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

Option traders on Friday mornings just want to be in and out in the first hour or so of trading on short term options. In the second half of the day most of the action calms down. McDonalds sold off a little bit yesterday afternoon and firmed up a bit towards the closing. Could this "mostly downward trend" continue? Here is a partial look at some of the opening bell's activity. Today is 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. The McDonald stock jumped up $4.98 and the 317.50 Puts we followed all day yesterday which are now "out-of-the-money" acted accordingly. They shrunk in value. 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 then started to come off a touch. These Call options where not attacting all that much attention. The bid and ask jumped up on no volume. ...
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A Four Minute Quick Read on Caterpillar To Help Make You A Better Caterpillar Option Trader

I don't like buying Call options on Monday morning that expire on Friday. I tend to find them to expensive. Something unusual happened this morning. There was an announcement. Here it is.
February 9th was a Thursday. I congratulate Caterpillar for holding off until the Monday after, today to release this news. Can you imagine announcing it last Friday at noon and having short term Call option holders getting wiped out. So what happened on the opening to Caterpillar today? It tanked.
It tanked however it rebounded as the index closed super strong.
Now look at how low the Calls traded on the opening and how they came back. I watched it happen but opted not to play it. They opened at $3.90 and dropped to $285.00 before they jumped up. It's not every Monday the D.J.I. rallies over 376 points.
Two thoughts. 1) Releasing this kind of news on a Monday morning shows shewardship. 2) I opted not to play it. I don't like buying one week Calls on a Monday morning. That's just me.

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