WEEK OF 9/28: NON-EARNINGS PLAYS FOR PREMIUM SELLING OPPSAlthough we are starting back into another earnings season, I'm just not all that fond of earnings plays; I prefer the relative boredom of index ETF trades or things like sector SPDR's for the generation of steady income as opposed to flash-in-the-plan earnings plays which are generally binary in nature. They either work out quickly and dirtily or go horribly awry such that you have to devote buying power to managing a tested side post-earnings, potentially for several options cycles going forward.
Since I have a play already going in OIH (current IVR at 66), I'm looking to add either index ETF trades this coming week or, in the alternative, sector ETF trades that are not correlated to what I've already got on in my portfolio and that have sufficiently high IVR so that a premium selling play is attractive.
Looking at the Dough Grid with the drop-down menu set to "TastyTrade", XLV is a possible candidate, with an IVR currently at 62 ... .
POSSIBLE TRADE:
Nov 20th 59/61/72/74 Iron Condor
POP % -- 61%
Max Profit: .61 credit/contract
Buying Power Effect: 1.39/contract
Break-Evens: 60.39/72.61
Delta: -2.36/contract
Notes: The short put side of the setup is placed around the 1 SD; the long side, at the edge of the expected move to the topside for that expiration. Due to the price of the underlying, the spread of the wings is reduced to 2 strikes, although you can certainly expand the width to 3 strikes in order to harvest more credit from the trade. I wouldn't go wider than 3, however. Look to take off the entire setup at 50% max duration.
In all likelihood, the strikes may require a bit of adjustment at NY York open to accommodate overnight, broader index price movement.
XLV
S&P Sector Review - A Look at Relative PerformanceThe charts above show the performance of each sector relative to all nine sectors combined. XLK tech couldn't be included due to having only 8 panes but it was included in determining the sector ratios. Important to keep in mind that these are ratios, all prices could go lower or higher together but what I'm interested in here is purely the relative performance. Also, in order for one to outperform is ensuring that another sector somewhere is underperforming.
Top Row:
XLU Utilities, XLP Consumer staples, XLF financials and XLV Health are all breaking out on a relative basis. 3 of 4 can be considered defensive sectors. Financials are interesting in that the sector was completely demolished after the 2008 recession and appear to be breaking out of a 5 yr wedge.
Bottom Row:
XLE Energy issues are widely known. Not much to say other then its possible that they go lower longer term and return to previous levels (.10-.12 of the total). The "energy commodities are an asset class" theme may finally be unwound and if so XLE could suffer from underperformance for some time (oversold bounces excluded). XLB materials have not broken down yet but look quite vulnerable. XLY Consumer discretionary did break down and may have recently been saved by the plunge in oil. Any economic weakness and i suspect this will quickly revert and this sector could significantly underperform. XLI Industrials looks like it could break out but has not yet. The transportation portion of this sector has significantly helped this sector.
Summary:
XLU - breaking out upwards, 6 yr wedge
XLP - breaking out upwards, 6 yr wedge
XLF - breaking out upwards, 5 yr wedge
XLV - breaking upper trend line important since 2011
XLE - broke out down, 6 yr wedge, approaching possible long term support
XLB - approaching bottom trend line important since 2002
XLY - broke ascending wedge lower, recently bounced back towards 2013 highs
XLI - sitting at upper trend line that has been important since 2000
XLK - Not shown