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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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Boeing - Towards Understanding How One Must Learn To Pick Your Battles.

A multitude of factors have kept Boeing down since my last blog about it in April. What happened this morning was a touch unusual. First the five-day and one-day chart.
Now this. Can you see the morning jump at 11:00 a.m.?
The top reason for looking for opportunities like this is that the weekends often wash away negative sentiments if only for a brief period. These are "out-of-the-money" Calls with 4.5 days of trading life in them. If they had only one or two days of trading life in them then the risk of trading them would be too great. Note how the volume of contracts traded greatly exceeded the open interest. Traders got in and out. Traders recognized a break-out pattern. What's going to happen next is anyone's guess. This is short-term options trading. Stocks in the 200.00 dollar price range offer more opportunities like this than stocks trading under $100.00. That's just the way it is. Let's now look at this morning's action in Fisker. It's a totally different option trading experience.
What happened to cause this jump?
Yes, their Call options popped. Two different types of trades, two different situations. How would anyone have any advance notice the Fisker news was about to happen? Would you want to be sitting in Fisker Calls when the stock has been disappointing for such a long time? Not really. In option trading, you have to learn how to pick your battles.

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