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A Random Walk In The Park On A Monday Morning. A Caution. Monday Mornings Are Often Not An Option Players Best Friend

Let's start with this. It's now 10:26 a.m. A bet on Caterpillar rebounding by the end of the week. There are no takers. Why have to watch the screen for the next four days in agony waiting for a rebound which if happens is just a "break even trade"? But Wait. I made a mistake. The market is actually now down 668 points. What else can we look at? Interactive Brokers. These kind of stocks always do poorly on days with the threat of margin calls. Yet there is something interesting about the printout I am about to show. It is that these options are "one-month-out" Calls. These longer term options trade differently than short term options. (these options trade in one month intervals). If the stock we are following stops it's freefall the value of the options will nudge up ten, fifteen or twenty percent. A seven dollar option Call might creep back up to $8.00 or $9.00 at which time it could be sold. In contrast with a five day option a slight reversal in ...
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"Caterpillar Calls" and a Thursday Morning Bounce"

Does playing "Caterpillar" options on Tuesdays ,Wednesdays and Thursdays give you enough time to make money? It can be a little bit scary because your fighting the issue of time values eating away at the cost of your options and you have to get the direction of which way you think the stock is going to go lined up properly. Buying in late in the day looking for morning bounces is one way to play it. I prefer Thursday and Friday plays on "Caterpillar". This week on Tuesday I purchased both the 237.50 series of Calls on "Caterpillar' and the 240 series of Calls. On Wednesday I was down 30% on my investment from the previous days purchases and on Thurday morning there was a bounce on the opening. I got out.
This little prinout says sell one contract, the 237.50 contract at $5.27 at 9:40.a.m. On the buy side I bought in on Tuesday at 3:47 p.m. and paid $2.22. Here is the ticket and here is another chart showing the bounce. ( My 240 Calls did equally as well, I bought the 237.50 contract as insurance after the 240 Calls were starting to disappoint on Tuesday).
How did I pick my exit point of 9:40 a.m.? That's always the really difficult part I struggle with and more often than not I get out to soon. In this case can you see how a second buying opportunity presented itself later in the afternoon. Why do I like "Caterpillar" Call and Put options? One of the reasons is that seldom does this stock have news releases. That's to me is a good thing.

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