CAT Puts

Have you noticed in recent trading sessions how five dollar swings in some stocks in one day now seem to be the new norm? First lets look at Caterpillar. Look at all of the random five dollar daily price swings as of late. Now look at this, a look at today's action in the $387.50 series of Caterpillar Calls. Two details scream out at me. Look at how far apart the "bids and asks" are and secondly, look at how low the "open interest" numbers are. Sure you might get a fill if you split the difference between the "bid" and "ask" but it's going to take a five dollar move in the stocks price, in the correct direction in three trading sessions to cash out with any kind of a profit. It's not out of the question but it is a high risk trade. (It's earnings report comes out Oct. 28th which is to far out to impact the direction of this weeks trading).

Exxon's five day chart is obviously going in one direction. Or is it? Last Friday was a strong day for the markets and Exxon jumped up even more. Here we are now on a Monday morning and this week's Call and Put options are priced equally. Which one is going to win? As usual, there is more interest in the Calls than in the Puts. Let's also look at what might happen with Tesla this week. Oct 10th is now touted as being a "make or break day" for Tesla as it will be their "Robo-Taxi-Day". I am not a big fan of trying to play Tesla options with one week to go because their premiums are so expensive. As for Exxon, I would be more inclined to follow the direction of it's recent trend. Let's watch and see what happens. To be continued. 1) Obsevation #1 on a Monday morning. Look at this. Early into the morning trading the Puts have dropped down from the $1.80 level. Can you see how tight the "bids" and "asks" are. This helps to ma

Seasoned option traders are a clever breed. Why? Well they know how to avoid traps meaning they know how to stay away from dangerous situations. Look at this current situation. Deere got clobbered today, Thursday October 3th. Down $7.80 on the day. Look at this. What does this show? It shows the closing price of $3.30 that this series of slightly "in-the-money" Calls traded at, and it shows the number of contracts traded today on the day. Only eight. Once again, these are "in-the-money" Call options that expire tomorrow. Now this. A look at how these same Call options traded the next day, a Friday. Wouldn't you think that there might be some kind of a rebound after a stock dropped this much in one day? The high on the day for these Calls was $3.50 a contract, an increase of only twenty cents from the previous day. My point once again is that option traders are a special breed who stayed away and resisted the impluse of trying to recapture some of the $7.80 tha

The stakes are huge. Is Deere slipping? Here is it's five day chart. Could Deere slip to $412.00 on the opening? If it did, could it slip further? The chart looks to me like it wants to open lower. Could you grab some Call options on a weak opening and try to play it for a rebound? Does history repeat itself? Here are how the 417.50 series of Calls traded yesterday on Oct 1st. Can you see how they dipped on the opening and came charging back up? That's the kind of action option traders like to see. Look at how few contracts trade on a daily basis. Clearly trading Deere options is like skating on thin ice. To add some sort of prespective on todays action here is how the indexes traded today. Shown above was Deere's five day chart. Here now is a look at how Deere traded traded today. After a nervous start it showed some strenght in the early afternoon. Now a premarket look at Deere on Wednesday October 2nd. Look at these four stocks and look at the premarket bids and ask