Opening: XBI May 20th 76/105 Short Strangle... for a 2.35 credit.
Comments: And here's my "clean" XBI setup after having scratched out my previous position. High IVR/high IV at 61/41. Selling around the 16 delta on both sides. 2.35 on buying power of 9.05 (on margin); 26.0% ROC as a function of buying power effect; 13.0% at 50% max.
XBI
$XBI #XBI is the Spring growth time no position yet , but on Monday at first uptick will enter on 1/3 position
Way oversold imo , not looking be there long term , but just enough to my make 3-5% in gains
Has been very good downtrend and strong bottoming is a great indicator to switch gears
GL ,
Wars are sucks
$XBI Monthly approaching buy zoneStarted XBI LEAPS position buying JAN 24 $150 Calls, will continue to add as XBI Biotech has taken a beating, but technically has just found it's way back to the long term upward trendline support zone.
First price target 120, followed by 140 after expecting a bit more downside here.
This is a long term trade idea, for those looking in the short term, there may still be more downside although the R/R favors the long position now IMO.
$XBI Key Levels, Analysis & Targets - Request$XBI Key Levels, Analysis & Targets - Request
Ok, @FlashingGraphs so these would be my targets fo XBI. It sounds like you don’t have an open position yet… I would start around 78.06.
Then if it keeps selling off, then double your position at 62.94
And if it still continues then double again at 45.89. If those 3 hit then you can expect a solid 50% swing from there…
Because of the way the Biotech sector moved in the past two years I could definitely see it making a 3 standard deviation move down like this, in correction. Don’t go in too heavy until you see a clear reversal sign… (such as macD crossing back above 0, and consistent higher lows)
And with that being said I still would start building from Target 1. I hope this helps.
GL & happy swinging…
Closed: XBI March 18th 71 Short Put... for a .20 debit.
Comments: Sold this for 1.41 to reduce cost basis in my inverted short strangle. Closing out here results in a realized gain of 1.21 ($120) on that leg. Cost basis on the remainder is now 12.46, with a downside break even of the short put leg (99) minus credits collected (12.46) or 86.54 relative to where XBI is trading right now at 86.34, so I'm not in horrible shape. I will consider re-erecting the short put if we get further weakness or rolling down the short call further since it's I've collected 12.46 on a six-wide, leaving me with room to invert further if I have to.
Rolling: XBI March 18th 93C/99P to April 20th 93C/99P... for a 2.38 credit.
Comments: Rolling this "as is" at 21 days until expiry to collect additional credit and improve my break evens. Total credits collected of 12.66 on a 6-wide inverted with a downside break even of 86.34 relative to where the underlying is currently trading at 88.22
The Week Ahead: TWTR, UAA, GPN, PFE Earnings; ARKK, XBI, XRTEarnings Announcements in Options Liquid Underlyings with >70 rank and >50% 30-Day Implied:
TWTR (93 rank/90 30-day implied) (Thursday, before market open)
UAA (80/68) (Friday, before market open)
GPN (71/51) (Thursday, before market open)
PFE (76/42) (Tuesday, before market open)
Pictured here is a directionally neutral TWTR short strangle paying 1.34 on a buying power effect of 3.71 (on margin), 36.1% ROC at max; 18.1% at 50% max. It announces earnings on Thursday before market open, so look to put on a play in the waning hours of Wednesday's session if you want to take advantage of the ensuing volatility contraction post-announcement on Thursday.
For those more of a defined risk bent, consider the February 18th 25/30/44/49 iron condor, paying 1.14 at the mid price as of Friday's close on buying power effect of 3.86, 29.5% ROC at max, 14.8% at 50% max with 2 x expected move break evens.
UAA is probably small enough to short straddle/iron fly, with the February 18th 19.5 short straddle paying 2.42 on buying power of 3.93 (on margin), 61.6% ROC at max, 15.4% at 25% max. The risk one to make one iron fly would be a "stays within the expected move" sort of play with the February 18th 15.5/19.5/19.5/23.5, paying 2.03 on 1.97, 103% ROC at max; 25.8% ROC at 25% max.
The GPN February 18th 130/160 short strangle was paying 2.97 on buying power of 14.97 as of Friday's close, 19.8% ROC at max, 9.9% at 50% max. The bid/ask is showing wide in after hours, and I don't particularly like the five wides where I want to pitch my tent. This is probably why I haven't bothered to play it before.
Although PFE's 30-day is a bit <50%, I figured I'd price out a setup because of its high options liquidity. Unfortunately, it's not very compelling at the moment, with the 16 delta 48.5/58.5 in the February 18th contract paying a scant .89 on buying power of 6.12 as of Friday's close -- 14.5% ROC at max, 7.3% at 50% max.
Exchange-Traded Funds With Ranks >50 and 30-Day IV >35%:
ARKF (76/63)
XBI (71/45)
ARKK (70/67)
ARKG (70/65)
XRT (63/46)
KWEB (63/54)
SMH (60/41)
GDX (50/45)
Pick your Cathie Woods poison (ARKF, ARKK, ARKG), I guess. Otherwise, sell premium in XBI or (there's one I haven't seen in a while) ... XRT, although you're probably going to get more bang for your buck out of KWEB, with its higher 30-day.
Broad Market Exchange-Traded Funds, Ordered By Implied Volatility Rank:
QQQ (55/29)
IWM (54/30)
EFA (43/19)
SPY (41/22)
DIA (40/21)
Rolled: XBI February 18th 132 Short Call to the 110... for a 1.64 credit.
Comments: Rolled the 132 down to what was the 25 delta strike on side test, after which the underlying promptly bounced back to 103 and change. I originally collected 2.69 (See Post Below) with a 50% max take profit at 1.34, so am revising my take profit to the original take profit of 1.34 plus what I received for this roll -- 1.64 (i.e., 2.98).
The Week Ahead: XBI, ARKF, ARKG, BITO, ARKK, KWEB, IWM/RUTEarnings:
TSLA (63/69). Announces on Wednesday after market close, so if you're looking to play the volatility contraction, look to put on a play in the waning hours of Wednesday's session or, if implied volatility afterglow persists, early Thursday after it has made its move. If NFLX earnings is any indication of whether TSLA will "behave," you may want to consider waiting until after the announcement to avoid a repeat of "the Netflix experience." As it is, the January 28th options are pricing in something bigly: +/- $82 or so, so 862 on the put side, 1026.
Exchange-Traded Funds Screened for Rank >70%/30-Day >35%, Implied Volatility Rank Ordered:
Cathie Woods' funds continue to have a really bad hair day/week/month ... .
XBI (100/48)
ARKF (97/59)
ARKG (87/66)
BITO (82/85)
ARKK (82/62)
KWEB (74/58)
EWZ (51/40)
Pictured here is a bullish assumption BITO March 18th 17 short put, paying .60 at the mid price on buying power of 16.40. The broker is still requiring it to be cash-secured, so the ROC %-age is not all that sexy: 3.7% at max (25.0% annualized) as a function of buying power effect. Because of that, I would consider slapping on a cheap put to bring in the buying power effect, but the best you can currently do is to buy the 13, making it into a four-wide paying .38, and that amount isn't particularly compelling, particularly if you're going to be taking profit at 50% max. The ROC %-age is way better (9.5% at max), but I'd rather look at a setup where the long leg costs something like .05-.10, so I may stick a pin in that trade; lower strikes may populate at some point.
Broad Market Exchange-Traded Funds, Implied Volatility Rank Ordered:
QQQ (77/33)
IWM (77/35)
SPY (73/28)
DIA (72/26)
EFA (65/23)
In the retirement account, I'll basically continue to ladder out short put as long as IVR/IV remains elevated. This is the exact environment in which I like to make additions on the put side: weakness plus increased implied volatility. Naturally, one begets the other. I'll also be keeping an eye on net portfolio delta to see if additional short delta hedge is required to keep me from getting overly directional which can make things more uncomfortable in a protracted down turn. I point this out because what people primarily see in my feed is "short put, short put, short put" and not the short delta hedges put on that are just kind of running in the background. There is individual trade delta, but also portfolio-wide delta.
The Week Ahead: NFLX, ARKF/ARKG/ARKK, XBI, KWEB, URA, IWM, QQQI haven't done one of these in quite some time, but thought I'd do one over this long holiday weekend.
Earnings:
I looked at a number of these for next week (there are quite a few) and have culled things down to the most liquid options underlyings, ideally with implied volatility rank >70% and 30-day greater than 50%. Only NFLX really fits that bill, even though it's a smidge shy of a 50% 30-day. For instance, I did look at CTXS (87/46), but when I dug into the options table, I wasn't fantastically excited about setting up a short strangle with only 2.5 to 5-wides where I'd want to set up my tent on both the put and call sides.
NFLX (76.9% rank/44.8% 30-day) announces earnings on Thursday after market close, so look to put on a play before the end of that session if you're looking to play the announcement for a volatility contraction. Pictured here is a February 18th 450/610 short strangle with the legs camped out at the 13 delta. Paying 9.20 at the mid as of Friday's close on buying power of 52.59 (on margin), it has a 17.5% ROC at max, 8.7% ROC at 50% max. I like to go wider with earnings announcement volatility contraction plays since these do one of two things: (1) come in immediately; or (2) give you headaches for several cycles if the move has been overly large and you have to defend the setup to scratch in a contracted volatility environment.
If you're more of a defined risk bent, throw on some wings: the February 18th 440/450/610/620 iron condor is paying 1.90 on buying power effect of 8.10, 23.5% ROC at max, 11.7% ROC at 50% max.
Naturally, these are just preliminary pricing and strikes. You'll want to adjust strikes as necessary, since the underlying is likely to move somewhat running into earnings.
Exchange-Traded Funds Screened for Implied Volatility Rank >50% and 30-Day >35% and Ordered by Implied Volatility Rank:
ARKF (84/52) (Cathie Woods' Fintech Innovation)
XBI (83/43) (Biotech)
ARKG (79/59) (Cathie Woods' Genomic Revolution)
KWEB (60/51) (China Internet)
ARKK (59/44) (Cathie Woods' Innovation)
URA (41/59) (Uranium)
A lot of Cathie Woods' stuff in there ... . I like to reserve these for the monthlies, since the weeklies aren't all that liquid in some of these. Unfortunately, the February 18th monthly is a little short in duration for my tastes (33 days until expiry) and March a bit long, so will probably hand sit on deploying buying power in this area until the March monthly's duration shortens -- it's currently 61 days, and I like to keep things +/- a week or so of 45 days.
One underlying that doesn't really have a 52-week valid implied volatility rank is BITO (1/68), since it hasn't been around for 52 weeks yet. However, that "1" indicates that its implied is low within the range its established since inception, and I'd naturally prefer it to be higher even though its 30-day outranks all of 30-days I've got in my little list, so I'm keeping an eye on it, having just exited a BITO short strangle on Friday.
Broad Market Exchange-Traded Funds Ordered by Implied Volatility Rank:
XLK (46/27)
QQQ (43/25)
EFA (35/17)
IWM (36/26)
DIA (24/18)
SPY (23/19)
I've moved XLK from my exchange-traded fund grid to my broad market grid, since it enjoys a close correlation with SPY (.87 90-day) and an even closer correlation with QQQ. XLK is about half the size of QQQ, so if you like to layer on, it's a little more nimble for that purpose. I've been selling premium in small caps (IWM) in the weeklies to bide my time while monthly setups come in or have to be managed, but may consider sticking some of my pickle into QQQ next week given the fact that its rank implies that it's more "expanded" (if that makes any sense). I'd probably use the March 4th expiry, where the QQQ 16-delta 342/408 is paying 5.69 on buying power of 48.03, 11.8% ROC at max, 5.9% at 50% max. Naturally, the market may look entirely different from an implied volatility standpoint coming off a long holiday weekend, so I always have a second look at whether doing that is worthwhile once the market opens.
Opened: XBI February 18th 100/132 Short Strangle... for a 2.69 credit.
Comments: And back into XBI (rank/implied 54/37) after closing out my January position. 2.69 credit on buying power effect of 11.30 (on margin); 23.8% ROC as a function of buying power effect; 11.9% at 50% max. As usual, will look to take profit at 50% max; manage sides on either approaching worthless or test.
Closed: XBI January 21st 103/127 Short Strangle... for a 1.69 debit.
Comments: Put this on for a 3.39 credit. (See Post Below). Out today via a good until cancelled order to take profit at 50% max with 25 days to go. 1.70 ($170) profit. It's nice to basically have to do nothing defensively every once in a while.
Opening (Margin): XBI January 21st 103/127 Short Strangle... for a 3.39 ($339) credit.
Comments: Selling ~20 delta premium in biotech with rank/implied at 64/38. 3.39 on buying power effect of 11.62 ($1162); 29.2% ROC at max; 14.6% ROC at 50% max. Will look to take profit at 50% max, manage sides on test/approaching worthless.
The biotech sector may be a big winner into the year’s endThe $XBI has been one of the worst performing ETFs this year as the biotech sector faced important headwinds coming from Washington. A cap on prices has been since dropped, which is extremely beneficial for the long term. In addition, from a historical perspective, November and December are this ETF’s strongest months. The candidates for the Ash conference of biotechs will be announced this week which may prove to be yet another positive catalyst. We are long some $XBI calls for January and continue to hold our small bio spec play, $MBIO.
Closing (IRA): XBI November 19th 110 Short Puts... for a .13/contract debit.
Comments: Opened these for 1.71 credit/contract. (See Post Below). Closing here for .13 results in a realized gain of 1.58 ($158) per contract. Although this remains somewhat weak here, implied volatility isn't the greatest at around 28%, so decided not to roll it out; my preference is for weakness plus implied volatility in >35% in exchange-traded funds to take bullish assumption shots.