Welcome to the new Traders Laboratory! Please bear with us as we finish the migration over the next few days. If you find any issues, want to leave feedback, get in touch with us, or offer suggestions please post to the Support forum here.
-
Welcome Guests
Welcome. You are currently viewing the forum as a guest which does not give you access to all the great features at Traders Laboratory such as interacting with members, access to all forums, downloading attachments, and eligibility to win free giveaways. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free. Create a FREE Traders Laboratory account here.
Search the Community
Showing results for tags 'weekly options'.
Found 5 results
-
A previous article on the diagonal spread trade pointed out how this strategy incorporates the best features of the vertical spread and the horizontal spread while avoiding some of the drawbacks of each. In the previous article and updates of that article, the diagonal spread trade was illustrated with Procter& Gamble (PG) call options. It was also discussed how the trade could be continued forward by utilizing weekly options. The discussion here provides a final update and conclusion of the diagonal spread. In early June with PG trading near $78, it was anticipated that the stock price might be moving up over the next six weeks in anticipation of a strong earning report on August 1. To guard against some time loss in a long call option while waiting for the stock to move up, a diagonal spread with PG call options was selected. Original Trade (6/11): Buy 1 July (monthly) 75 call for $3.60 and sell 1 June (monthly) 80 call for $.35 for a net cost of $3.25. First Continuation (6/21): With PG trading around $77.50, the June (monthly) 80 call expired worthless. The June (weekly exp 6/28) 80 call was sold for $.15, reducing the cost basis of the July (monthly) 75 call down to $3.10. Second Continuation (6/28): With PG trading around $77, the June (weekly exp 6/28) 80 call expired worthless. The July (weekly exp 7/5) 80 call was sold for $.10, reducing the cost basis of the July (monthly) 75 call down to $3.00. Third Continuation (7/5): With PG trading around $78.50, the July (weekly exp 7/5) 80 call expired worthless. The July (weekly exp 7/12) 80 call was sold for $.25, reducing the cost basis of the July (monthly) 75 call down to $2.75. Conclusion (7/12): During the week of July 8-12, there was a 4.1% surge in the price of PG stock which closed at $81.55 on Friday (7/12). With the July (weekly exp 7/12) 80 call in-the-money by $1.55, it was time to close the diagonal spread. Even though the long option in the diagonal spread still had another week before it expired, it was best to view the diagonal as a vertical spread that had achieved its maximum possible return. Under these circumstances, the only sensible action was to exit the trade. Near the close of trading on July 12, the diagonal spread could be closed for a net of $5.30. This included an extra $.30 of time value in the long call that still had another week before expiration. Using the cost basis of $2.75 going into the last week of the trade, the profit of $2.55 represented a yield of 93%. This PG trade was a good illustration of how the diagonal spread can utilize the best features of the horizontal and vertical spread strategies. Like a horizontal spread, it repeatedly captured premium from selling weekly options. Then when the stock price moved so that both legs were in-the-money, the diagonal spread functioned like a vertical spread that had achieved its maximum profit. ************************* ************************* ************************* ************************* Dr. Olmstead can be found at http://www.olmsteadoptions.com, an on-line options trading site, centered around options education and trading strategies he’s developed. He is Professor of Applied Mathematics at Northwestern University, author of the popular and highly-praised options book, Options for the Beginner and Beyond (2006) and former chief strategist for The Options Professor on-line newsletter, distributed by Zacks.com and Forbes.com. Share . -
Our previous article on the diagonal spread trade pointed out how this strategy incorporates the best features of the vertical spread and the horizontal spread while avoiding some of the drawbacks of each. In the previous article, the diagonal spread trade was illustrated with Procter & Gamble (PG) call options. It was also discussed how the trade could be continued forward by utilizing weekly options. The discussion here provides an update on the original diagonal spread and indicates how it could be continued forward toward the July 19 expiration date. In early June with PG trading near $78, it was anticipated that the stock price might be moving up over the next six weeks in anticipation of a strong earning report on August 1. To guard against some time loss in a long call option while waiting for the stock to move up, a diagonal spread with PG call options was selected. Original Trade (6/11): Buy 1 July (monthly) 75 call for $3.60 and sell 1 June (monthly) 80 call for $.35 for a net cost of $3.25. First Continuation (6/21): With PG trading around $77.50, the June (monthly) 80 call expired worthless. The June (weekly exp 6/28) 80 call was sold for $.15, reducing the cost basis of the July (monthly) 75 call down to $3.10. Second Continuation (6/28): With PG trading around $77, the June (weekly exp 6/28) 80 call expired worthless. The July (weekly exp 7/5) 80 call was sold for $.10, reducing the cost basis of the July (monthly) 75 call down to $3.00. Third Continuation (7/5): With PG trading around $78.50, the July (weekly exp 7/5) 80 call will expired worthless. The July (weekly exp 7/12) 80 call was sold for $.25, reducing the cost basis of the July (monthly) 75 call down to $2.75. Outlook (7/5 to 7/19): By selling weekly calls every Friday beginning with 6/21, the original cost of the July (monthly) call has been reduced from $3.60 down to $2.75 while waiting for the price of PG stock to move up. This continuation with weekly options has produced a profit when simply holding the long Jul 75 would currently reflect a small loss. Moreover, it has not been necessary to abandon the original viewpoint that PG stock would make a move up as we progress toward the expiration our July 75 call on 7/19. By continuing the diagonal spread with the selling of weekly options, sufficient compensation has been achieved to offset the time value lost in the long July (monthly) call. If at any time along the way, there had been a surge in the PG stock price to a level above $80, the diagonal spread could have been closed for a nice profit. Selling weekly options also allowed for a frequent re-evaluation of the long position to see if an early exit seemed appropriate. ****************************************************************************************************** Dr. Olmstead can be found at http://www.olmsteadoptions.com, an on-line options trading site, centered around options education and trading strategies he’s developed. He is Professor of Applied Mathematics at Northwestern University, author of the popular and highly-praised options book, Options for the Beginner and Beyond (2006) and former chief strategist for The Options Professor on-line newsletter, distributed by Zacks.com and Forbes.com.
-
Shareholders are naturally concerned as the date of an earnings report for their favorite stock draws near. Stocks often experience their biggest declines in price after an earnings report fails to meet the expectations of investors. The recent price action in Apple Inc (AAPL) is a perfect illustration. This widely held stock lost more than 12% of its value following its most recent report. Now that many stocks have weekly options, there are new strategies available for earnings report protection. Weekly options can provide low-cost, short-term insurance to lock in a minimum sale price of a stock that is potentially vulnerable to an earnings setback. It has always been possible to use monthly put options to protect the price of a stock through the date of the company’s earnings report. The problem with monthly puts is that they can be quite expensive, particularly when the options expiration date is substantially later than the earnings report. Weekly options are cheaper and offer more flexibility in providing short-term protection. Not all stocks have weekly options, but when they are available, it is prudent to know how to employ them to circumvent an earnings report disaster. There is a cheap but effective strategy to protect the stock price through its earnings report by using a combination of weekly options. It is easiest to present this protective strategy as a combination of two separate trades. The first trade is the purchase of a weekly put option that expires on the closest Friday following the earnings report. For every 100 shares of stock, buy one contract with a strike price that is slightly below the current stock price. While this short-term, protective put provides for a minimum sale price of the stock, it may still seem relatively expensive because option prices often inflate ahead of an earnings report. A second trade is implemented to lower the cost basis of the protective put. The second trade uses weekly options that expire one week prior to the expiration date of the protective put. For every 100 shares of stock, sell one call contract with a strike price above the current stock price. Also sell an equal number of put contracts with a strike price that is one strike below that of the protective put. The premium received from the sale of these options will substantially lower the cost basis of the protective put. It is typically best to do these two trades about two weeks prior to the earnings report date. It is important to understand what has been achieved with these trades. The long stock together with the short call represents a covered call position. The long protective put together the short put represents a diagonal time spread. There is no margin requirement associated with either of these positions. Since the stock price tends to remain in a relatively narrow range prior to the earnings date, it is expected that both of the short options will expire worthless on the Friday prior to the earnings report date. This leaves the protective put in place for full effect through the following week. If the stock price falls significantly after the earnings report, there are two alternatives available to the shareholder. For those who are no longer interested in owning the stock, it can be liquidated at the strike price associated with the protective put. Some shareholders may want to maintain their stock position even after a pull back in price, in which case the protective put can be sold for a profit to offset most of the lost value in the stock. If the stock price soars after the report, the protective put will expire worthless, but there is no cap on the profit that can be achieved by the stock. Some comments are in order regarding the unexpected cases in which the stock price will have moved sufficiently (up or down) during the week before the earnings report that one of the short options will be in-the-money as its expiration date arrives. If the stock price is above the strike price of the short call, the shareholder can either buy back the short call and wait for the earning report or allow the stock to be called away for a profit. If the stock price is below the strike price of the short put, the short call will expire worthless and the diagonal put spread can be sold for a profit. In this latter case, the stock will no longer be protected through the earnings report. Dr. Olmstead can be found at http://www.olmsteadoptions.com, an on-line options trading site, centered around options education and trading strategies he’s developed. He is Professor of Applied Mathematics at Northwestern University, author of the popular and highly-praised options book, Options for the Beginner and Beyond (2006) and former chief strategist for The Options Professor on-line newsletter, distributed by Zacks.com and Forbes.com.
-
Dr. W. Edward Olmstead Olmstead Options Trading Strategies Now that many stocks have weekly options, there are new strategies available to protect the price of a stock following an earnings report. Stocks often experience their biggest declines in price after an earnings report fails to meet the expectations of investors. Weekly options can offer cheap, short-term insurance to lock in a minimum sale price of a stock that might be vulnerable to an earnings setback. It has always been possible to use monthly put options to protect the price of a stock through the date of the company’s earnings report. The problem with monthly puts is that they can be quite expensive, particularly when the expiration date is substantially later than the earnings report. Weekly options are cheaper and offer more flexibility in providing short-term protection. Not all stocks have weekly options, but when a stock does have them, it is prudent to know how to employ them to circumvent an earnings report disaster. A timely illustration of a protective options strategy will be presented for Facebook Inc (FB), which has its next earnings report on January 23. FB stock is currently trading around $26, which represents a nice 30% increase since mid-November. With the company’s earnings report scheduled for January 23, there is concern about losing those recent gains if the report is less than spectacular. Let’s explore an inexpensive strategy to protect the price of FB by using a combination of weekly options. This protective strategy assumes the ownership of 100 shares of FB stock. While this trade may be appropriate for the protection of FB stock purchased at any price, it is designed primarily for stock purchased below the level of $25 per share. It is easiest to present this protective strategy as a combination of two separate trades. The first trade is the purchase of a weekly put that expires two days after the FB earnings report. For 100 shares of FB stock, buy one contract of the Jan 25.5 put that has an expiration date of January 25. The current cost of this put is $1.65 per share. This put will allow you to liquidate your stock for $25.50 per share if the earnings report on January 23 leads to a collapse of the FB stock price. The second part of the strategy is intended to lower the cost basis of the long Jan 25.5 put. In this second trade, sell one contract of the Jan 29 call and one contract of the Jan 24 put, each of which expires on January 18 (these particular weekly options coincide with the monthly options). Currently, the premium received from the sale of these two options is $.75 per share. This sale will reduce the cost basis of long put from $1.65 per share down to $.90 per share. The recent price range of FB stock will likely hold for the next few weeks leading up to the earnings report on January 23. This suggests that the short Jan 29 call and short Jan 24 put will expire worthless on January 18, five days before the earnings report. The residual option position will be long one Jan 25.5 put with a cost basis of $.90 per share that is valid through the week of January 21-25. With the FB earnings report on January 23, there will be two full days after the report to observe the response of the stock price. If the price of FB stock falls significantly after the report, the stockholder will have the choice of either (I) liquidating the stock at $25.5 per share or (ii) selling the Jan 25.5 put for a profit that will offset some of the loss in the stock price. Of course, it is possible that the price of FB stock will be either above $29 or below $24 when the expiration date of the short options arrives on January 18. If the stock price is above $29, the short put will expire worthless and the stock holder can choose to either buy back the short call or allow the stock to be called away for a nice profit. If the stock price is below $24, the short call will expire worthless and the diagonal spread composed of the long Jan 25.5 put and short Jan 24 put can be sold for a profit. While this weekly options strategy was presented as a protection for actual shares of FB stock, it applies equally well for an options position that represents synthetic stock. In an August 2012 blog entry (with follow up commentary), I presented an options approach to safely construct a synthetic long stock position in FB. The protection strategy presented here can be used in conjunction with that synthetic holding. Dr. Olmstead can be found at http://www.olmsteadoptions.com, an on-line options trading site, centered around options education material and option trading strategies he’s developed. He is Professor of Applied Mathematics at Northwestern University, author of the popular and highly-praised options book, Options for the Beginner and Beyond (2006) and former chief strategist for The Options Professor on-line newsletter, distributed by Zacks.com and Forbes.com.
-
Dr. W. Edward Olmstead Olmstead Options Trading Strategies The basic goal of a calendar spread (also called a horizontal spread) is to sell a near-term option to collect premium in order to lower the cost basis of a longer-term option with the same strike price. The calendar spread can done with either calls or puts. The basic concept for this trade to be profitable is that the near-term option will lose all of its time value while the longer-term option retains a significant portion of its time value. Unfortunately, the profitability of this strategy also requires the price of the underlying stock to be sufficiently close to the common strike price as the near-term option reaches its expiration date. In the traditional version of the calendar spread, a front-month option is sold against a more distant monthly option with the same strike price. Holding this version of the trade for several weeks while waiting for the front-month option to lose its time value can become very frustrating as you watch the price of the underlying stock drift far from the common strike price into a range that is likely to produce a loss at expiration. Now that weekly options have become available on many stocks (and ETF’s), there are new opportunities for the calendar spread trader. It is no longer necessary for the near-term option in a calendar spread to be the front-month option. The short, near-term option could be a weekly option that expires in nine days or less. While a smaller premium is received from selling a weekly option, there are some compensating features that make this new version of a calendar spread worthy of consideration. By selling a weekly option, the opportunity to exit the trade arrives much sooner. When all of the time value in the weekly option has quickly decayed to zero, very little time value will have been lost in the long-term option. This offers the possibility of a quick exit for a profit that might be small, but also frees up capital to move on to a new trade. Even though a smaller premium is received from selling the weekly option, the possibility of repeating the process over 3-4 weeks could easily provide a total premium in excess of that received from the one-time selling of a front-month option. Here again there is the opportunity to close the trade at the end of any week in which it appears unwise to continue holding the long position. With a weekly option as the near-term component in the calendar spread, it becomes easier to convert the calendar spread into a diagonal spread. As one weekly option expires, it may be advantageous to roll into a new weekly option with a strike price that is further out-of-the-money. This might open up the opportunity for a bigger long-term profit if the price of the underlying stock keeps moving in a direction that favors the long-term option. There are currently well over 100 stocks and ETFs that trade weekly options. Popular stocks that have weekly options include, AAPL, AMZN, FB, GOOG, JNJ, QCOM and YHOO. Heavily traded index ETFs with weekly options include DIA, IWM, QQQ and SPY. Your broker should be able to provide a complete list. Dr. Olmstead can be found at http://www.olmsteadoptions.com, an on-line options trading site, centered around options education material and option trading strategies he’s developed. He is Professor of Applied Mathematics at Northwestern University, author of the popular and highly-praised options book, Options for the Beginner and Beyond (2006) and former chief strategist for The Options Professor on-line newsletter, distributed by Zacks.com and Forbes.com.