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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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Ford - An Earning Report

Ford is going electric, that's the buzz. We all know the story. Earnings just came out on the stock and the Call options jumped on the opening. If you were playing options you had to get out just after the opening. With option plays on earning reports that's usually the way to best way play them. First, I will show the prior day's action. There was a gap down on the opening and 94 million shares traded. That's a large number. People were cashing out after recent good times.
Now here is a chart of Ford the next day and here is how two option series traded. Buy in at the close and sell out just after the opening. Look at how high each series traded up to just after the opening. The earning numbers were not all that great but it's the buzz about going electric.
Ford is one of the better stocks out there to play earning report releases. ** Scroll up to the upper left and read my most recent blog on MacDonald's earning report.

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