, respectively) and my tendency would be to probably wait until the February contract drops off to see if a term structure trade is in the offing. They're not exactly paying me huge to go, for example, with an April setup over a March one, with the differential being a scant .43. * -- E.g., the 2x90/2x95/155/165 iron condor paying 2.91.
NASDAQ:ROKU
by NaughtyPines
THE WEEK AHEAD: TWTR EARNINGS; FXI, USO, XOP; VIX, VXX, UVXYEARNINGS: TWTR (66/54) announces earnings on Thursday before market open, so look to put on a play in the waning hours of Wednesday's New York session to take advantage of post-announcement volatility crush. Pictured here is a 16 delta short strangle in the March cycle with -2.88/2.95 delta/theta metrics and break evens wide of the expected move paying 1.10. There are naturally a number of other earnings announcing next week (i.e., DIS, SNAP), but TWTR has the best implied volatility rank/30-day implied metrics to set up for a volatility contraction play. EXCHANGE-TRADED FUNDS ORDERED BY IMPLIED VOLATILITY RANK WITH FIRST MONTH IN WHICH THE AT-THE-MONEY SHORT STRADDLE PAYS GREATER THAN 10% OF THE STOCK PRICE: FXI (86/30), June USO (72/41), March XLE (72/33), May SMH (68/29), May XOP (56/38), March IBB (56/25), June EWZ (50/30), April GDX (30/31), May GDX (27/27), May BROAD MARKET FUNDS ORDERED BY IMPLIED VOLATILITY RANK WITH THE FIRST MONTH IN WHICH THE AT-THE-MONEY SHORT STRADDLE PAYS GREATER THAN 10% OF THE STOCK PRICE: EEM (62/23), September EFA (60/15), December IWM (54/20), August QQQ (51/22), September SPY (50/18), October FUTURES (EXCLUDING CURRENCIES AND TREASURIES) ORDERED BY IMPLIED VOLATILITY RANK: /CL (64/42) /GC (47/13) /SI (38/21) /ZC (32/20) /NG (29/40) /ZS (18/18) /ZW (7/24) VIX/VIX DERIVATIVES: VIX finished the week at 18.84 with months 1-3 in backwardation; February finished at 18.30, March at 17.80, and April at 17.83. Here, I would add short volatility spreads in either VXX or UVXY, looking to collect one-third the width of the spread in credit (for short call verticals) or not pay more than one-third the width of the spread in debit (for long put verticals) (e.g., the VXX March 20th 16/17 short call vertical, paying .34).
NYSE:TWTR
by NaughtyPines
THE WEEK AHEAD: USO, EWZ, XLF; VIX/VIX DERIVATIVESEARNINGS: Earnings kick off in earnest this week with a bevy of financials (WFC, GS, JPM, C, BAC, MS). Generally speaking, I haven't played these in the past due to low background implied, and nothing has changed in that regard this go-around from a premium selling standpoint: WFC (30/21), GS (27/24), JPM (20/21), C (16/23), BAC (0/22), MS (0/24). That being said, it looks like the financial sector exchange-traded fund XLF (5/16) has put in a multi-year double-top, so I could see taking a bearish assumption directional shot on the notion that earnings in this sector may disappoint in a low interest rate environment. For example, the XLF February 21st 30/32 long put vertical costs 1.04/contract to put on, has a max loss metric of .96 and a break even of 30.96 versus a Friday close of 30.69, which are the kind of the risk one to make one/break even at/near where the underlying is currently trading metrics I like to see out of these. EXCHANGE-TRADED FUNDS WITH THE FIRST EXPIRY IN WHICH THE AT-THE-MONEY SHORT STRADDLE PAYS >10% OF STOCK PRICE: UNG (36/40), February SLV (33/20), July USO (32/32), April EWZ (29/26), June GLD (26/12), January '21 Pictured here is an EWZ 20-delta short strangle set up in the first expiry in which the at-the-money short straddle is paying greater than 10% of the stock price, 1.91 credit, delta/theta 0/1.41. Although I would ordinarily go with the underlying paying in the shortest duration, we will start to run into seasonality issues with UNG in the February or March cycles (depending, of course, on Mother Nature), so would rather not hit that underlying non directionally here. And USO can be somewhat of a pain to trade due to its smallness. BROAD MARKET WITH THE FIRST EXPIRY IN WHICH THE AT-THE-MONEY SHORT STRADDLE PAYS >10% OF STOCK PRICE: EEM (66/16), September EFA (20/11), December SPY (14/12), November QQQ (9/17), September IWM (0/15), September Well, we're in a volatility lull here, so this comes as no surprise that shorter duration isn't paying. VIX/VIX DERIVATIVES: VIX finished the week at 12.56, with the March, April, and May /VX contracts trading at 16.04, 16.56, and 16.80, respectively, so term structure trades remain viable in those months. VXX and UVXY -- my go-to derivatives instruments -- both hit new 52 week lows last week, and VXX finished the week at 14.12, UVXY at 11.59. Although VIX has room to trundle lower from here, it probably wouldn't be a bad thing to pull off a few units in profit put on higher up the ladder and then wait for the next >25% pop in VIX (which would be a modest pop at 16 or so) to start legging back in.
AMEX:EWZ
by NaughtyPines
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