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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 On the Last Trading Day Before Easter.

My most recent blog on Lucid was spot on. In this market with 400 point daily rallies playing Call options on stocks in the thirty dollar price range is the name of the game. I would however be remiss if I didn't point out the action in Caterpillar yesterday. Look at it's five day chart and look at how the Call options reacted. What a nice breakout.
I am not going to bore you with all the details however this is how one series of Caterpillar Calls traded on the day. Look at the low of.06 and look at the high $4.00. I have followed stock options for over forty years. This type of action on Caterpillar on a Friday might happen once every five years. Going back two or three years ago when Telsa was enjoying a growth spurt, Friday Call option trading on that stock made many option traders rich. Bear market option trades, something not really currently on our radar can also be super rewarding. People forget that stocks like Deere and Company can also sometimes drop thirty dollars in one day. Happy Easter.

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