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McDonalds Again And A Follow Up To Yesterday's Blog..

Some option traders on Friday mornings just want to be in and out in the first hour or so of trading on short term options they feel comfortable trading. In the second half of the day most of the action calms down. Take your winnings and run. McDonalds sold off a little bit yesterday afternoon and firmed up a bit towards the closing. Could this "mostly downtrend" continue? Here is a partial look at the opening bell's action, today a Friday however let us first look at how the stock traded yesterday. Now a look at it's trading pattern at 9:32.22 a.m. Now this, McDonald's jumps up $4.98 and the 317.50 Puts we followed yesterday which are now "out-of-the-money" acted accordingly. During the fist 2.22 minutes of trading they traded down to 34 dollars a contract. Now this. In the first three minutes of trading the stock jumped a bit and started to come off a touch. These Call options where not attacting all that much attention. The bid and ask jumped up ...
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Walmart Shines on Earnings Reports

Look at this chart.
It's the five day chart on Walmart leading into this morning's opening bell. Walmart releases it's second quarter eanings report before the opening bell. But wait, look at this chart.This wasn't that long ago. Walmart at times can stumble. Do consumers, hit by inflation have money to spend?
Now also look at this one.
My point is that if you guess the wrong way on Walmart you will get burnt. So now how are the cards stacked up this morning waiting for this earnings report? Here is a look at two close to the money Calls and Puts.
So here is what happened about twenty minutes after the opening bell.
The Puts got obliterated. The real winners were all the Call option purchasers who got in a few days ago. Here is how this option series closed the day.
Why did happen this way? In a way Walmart's results act as a barometer of how the U.S. economy is doing. It's mainstream in a different way than Costco. Opportunities to make a judgement call like this happen four times a year.

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