price action I will let the other guy explain what he means by it, tape reading if you are old school.
As an update.... This $17.5 WMS trade was put to me. I then sold a $17.5 Jan covered call for $1.00 Today I closed the Jan covered call for $0.30, thus keeping $0.70. Thus my current BE price is $16.50. (Put credit $0.30 and call credit $0.70) I plan to sell a Jan $15 call if/when the credit pays $1.55 If the order is filled, my new BE price will be $14.95 Thus, essentially breaking even on a deal gone bad. I'd rather lose time than money. Although, I am losing out on money I could have earned during that unit of time, if the trade had not gone bad.
Further update.... part 2: Having closed my earlier one dollar, $17.5 Jan covered call trade above for $0.30 (keeping $0.70),... today I sold the Jan $15 covered call I discussed above for $1.50. Hence, my new break even price, on this initial deterioating $17.50 naked put trade, is now $15. If the stock is above $15 in Jan, my only loss will be the time I wasted, and my commissions. A small price to pay for a trade gone bad. If the stock is not excessively below $15 on exp day, I can still turn this trade into a profitable one, vs it's current BE status.