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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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A Surprise Caterpillar Jump on a Friday That Option Players Missed.

The action on Caterpillar on October 21st, 2022 defies logic. Here is it's five day chart showing Friday's action. Read On.
In the past I have said that it's stupid to be buying Call or Puts just before a Thursday's closing that expire the next day in anticipation of a rally or a sell off that day. The future market was down big time between 8:00a.m. and 9:00a.m. and then the markets opened flat and then took off. Look at how these for series on Caterpillar Calls traded on the day.
$.16 to $510.00
$.05 to $250.00
$.01 to a high of $.67. In hindsite, the tip off to this possibly happening was in the premarkets turning from negative to positive in a short period of time before the opening bell. This kind of action makes it difficult refocus. Now what I didn't show you was the 180 Calls. With the stock trading around 180 on the opening this is the option series you would expect most casual options traders to be playing. Look now at the suprisely low volume of trading on this series of Calls.
Only 146 contracts in this series traded on the day. Why didn't more players jump in?

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