Looks like I missed an entire selling day yesterday with the SP500 breaking below that 200-day ma. I still hold all the positions I had on Friday through yesterday. I'm adding NFLX 300 calls this morning, but closing out the JPM calls. Still no real news on NFLX, but that one keeps falling in sympathy to the other FANG stocks. I still like it here.
Took some losses getting out of MSFT and NFLX calls today on the drop in trade wars. Right now, short term small positions are the only way to play this market. I'm testing that using BA weekly 325 calls at 3.10 avg to see if momentum carries BA back to $330. Again small positions using 2 calls only. Just looking for a quick run to $330. If it hits today I'll close out, and if it hits tomorrow, then I'll close it out tomorrow.
I finished last quarter with $36800. Carried over 2 positions that I'm still holding (HES May 50 calls and DKS Apr 35 calls). I've seen both swing from big losses back to near break even. The HES is actually showing a nice gain of +600 now. As for the BA 325 calls I added yesterday, they have popped this morning and I closed out this position as BA has jumped past my target of $330. Before locking profits on BA, I was looking at -2600 for the week, but I've cut that down to -1010 loss for the week. At this point, I've got to expect more volatility, but opportunities are there so I'll look to add more short term position where needed. Added NFLX Apr wk1 295 calls here on the rally move above $295. We'll see if that $300 target is met at end of day.
I added FB Apr wk2 160 call this morning at avg 3.10 price. Still holding NFLX and if it hits $300, I'll be looking to exit. Either way, I'll exit at end of day as those options expire today. AS for FB, I'll look for $165 by Tuesday. If that doesn't happen, I'm out either way by Tuesday afternoon.
The MULE trade was an excellent one. Congratulations! I was monitoring too the option activity and I saw a strong bullish activity on this underlying past the mid-day, but most of the move was already and so I din't enter. You seem to have had instead a much better timing than anyone else. If you don't mind me asking, where you already monitoring this stock because rumors had been there for a while or do you subscribe to a service that allows a pre-screen of the underlyings to keep an eye on? Congrats again and keep up the good work!
Well, this correction hasn't been helping much. As for the MULE trade, I find that you don't need to subscribe to crazy newsletters to find this kind of rumor. I use cnbc. It's practically free if you have schwab, but I've got spectrum cable and have it there too. It always starts as rumors, and the rumors that actually show up on cnbc become strong rumors. In fact, most of those rumors do end up in some kind of merger announcements. Throughout the years, what I've learned is that most mergers below $15B will be nearly all cash acquisitions and are the ones that moves the stock prices the most. There are a few big ones that can move the stock prices of the seller, but nothing like those all cash deals. MULE was a close one, so it played more like a cash deal. I use the rumors on cnbc to pull up the seller and look for news on the deal. I'll look at the rumored price and calculate that with current price to see what kind of an advantage I might have. A lot of times I'll miss out because the deal came out as a surprise, but there are still many more where you actually have time to jump in before the deal closes. After the rumor is out, I usually have a couple days at best to get into the stock before actual news comes out and the stock explodes. In general, if the rumor comes out on Monday-Wednesday, then the actual report can occur that same week. If you are getting rumors towards the end of the week, then look for the actual deal on Sunday to Monday. MULE was the most recent, but I've been in PNRA, PLKI, and STRP last year. And some like STRP will give you multiple days to jump in when there's a bidding war. My advice is never jump in too early. Wait for that early frenzy to die off, and it will. My position on MULE was slow, I initially took a small position after it slowed down and then added more throughout the day only because the rumors I read suggested the report would come out soon (as early as end of week).
These short term trades are killing me. I'm switching to long term that is working right now, and that is the oil sector. Added COP after watching it on cnbc. I already have HES, but I wanted a little more exposure in oil since nothing else seems to be working for more than 2 days. Bought COP May 60 calls today at avg. $2.71. Long term play, stock breakout of chart pattern base. First target is $65, then I'll update my research on it. I had to hold my tongue on HES for about 2 weeks before it finally started paying off last week. Hopefully, this one goes faster.
Nothing new today, was tempted to try FB but too much volatility today. Instead, I watched the oil sector move higher almost like it's the new leader in this market. That's how it felt like for the oil positions I held today. Aside from HES and COP both breaking out of bases, there were a few other oil and gas stocks that broke out. A few of the other smaller oil stocks are also breaking out like HFC and WRD. While the other sectors are still in correction mode, the oil and gas sector does seem to be taking the lead here. It'll be interesting to see how things turn out in a couple of weeks for this sector. I hate that this sector is leading because the last time this sector was leading was in 2007. Almost feels like the cycle has come full circle.