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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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Walmart - Management Has Talked Down The Stock- Part Two Of A Blog Posted Two Days Ago Called The Santa Clause Rally

I spoke about Walmart in my Santa Clause bog two blogs back. Here is what happened today. Let's start at 2:30 p.m. and look at the 150 Walmart Calls which expire at the end of the week with three full trading days still to go.
Now 33 minutes later.
Then this happened..
Then.
They closed at $1.98:00 That's not a bad move in 90 minutes. One Comment. People fear trading short term options. It's Tuesday and time value (the lenght of time it has unit it expires) was not an issue to have to think about. In some ways short term options is the best game in town. **** Did the rally carry over into Wednesday? Yes and no. Look at the high on the opening. It did pop.
The path forward is now not as clear.*** What happened the next day? There was a slight uptick on the opening.
You would of had to be quick to get out near the top. Here is how they closed the day.
I don't like this chart as much as the chart from the previous day. *** Call me timid. The stock and the options jumped the following day Dec.13th.
Note the open interest remained the same. All the volume was day traders. Look at the one day chart. Can you see how compelling it was to hop back in?

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