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Archive for the ‘Monthly Options’ Category

CRM Earnings Trade In PEA Picker Portfolio

Tuesday, May 21st, 2013

Today we placed the following orders in the PEA Picker portfolio at Terry’s Tips (this is the portfolio that has enjoyed eight consecutive gaining plays without a loss).

May 21, 2013 Trade Alert – PEA Picker Portfolio – LIMIT ORDER

I wrote a Seeking Alpha article about this play if you are interested – How To Play The Salesforce.com Earnings Annou…

In this article I suggested buying June options for the long side but I have since noticed that the July options are less than $.50 more expensive and seem to have tighter bid-ask ranges.  These spreads should make a gain in either direction as long as the stock fluctuates less than 10% in either direction (from its current price of $46.50) after the announcement, assuming that IV of the July options will only fall by 8 (from 36 to 28):

BTO 8 CRM Jul-13 50 puts (CRM130720P50)
STO 8 CRM May4-13 47.5 puts (CRM130524P47.5) for a debit limit of $2.48  (buying a diagonal)

BTO 5 CRM Jul-13 50 calls (CRM130720C50)
STO 5 CRM May4-13 50 calls (CRM130524C50) for a debit limit of $.78  (buying a calendar) 

Happy trading.
 
Terry

Eight Consecutive Successful Earnings Plays and What We Learned

Friday, May 17th, 2013

Note: There is a lot of valuable information in this report for anyone who trades stock options.  It will take you about 15 minutes to read, but that investment in your time could be worth thousands of dollars to you down the line.  I hope you will read it thoroughly all the way to the end.

On April’s Fools Day in 2013, we opened a new $5000 portfolio at Terry’s Tips.  We thought that might be a lucky day to start.  For several months we had been studying what happens just before and after a company announces their quarterly earnings, and this portfolio was designed to put our observations to work.

The biggest thing we discovered in our analysis was that the post-announcement change in the stock price was determined more by market expectations prior to the announcement than the actual earnings themselves.  If you have played in the stock market for any length of time, you surely have lived through an earnings announcement when your favorite company exceeded estimates on all scores, and the stock fell on the news.  That really hurts, and I’m sure we all have felt it.

We have concluded that it is all due to what the market was expecting vs. its experience of the actual earnings.

Most of the time, we measured expectations by what the stock had done in the weeks leading up to the announcement and the difference between what analysts predicted earnings would be and the whisper numbers (we also check out RSI numbers to see if the stock is particularly over-sold or over-bought, and recent company performance at earnings time related to results vs. estimates). 

When the stock has had a big run-up before the announcement and whisper numbers were greater than analyst expectations, we concluded that expectations were uncomfortably high, and the least disappointment in the announcement (concerning earnings, revenues, margins, or guidance) might result in the stock trading lower even if the company surpassed earnings by a comfortable margin.

We called it the PEA Picker portfolio (PEA stands for Pre-Earnings Announcement).  We restricted the companies that we would consider to those which traded Weeklys approximately 160).  We eliminated companies trading for less than $20 because option prices were typically not attractive enough for our purposes. We ended up with about 100 companies which are the most actively-traded and have the most liquid option markets (i.e., small bid – ask spreads and the assurance that decent spread prices could be executed). 

Even more important, we could trade out of them on the Friday following the announcement, just a few days after placing our trades.  This eliminated being concerned about the long-run prospects for the company and put us in cash at the end of the week so we could invest in another company in the following week.  We like near-instant gratification on our trades, bad or good, and we like to sleep over the weekend with no positions in place (most of the time).

In addition to checking recent stock price action and whisper numbers, we looked carefully at the last four earnings reports to see what happened, and to the most recent RSI numbers to learn if the stock were unusually over-bought or over-sold.  Some companies consistently exceeded expectations and their stock fell after the announcement while others merely met expectations and the stock moved higher. 

Many times we were able to detect patterns that helped us decide which option spreads we would use.  One pattern was that big moves after announcements tended to be reversed at the next announcement (or more often, big moves were rarely followed by big moves in the same direction at the next announcement).

The day after the PEA Picker portfolio was set up, we issued the following Trade Alert.  By the way, this portfolio is carried out in an actual TD Ameritrade/thinkorswim portfolio and all commissions are included at the special rate offered to Terry’s Tips Insiders.  All of the Trade Alerts in this report are actual emails that were sent to Terry’s Tips Insiders and to thinkorswim so they could execute trades through Auto-Trade.  Our account is set up through Auto-Trade so every trade reported here was exactly duplicated in the accounts of all our subscribers who set up through Auto-Trade at thinkorswim.

This first trade involved buying a straddle which we bought before the Weeklys which expired on the Friday after the announcement were available.  This not the usual way we set up PEA Plays but we do it sometimes, obviously.

We had decided that expectations were unusually low and the stock would head higher after the announcement, but the first trade was neutral (it would make money if the stock headed either way, just as long as it moved).

April 2, 2013  Trade Alert -  PEA Picker  Portfolio

J.P. Morgan (JPM) announces earnings next week and the Weeklys that become available on Thursday will be the options with the escalated implied volatility (IV).  We will establish some long positions before that time.  The stock is trading very close to $48 right now so the straddle price is at its lowest.  The straddle might gain for two reasons – first, leading up to an announcement the stock quite often moves (usually higher), and second, implied volatility (IV) of the monthly options usually moves higher once the Weeklys become available:

BTO (Buy To Open) 20 JPM Apr-13 48 calls (JPM130420C48)
BTO 20 JPM Apr-13 48 puts (JPM130420P48) for a debit of $1.88  (buying a straddle) 

Two days later, we issued the following:

April 4, 2013  Trade Alert #2 -  PEA Picker  Portfolio

There are many reasons to believe that the stock is headed higher after earnings and we are currently negative net delta.  This trade will make us long:

STO (Sell To Open) 15 JPM Apr2-13 47 puts (JPM130420P47) for $.58

We held these positions (which cost us a net $2041) until shortly before earnings were to be announced after the close on April 10.  The stock had moved about two dollars higher as we had anticipated.  We issued the following:

April 10, 2013  Trade Alert -  PEA Picker  Portfolio

The stock moved up almost $2 and IV also moved up. We have a nice gain here so we might as well take it rather than waiting for more (or maybe less) once earnings are reported:

BTC 15 JPM APR2-13 47 puts (JPM130412P47)
STC 15 JPM Apr-13 48 puts (JPM130420P48) for a credit of $.25  (selling a diagonal)

STC 5 JPM Apr-13 48 puts (JPM130420P48) for $.30

STC 20 JPM Apr-13 48 calls (JPM130420C48) for $1.74

 
This first PEA Play was a little complicated (future ones will make more sense, I promise).  You can see that we sold the original straddle (which had cost us $1.88) for a total of $2.04 ($1.74 + $.30).  It is not so clear to see that the 15 Apr2-13 47 puts we had sold for $.58 were bought back for only $.05 (this was where most of our gain was).  After commissions, we made a profit of $789 on our $2061 investment, or about 38% of the money we had invested.  The portfolio as a whole had gained only 15.8% because we had invested only about 40% of the cash at our disposal.
The next week featured the Google (GOOG) announcement. We noticed that the GOOG options were expecting a move of 12.3% yet the average post-announcement move had historically been only 6.7%.  (You can calculate the percentage change that the options are predicting by adding up the time premium of the at-the-money Weekly put and call and dividing that total by the stock price.)  While we would have liked to sell the straddle short, that is not possible in an IRA account, and we do not make any trades for our subscribers which cannot be executed in an IRA.
Our choice was to buy diagonal spreads at strikes both comfortably above and below the stock price.  We issued the following:

April 15, 2013  Trade Alert -  PEA Picker  Portfolio
This is a small bet that Google will not deviate by more than $40 from its present level of $790 after this week’s announcement:

BTO 1 GOOG May-13 785 put (GOOG130518P785)
STO 1 GOOG Apr-13 765 put (GOOG130420P765) for a debit of $13.51  (buying a diagonal)

BTO 1 GOOG May-13 820 call (GOOG130518C820)
STO 1 GOOG Apr-13 830 call (GOOG130429C830) for a debit of $8.02  (buying a diagonal)

The total amount invested here was $2158 including commissions.

Again, these trades are a little unlike our usual PEA Plays, but the key point is that the stock would have to fall by $25 before the short 765 puts would have any value.  If the stock fell by that much, or more, the May-13 785 put would be worth at least $2000 more than the short put value (and there would still be some value in the May-13 820 call), so there would be a gain no matter how far the stock might fall.

If the stock were to move $40 higher, the 830 call would have some value, but the May-13 820 call will always be worth at least $1000 more than the 830 short call (and actually, quite a bit more because the option would be very close to the money and there would be a full month of time remaining in that option).  In short, it appeared that a gain would come no matter how high the stock might go.  However, while these spreads gave us excellent protection if there was a large move in either direction, if the stock didn’t move much there was the possibility of a loss.  We corrected that three days later when we issued the following Trade Alert:

April 18, 2013  Trade Alert -  PEA Picker  Portfolio

The stock has fallen more than $20 since we placed the first spreads.  This is an indication that expectations have dwindled, and the stock might move higher.  These trades will give us a little more upside protection in case it rallies and also protects the mid-range from the extremes of the diagonal spreads we placed earlier:

BTO 1 GOOG May-13 780 call (GOOG130518C780)
STO 1 GOOG Apr-13 780 call (GOOG130429C780) for a debit of $4.60  (buying a calendar)

BTO 1 GOOG May-13 790 call (GOOG130518C790)
STO 1 GOOG Apr-13 790 call (GOOG130429C790) for a debit of $4.75  (buying a calendar)

The stock ended up trading between $780 and $790, just where these calendar spreads would do best.  We sold them for $11.52 and $11.80, well more than doubling our money on those spreads.  We lost a little money on the original diagonal spreads, closing out the puts for $15.92 and the calls for $3.90 (for a total of $19.82 compared to our cost of $21.53).

We lost $176 on the diagonal spreads and gained $1392 on the calendar spreads, making the total gain after commissions for the week a healthy $1216 on an investment of $3,098, or 39%.  We plan to make similar investments with Google options in July when the next earnings announcement is scheduled.

Next up was the eBay earnings announcement.  This occurred during the same week as the Google play, and we had spare cash we could put to use:

April 16, 2013  Trade Alert -  PEA Picker  Portfolio

eBay is flirting with a new high and whisper numbers exceed estimates.  This level of expectation usually results in a flat or lower stock price after the announcement, and this spread should make gains if the stock rises moderately or falls by any amount:

BTO 10 EBAY May-13 60 calls (EBAY130518C60)
STO 10 EBAY Apr-13 57.5 calls (EBAY130420C57.5) for a credit of $.16  (buying a diagonal)

This spread required a maintenance requirement of $2500 (less the $160 received).

The stock did manage to fall, and by quite a bit, the Apr-13 57.5 calls expired worthless and we were only able to sell the May-13 60 calls for $.07 ($70) so we managed to make a small gain of $230 less $75 commissions on our eBay play (7%).

The portfolio value had soared to $7,187 in its first two weeks of trading.  We withdrew $2000 from the portfolio so that Terry’s Tips subscribers could follow PEA Picker trades for about $5000 (either through Auto-Trade at thinkorswim where they don’t have to place any trades themselves, or on their own if they preferred another broker).

Next up was Apple (trading at about $405):

April 22, 2013  Trade Alert -  PEA Picker  Portfolio – limit orders

Expectations for Apple seem to be unusually low and when earnings are announced after the close tomorrow there is a good chance that it will trade higher:

BTO 5 AAPL May-13 410 calls (AAPL130518C410)
STO 5 AAPL Apr4-13 410 calls (AAPL130426C410) for a debit limit of $3.85  (buying a calendar)

BTO 5 AAPL May-13 420 calls (AAPL130518C410)
STO 5 AAPL Apr4-13 420 calls (AAPL130426C410) for a debit limit of $3.65  (buying a calendar) 

The stock did move higher and the next day we issued the following:

April 23, 2013  Trade Alert -  PEA Picker  Portfolio

The stock has moved up $15 since we bought our spreads.  We should use our remaining cash to add on another calendar at a higher strike:

BTO 4 AAPL May-13 430 calls (AAPL130518C430)
STO 4 AAPL Apr4-13 430 calls (AAPL130426C430) for a debit limit of $3.16  (buying a calendar) 

The stock closed at $417.20 on Friday.  We sold the 430 spread for $3.14 (incurring a loss of $28 after commissions), the 420 spread for $6.86 and the 410 spread for $4.66, both at nice gains totaling $1960 after commissions.  Net gain for the trades was $1982 on an investment of $5049, or 39%. 

The portfolio value had climbed to $7062 and it was time to withdraw another $2000 from the portfolio to allow new Terry’s Tips subscribers to follow it for about the starting value of $5000.

Next up was Storage Technology (STX):

May 1, 2013  Trade Alert -  PEA Picker  Portfolio

There are a lot of reasons to believe that Seagate (STX) will move higher after today’s announcement following the close.  The company has exceeded expectations every quarter for the last year and sells at a trailing p/e of only 6.4 in spite of consistent growth and a 4.2% dividend.  The company is aggressively buying back shares – in the last six months of 2012, it reduced the outstanding shares by 9.5% and has plans to continue buying back shares.  Whisper numbers are higher than analyst expectations ($1.31 vs. $1.19) but the shares are trading lower than they were three weeks ago which suggests that expectations are not unusually high.  These positions should make gains if the stock falls only a small amount or goes up by any reasonable amount:

BTO 4 STX Jun-13 37 calls (STX130622C37)
STO 4 STX May1-13 36.5 calls (STX130503C36.5) for a debit of $.44  (buying a diagonal)

BTO 4 STX Jun-13 37 calls (STX130622C37) for $1.66

BTO 4 STX Jun-13 37 calls (STX130622C37)
STO 4 STX May1-13 37 calls (STX130503C37) for a debit of $.68  (buying a calendar)
 
BTO 8 STX Jun-13 38 calls (STX130622C38)
STO 8 STX May1-13 38 calls (STX130503C38) for a debit of $.66  (buying a calendar)

BTO 8 STX Jun-13 34 puts (STX130622P34)
STO 8 STX May1-13 34 puts (STX130503P34) for a debit of $.78  (buying a calendar)

The next day the stock moved up over a dollar and we wanted to get a little longer so we placed these trades:

May 2, 2013  Trade Alert -  PEA Picker  Portfolio – limit orders

This trade will pick up a little premium and make us neutral net delta:

BTC 4 STX May1-13 36.5 calls (STX130503C36.5)
STO 4 STX May1-13 39.5 calls (STX130503C39.5) for a debit limit of $2.45  (buying a vertical)

We will take these spreads off:

BTC 4 STX May1-13 37 calls (STX130503C37)
STC 4 STX Jun-13 37 calls (STX130622C37) for a credit limit of $.50  (selling a calendar)

BTC 8 STX May1-13 34 puts (STX130503P34) for a limit of $.01 (no commission)

STC 8 STX Jun-13 34 puts (STX130622P34) for a limit of $.31

Note: thinkorswim does not charge a commission when you buy back short options for $.05 or less.

These were our closing transactions:

May 3, 2013  Trade Alert -  PEA Picker  Portfolio – limit orders

We need to close these out today:

BTC 8 STX May1-13 38 calls (STX130503C38)
STC 8 STX Jun-13 38 calls (STX130622C38) for a credit limit of $.37  (selling a calendar)

BTC 4 STX May1-13 39.5 calls (STX130503C39.5)
STC 4 STX Jun-13 37 calls (STX130622C37) for a credit limit of $2.68  (selling a diagonal)

STC 4 STX Jun-13 37 calls (STX130622C37) for $4.45

The stock had shot up 11% after announcing earnings.  While we correctly guessed the direction of the change, we didn’t quite expect it would be that large.  We lost money on all the spreads we had placed, but the four extra uncovered Jun-13 37 calls rose enough to cover all the losses.  It was our worst week so far.  We gained only $161 which worked out to be 6.4% on our investment and 3.2% on the portfolio value.

Next up was Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (GMCR), a company I have followed since its founding since I live in Vermont and have played tennis regularly with the founder (now ex-chairman) of the company (no, he never gives me any tips, darn it).  I have made a great deal of money betting on the company this year (while it has risen nearly four-fold from its low).  I wrote a Seeking Alpha article outlining why I believed that the company would exceed estimates on earnings but the stock might be flat or fall a little after the announcement – How To Play The Green Mountain Coffee Roaster…

This is the trade I recommended in that article:

May 6, 2013  Trade Alert -  PEA Picker  Portfolio

As we indicated in the Saturday Report, we will make this trade:

BTO 12 GMCR Jun-13 52.5 calls (GMCR130622C52.5)
STO 12 GMCR May2-13 57 calls (GMCR130510C57) for a debit of $3.78 (buying a diagonal) 

Two days later, my prognosis of the earnings was right on the money, but the company unexpectedly announced a new five-year deal with Starbucks which removed much of the uncertainty about the company.  The stock soared by 25%!

If this announcement had not been made I feel certain that our spread would have gained about 50%, but with such a huge gain in the stock, we had to settle for less:

May 9, 2013  Trade Alert -  PEA Picker  Portfolio – limit order

The stock has gone up so far that we can expect to collect little more than the intrinsic value of this spread:

BTC 12 GMCR May2-13 57 calls (GMCR130510C57)
STC 12 GMCR Jun-13 52.5 calls (GMCR130622C52.5) for a credit limit of $4.53  (selling a diagonal)

We “only” made 18.5% after commissions for the trades.  The wonderful thing about options is that you can be wrong and still make a gain much of the time, as we managed to do this time around.

The PEA Picker portfolio was now all in cash and was worth $6,065.  It was time to withdraw another $1000.  Subscribers who followed our trades or participated in Auto-Trade now had all $5000 they originally invested back, and the portfolio was still worth over $5000, It had only been 38 days since our first trade.

Next week we made two PEA Plays, one on Deere & Company and the other on Sina Corporation (SINA).  I wrote Seeking Alpha articles in advance of both plays -How To Play The Deere & Company Earnings Anno… and How To Play The Sina Corporation Earnings Ann…

May 14, 2013  Trade Alert -  PEA Picker  Portfolio – limit orders

We will invest about half our cash in this play as described in the Saturday Report:

BTO 8 DE Jun-13 95 puts (DE130622P95)
STO 8 DE May-13 92.5 puts (DE130518P92.5) for a debit limit of $2.35  (buying a diagonal)

BTO 4 DE Jun-13 90 puts (DE130622P90)
STO 4 DE May-13 90 puts (DE130518P90) for a debit limit of $.93  (buying a calendar)

We thought expectations were running high (whisper numbers well above analyst expectations and the stock had traded higher going into the announcement) so we were betting on a flat or down market after the announcement.  In addition, for the prior four quarters, Deere had traded lower (by about 4%) after earnings, even though they exceeded estimates most of the time.

We were not disappointed.  Even though the company announced earnings that were above estimates, their guidance was tepid.  The stock fell about $4 after the announcement.  We took off our diagonal spread the same day:

May 15, 2013  Trade Alert -  PEA Picker  Portfolio – LIMIT ORDER

We will take off this spread if can get this price:

BTC 8 DE May-13 92.5 puts (DE130518P92.5)
STC 8 DE Jun-13 95 puts (DE130622P95) for a credit limit of $2.72  (selling a diagonal)

We closed out the calendar spread on Friday, selling it for $1.42.  Our gain on the trades was $176 for each spread after commissions, or $352 total on an investment of $2282, or 15%.

In the same week we made a second PEA Play, this one on Sina:
 
May 14, 2013  Trade Alert  #2 -  PEA Picker  Portfolio – limit orders

We will invest about half our cash in this play:

BTO 7 SINA Jun-13 55 puts (SINA130622P55)
STO 7 SINA May-13 55 puts (SINA130518P55) for a debit limit of $1.17  (buying a calendar)

BTO 7 SINA Jun-13 57.5 puts (SINA130622P57.5)
STO 7 SINA May-13 57.5 puts (SINA130518P57.5) for a debit limit of $1.28  (buying a calendar)

BTO 7 SINA Jun-13 60 calls (SINA130622C60)
STO 7 SINA May-13 60 calls (SINA130518C60) for a debit limit of $1.30  (buying a calendar)

On the day before earnings were announced, we added another spread:

May 16, 2013  Trade Alert -  PEA Picker  Portfolio – limit order

If Sina stock rallies more than 5% we will lose money on our spreads.  This trade will expand our upside protection a little and still give us coverage for almost a 10% drop on the downside:

BTO 4 SINA Jun-13 57.5 puts (SINA130622P57.5)
STO 4 SINA May-13 60 puts (SINA130518P60) for a debit of $.10  (buying a diagonal)

We had expected Sina to fall after the earnings announcement because expectations were so high, but we left ourselves with a little room for the stock to move higher in case we were wrong.  The extra trade ended up being a good one because the stock opened up almost $2 higher but then fell back over a dollar mid-day.  We sold the 4 diagonal put spread for $.93, making $352 after commissions.  The 55 put calendar spread was sold for a loss ($.70), the 57.5 put calendar spread for a small gain ($1.35), and the 60 call calendar was sold for a nice gain ($2.05).  After commissions, the Sina options were closed out for a $525 gain, or 19% on our $2727 investment (we had a $1250 maintenance requirement for one day because of the put diagonal, but since we had closed out the Deere positions we had plenty of spare cash in the account).

So there we are.  Eight consecutive profitable option spreads on earnings announcements.  The original $5000 investment had been entirely withdrawn in cash and the account was worth $5862 and sitting in cash awaiting the next week’s trades.

Here are the net results:
JPM  38%
GOOG  39%
EBAY   7%
AAPL  39%
STX   6%
GMCR 18%
DE  15%
SINA  19%

The average gain for the eight successful plays was 22.6%.  Most of the time we only put about half our money at risk so the portfolio increased in value by less than 8 x 22.6%.

What We Have Learned:   We have identified the following characteristics of earnings-announcement-related price action based on our experience over the past several months:

1. It is possible to construct a combination of option spreads which creates a profit if the stock moves less than 10% in one direction or 5% in the other.  Most of the time, the level of pre-announcement expectation determines the direction you want to establish the 10% coverage.

2. It is possible to create unlimited coverage in one direction or the other with diagonal spreads but the potential gains are diminished.

3. Big (over 10%) price moves are almost always in the opposite direction of these last 10% earnings-related move.

4. Downside 10% moves are about twice as likely as upside 10% moves.

5. Big downside price moves are much more likely when expectations are high (some small part of the announcement often disappoints).  High expectations can be measured by a strong upward move in the stock price in the month or two prior to the announcement, a high RSI, and whisper numbers exceeding analyst expectations – all three numbers should be checked prior to making PEA Play).  Low expectations (and a possible 10%+ upward post-earnings move) have the opposite numbers.

6. When risk profile graphs are created prior to making a PEA Play, it is important to change the Implied Volatility (IV) of the long options to account for the expected implosion of all option prices after the announcement has been made.  Check back to see what IV of the one-month options fell to after the last earnings announcement as a guide. If the month of the long options is greater than three months more than the short-term options which are being sold (usually Weeklys), IV will not fall as much as shorter-term long options (because a second earnings-announcement day will occur before they expire).

7. It is usually possible to create a risk profile graph which shows a break-even range which extends about 10% in one direction (usually on the downside) and 5% in the other (usually the upside) by selecting the strike prices of the calendar spreads.

8. When selecting the best month for the long side of the calendar spreads, check out the bid-ask ranges of the options to learn if decent executions are likely.  The further out you go, the more conservative your positions will be (more of the option’s value is due to its long life than its IV) but the greater the bid-ask range might be.

9. Restrict PEA Play companies to those which have Weekly options available.  These are the most actively-traded option markets and decent executions are generally available (which is often not the case with companies which trade only monthly options).  Selling Weeklys also means that you can exit the positions in just a few days rather than waiting until the month expires before the short-term options fall to their intrinsic value.

10. In about a third of the weeks, there will not be a viable PEA Play available, especially if Weekly options are to be sold.  Earnings announcements tend to lump together in a distinct season starting about the middle of January and extending for about six weeks (and then moving 90 days forward to the next quarterly reports).

11. While losses are possible with PEA Plays, the entire amount of the investment can never be lost because there will always be more value to the long side of the calendar spreads than the short value because of the additional time value to those options.

12. More conservative (with lower potential gains) PEA Plays can be made by choosing a wider range of strike prices for the calendar spreads.

13. We checked to see if hedge funds had recently bought (or sold) shares in the company, and concluded that such information was valuable in deciding whether to bet on a higher (or lower) stock price.  While hedge funds aren’t always right, they surely do intensive due diligence before investing or divesting, and they have far more resources to do this that any individual has.

14. A statistic that will need more study is the short interest ratio.  When an unusually high percentage of shares have been sold short, a short squeeze is possible that could result in a large upward move after the announcement, but except for the GMCR case (huge short interest, huge gain after the announcement), the short interest level did not seem to be a significant factor. 

.  Will we be able to continue making profitable PEA Plays every week for the next six weeks?  Probably not.  But it’s possible.  We plan to invest only about half our portfolio value in any given earnings play (and sometimes two in a week) so that if there is a 10% move in the opposite direction we expect, we won’t be left with no money to work with.  (If we feel really strongly about a trade, like we did in Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, we will invest more than half the portfolio value.)

So far, playing the earnings announcements has been fun, and profitable.  After reading this, I hope you decide that it would be a lot easier to become a Terry’s Tips Insider, sign up for Auto-Trade at thinkorswim, and let us make all the investment decisions.  You could also follow our Trade Alerts and place the trades at another broker if you prefer.

You can become a Terry’s Tips Insider, and receive all our educational reports and materials absolutely free by opening a new account (even if you already have another account) at the best options broker around – thinkorswim. You must use this link to sign up – open thinkorswim account– and once you have funded your account with at least $3500, email Seth@TerrysTips.com and let him know that you have done it, and this is what he will do – sign you for our Premium Service package ($119.95 value plus an extra 4 months of our Premium Service, valued at another $190.80).  You get $300.65 worth of services without paying us one penny, and your service will extend for five full months after which you can decide on whether to continue or not.

I look forward to prospering with you.

Terry
Terry@TerrysTips.com

Update on SanDisk (SNDK) Earnings-Related Option Play

Thursday, April 18th, 2013

Update on SanDisk (SNDK) Earnings-Related Option Play

 

Last week in a Seeking Alpha article – How To Play The First Week Of The April Earnings Season  I showed how SNDK had excessive expectations going into its earnings announcement (whisper numbers exceeded analyst expectations by 18.7%, the stock had soared over the last week and month, and implied volatility of Weekly options was 50% higher than IV of the May options.

 

With the stock trading at $57.50, I recommended buying May-13 57.5 puts and selling Apr-13 55 puts.  The natural price for this spread at Friday’s close was $1.63.  Shortly after the open on Monday in an actual portfolio conducted at Terry’s Tips, we were able to buy this spread for $1.61 in our Earnings Expectation portfolio.  We bought 15 spreads, shelling out $2452.50 including commissions.

 

The announcement exceeded earnings expectations and revenue grew 14%, but the excessive expectations drove the stock down to about $55 at the open on Thursday.  We closed out our spread shortly after the open, collecting $2.77 per spread, or $4117.50 after commissions.  Our gain for the trade amounted to $1665, or 68%.

 

It was a good week.

How to Use Expectations to Prosper With Earnings Announcements

Monday, April 15th, 2013

This week I will offer a simple spread idea that could make 50% in a couple of days next week.  It will cost about $170 per spread to put on. 

Also, if you read down further, there is information on how you can become a Terry’s Tips Insider absolutely free! 

How to Use Expectations to Prosper With Earnings Announcements 

The earnings season started just last week.  In my last Idea of the Week I recommended buying a straddle on JPMorgan (JPM), the first big company to announce this time around.  We made that trade in an actual portfolio for Terry’s Tips subscribers and closed it out for a 15%+ gain after commissions. 

I also suggested an options strategy for JPM in a Seeking Alpha article – How To Play The JPMorgan Earnings Announcement.  In another Terry’s Tips portfolio  we placed calendar spreads as outlined in this article and closed them out for a gain of 15% after commissions even though the stock fell a little after the announcement while we were betting that it would go higher. 

A wonderful thing about options is that you can be wrong and still make profits as we did last week in our JPM trades.  Terry’s Tips subscribers who followed both portfolios made over 30% last week, more than most people make in an entire year of stock market investing. 

This week I wrote another Seeking Alpha article which checks out seven big companies which announce this week – How To Play The First Week Of The April Earnings Season.  

The major message of this article is that the price of the stock after the announcement is more dependent on pre-announcement market expectations than the actual numbers that the company releases.  If expectations are too high, the stock will fall no matter how much the company beats the analysts’ projections. 

Of the seven companies reviewed, SanDisk (SNDK) seemed to have the highest level of expectations.  Whisper numbers were 18.6% higher than analyst projections, the stock had shot up over 10% to a new high over the last week, and had moved 5% higher in the last week alone.  We believe that it is highly likely that some investors will “sell on the news” no matter how good it is, and the stock will either stay flat or fall after the announcement. 

With the stock trading about $57.70, I am buying May 57.5 puts and selling April 55 puts. Implied volatility (IV) of the May options is 37 while the April options carry an IV of 70, nearly double the May number (this means you are buying “cheap” and selling “expensive” options).  Each diagonal spread would cost $163 to place at the natural option prices at the close on Friday. 

Here is the risk profile graph for these spreads if you bought 20 of them, investing about $3400 after commissions (of course, you could buy fewer, or more, if you wished): 

SNDK Risk Profile Graph

SNDK Risk Profile Graph

This graph assumes that after the announcement, implied volatility (IV) of the May options will fall from its current 37 to 30 which is more likely in a non-announcement time period.  The graph shows that when you close the positions on Friday, April 19th, a double-digit gain could be made if the stock holds steady, and could nearly double your investment if it fell about $2 ½ after the announcement.  A profit would result no matter how far the stock might fall in value. 

We think the stock is likely to fall after the announcement because expectations are so unusually high.  If it moves higher, however, a loss could very well result.  Even in the world of options, there is no free lunch.  You need to take a risk.  We like our chances here.

An Interesting Straddle Purchase Opportunity in J.P. Morgan (JPM)

Monday, April 1st, 2013

Most of the time I prefer to sell options with just a few days or weeks of remaining life and collect the premium that is decaying at a higher rate than ever before.  However, this policy is not always the most profitable alternative out there.  Today I would like to discuss one of those situations where buying options rather than selling them might be the better bet. 

If you read down further, there is information on how you can become a Terry’s Tips Insider absolutely free! 

An Interesting Straddle Purchase Opportunity in J.P. Morgan (JPM)

 Implied Volatility (IV) of an option price is supposed to measure the market’s expectation of how much the underlying security will fluctuate in one year.  If an options series has an IV of 20, the market expects the stock will move either up or down by 20% over the course of a year. 

Sometimes there is a huge difference between IV of the options and the actual price behavior of the stock.  For example, check out J P Morgan (JPM).  The April options have an IV of 24 with three weeks of remaining life, and this IV is unusually high because an earnings announcement is due on April 12 (before the open), and volatility is usually higher than normal after announcements. 

So how much did JPM fluctuate over the past year?  On June 4, 2013 it hit a low of $30.83 and on March 15, 2013 it hit a high of $51.00. This is a 64% change, more than triple the IV of the options.  In other words, options are relatively inexpensive compared to the actual volatility of the stock. 

When you see a situation like this, the best options play might be to buy a straddle (both a put and a call) at an at-the-money strike and hope that the stock fluctuates as it has in the past. 

Right now, with JPM trading at $47.50, you could either buy an April 47 or 48 straddle for about $2.00 (if you think JPM is headed higher, you would select the 47 strike, and if you think JPM is more likely to fall, you would choose the 48 strike).  If the stock fluctuates more than $3.00 in the next three weeks, you could sell your straddle for a 50% gain.  (The nice thing about straddles is that you don’t care whether the stock goes up or down, just as long as it moves.) 

So how likely is JPM to fluctuate by at least $3.00 in a month?  Here are the biggest and smallest moves it has made over the past 25 months: 

Month

Open

High

Low

Close

Big Up

Big Down

3/1/2013

48.6

51

47.28

47.46

2.08

1.64

2/1/2013

47.4

49.68

46.85

48.92

2.63

0.20

1/2/2013

44.98

47.35

44.2

47.05

3.38

-0.23

12/3/2012

41.27

44.54

40.2

43.97

3.46

0.88

11/1/2012

41.7

43.07

38.83

41.08

1.39

2.85

10/1/2012

40.88

43.54

40.42

41.68

3.06

0.06

9/4/2012

36.98

42.09

36.78

40.48

4.95

0.36

8/1/2012

36.19

38.86

34.76

37.14

2.86

1.24

7/2/2012

36.27

37.2

33.1

36

1.47

2.63

6/1/2012

32.41

37.03

30.83

35.73

3.88

2.32

5/1/2012

43

44.24

32.26

33.15

1.26

10.72

4/2/2012

45.75

46.35

41.8

42.98

0.37

4.18

3/1/2012

39.51

46.49

39.12

45.98

7.25

0.12

2/1/2012

37.89

39.94

37.05

39.24

2.64

0.25

1/3/2012

34.06

38.1

34.01

37.3

4.85

0.05

12/1/2011

30.86

34.19

30.03

33.25

3.22

0.94

11/1/2011

32.47

35.18

28.28

30.97

0.42

6.48

10/3/2011

30.03

37.54

27.85

34.76

7.42

2.27

9/1/2011

37.62

37.82

28.53

30.12

0.26

9.03

8/1/2011

41.16

41.37

32.31

37.56

0.92

8.14

7/1/2011

40.81

42.55

38.93

40.45

1.61

2.01

6/1/2011

42.87

42.99

39.24

40.94

0.12

4.00

5/2/2011

45.94

46.07

41.69

43.24

0.44

3.94

4/1/2011

46.55

47.8

43.53

45.63

1.70

2.57

3/1/2011

46.47

47.1

43.4

46.1

0.41

3.29

 I have highlighted the months in which the stock fluctuated at least $3.00 in either direction (enough for you to make a 50% gain on a $2.00 straddle purchase).  For those months, a 50% gain would be possible in 17 out of 25 months (68% of the time).

 Admittedly, in this example with April options, there are only three weeks rather than four for the stock to fluctuate by this much, but since this time period includes an earnings announcement, greater volatility can be expected in this three-week period than a normal (no earnings announcement) month. 

If you were to buy an April straddle on JPM for $2.00 and place a good-til-cancelled order to sell it if it hit $3.00, you would gain 50% on your investment (less commissions).  If it did not execute in the next two weeks, I would recommend selling it when there was one week remaining for the April options.  If the stock is trading exactly at the strike price of your straddle, you would probably get back half of your $2.00 cost, losing 50%.  If the stock is at any other price than exactly at your strike price, you should be able to sell the straddle for more than $1.00.  If the stock is as little as $1.00 higher or lower than your strike price, you should be able to get back $1.50 of your original $2.00 cost by exiting (selling) the position with a week of life remaining in the option.  If the stock is $2.00 away from the strike price, you should be able to sell the straddle at a profit. 

The stock does not have to fluctuate by $3.00 for you to sell an at-the-money straddle for $3.00 since there will always be some time value to the options (over and above the intrinsic value) right up until the options expire. 

I like the odds of this straddle purchase and plan to do it both in my personal account and in one of my portfolios that I conduct at Terry’s Tips

Using Puts vs. Calls for Calendar Spreads

Tuesday, March 12th, 2013

A lot of our discussion lately has focused on pre-earnings-announcement strategies (we call them PEA Plays).  This has been brought about by lower option prices (VIX) than we have seen since 2007, a full six years ago.  With option prices this low it has been difficult to depend on collecting premium as our primary source of income with our basic option strategies. 

But the earnings season has now quieted down and will not start up again for several weeks, so we will return to discussing more conventional option issues. 

Terry 

Using Puts vs. Calls for Calendar Spreads 

 It is important to understand that the risk profile of a calendar spread is identical regardless of whether puts or calls are used.  The strike price (rather than the choice of puts or calls) determines whether a spread is bearish or bullish.  A calendar spread at a strike price below the stock price is a bearish because the maximum gain is made if the stock falls exactly to the strike price, and a calendar spread at a strike price above the stock price is bullish. 

When people are generally optimistic about the market, call calendar spreads tend to cost more than put calendar spreads.  For most of 2012 and into 2013, in spite of a consistently rising market, option buyers have been particularly pessimistic.  They have traded many more puts than calls, and put calendar prices have been more expensive. 

Right now, at-the-money put calendar spreads cost more than at-the-money call calendar spreads.  As long as the underlying pessimism continues, they extra cost of the put spreads might be worth the money because when the about-to-expire short options are bought back and rolled over to the next short-term time period, a larger premium can be collected on that sale.  This assumes, of course, that the current pessimism will continue into the future.

If you have a portfolio of exclusively calendar spreads (you don’t anticipate moving to diagonal spreads), it is best to use puts at strikes below the stock price and calls for spreads at strikes which are higher than the stock price.  If you do the reverse, you will own a bunch of well in-the-money short options, and rolling them over to the next week or month is expensive (in-the-money bid-asked spreads are greater than out-of-the-money bid asked spreads so you can collect more cash when rolling over out-of-the-money short options). 

The choice of using puts or calls for a calendar spread is most relevant when considering at-the-money spreads.  When buying at-the-money calendar spreads, the least expensive choice (puts or calls) should usually be made. An exception to this rule comes when one of the quarterly SPY dividends is about to come due.  On the day the dividend is payable (always on expiration Friday), the stock is expected to fall by the amount of the dividend (usually about $.60).  Since the market anticipates this drop in the stock (and knowing the specific day that the stock will fall), put prices are generally bid higher in the weeks before that dividend date. 

The bottom line is that put calendar spreads are preferable to call calendar spreads for at-the-money strikes (or even at strikes slightly higher than the stock price) coming into a SPY dividend date.   Even though the put spreads cost more, the Weekly options that can be sold for enough extra to cover the higher cost.  You do not want to own SPY call calendar spreads which might become in the money on the third Friday of March, June, September, or December because you will have to buy them back on Thursday to avoid paying the dividend, and you may not want to make that purchase to keep your entire portfolio balanced.

Options Strategy for the Tesla Motors Earnings Announcement

Tuesday, February 19th, 2013

Last week I gave you an option play on Buffalo Wild Wings (BWLD) that ended up making a 63% gain.  This week I am offering another pre-earnings announcement, this time on Tesla Motors (TSLA).  If you want to try this strategy you will have to hurry because the announcement is due after the close on Wednesday, February 20. 

Options Strategy for the Tesla Motors Earnings Announcement 

In case you want to know the details of my thoughts on this company which makes electric cars, check out my Seeking Alpha article – How to Play the Tesla Motors Earnings Announcement.  

In a nutshell, I think the likelihood of the stock going up after the announcement is very low.  To my way of thinking, it is hopelessly overvalued and even the best of news shouldn’t push it much higher (it has already soared about 50% since August on no more than hope that their new Model S will be a big hit). 

On the other hand, there are a large number of issues (including earnings) that might very well depress the stock.  Here is what I would do: 

With the stock trading around $37, buy TSLA June 39 calls and sell March 37 calls.  This diagonal spread will cost about $1.05 ($105) to place (the natural price is $1.15 but a lower execution should be possible).  There will be a $200 maintenance requirement per spread.  If TSLA ends up at any price below $37 when the March options expire on the 15th, they will be worthless and I will end up owning June 39 calls which surely should be worth more than $1.05 (currently $3.00 – $3.40).  I hope to exit the positions shortly after the announcement is made. 

I also plan to buy half as many June-13 – March-13 33 put calendar spreads (cost about $1.90) to protect me against a possible 10% drop in the stock after the announcement.  If you bought 10 of the above diagonals and 5 of these calendar spreads, your total outlay would be about $4000 (mostly the non-cash $2000 maintenance requirement on the 10 diagonal spreads). 

One disadvantage with these spreads is that it might be necessary to wait as long as 3 ½ weeks to get the maximum possible return, but I expect an earlier exit will be possible at a slightly less than the maximum gain.  I am aiming for a 25% gain on these spreads. 

We will be placing these spreads in one of our Terry’s Tips portfolios on Tuesday or Wednesday.

How to Play the EBAY Earnings Announcement

Tuesday, January 15th, 2013

How to Play the EBAY Earnings Announcement

The following is a list of trades I made I made in my personal account this morning.

EBAY will disclose earnings after the close on Wednesday, January 16th.  As usual, Implied Volatility (IV) of the Jan-13 options (66) is greater than the Feb-13 options (35) due to the uncertainty of the earnings numbers.  This gives calendar spreads a considerable IV advantage.

According to WhisperNumbers.com, over the last 10 years, EBAY has exceeded the whisper numbers by more than a 2 – 1 margin.  This time around, both the analysts and the whisperers agree on a $.69 earnings number.

The trend for the company is surely positive, another indicator that things might be getting better:

ebay graph

ebay graph

It appears that at the last two earnings announcement dates the stock has gapped higher, nearly 10% both times.  The big danger with buying calendar spreads is that kind of a move.  For that reason, I plan to hedge my bet here and buy some uncovered out-of-the-money Feb-13 57.5 calls just in case history repeats itself.

Today, with EBAY trading at $53.00,  I bought 20 each Feb-13 – Jan-13 calendar spreads at the 50 and 52.5 strikes (using puts) and at the 55 strike using calls.  In addition, I stuck my head way out and bought 10 uncovered Feb-13 57.5 calls.

One of the persistent problems with placing calendar spreads in advance of earnings is that the IV of the long side falls after the announcement.  I suspect that this will not be much of a problem this time around.  I checked back a month ago and learned that IV for the Jan-13 options series with four weeks of remaining life was 33, which is only marginally lower than today’s Feb-13 level 35.  So the Feb-13 option prices shouldn’t plummet after the January options expire.

Here is the risk profile graph for my positions:

ebay risk profile graph

ebay risk profile graph

These are the positions I have:

ebay positions

ebay positions

  For those of you who prefer seeing these trades as I placed them, here they are:BTO (buy to open) 10 EBAY Feb-13 50 puts (EBAY130216P50)
STO (sell to open) 10 EBAY Jan-13 50 puts (EBAY130129P50) for a debit of $.50  (buying a calendar)

BTO 20 EBAY Feb-13 52.5 puts (EBAY130216P52.5)
STO 20 EBAY Jan-13 52.5 puts (EBAY130129P52.5) for a debit of $.56  (buying a calendar)

BTO 20 EBAY Feb-13 55 calls (EBAY130216C55)
STO 20 EBAY Jan-13 55 calls (EBAY130129C55) for a debit of $.54  (buying a calendar)

BTO 10 EBAY Feb-13 57.5 calls (EBAY130216C57.5) for $.58
These positions cost $3780 to place and commissions worked out to $162.50 at thinkorswim for a total investment of $3942.50.  I placed these trades when EBAY was trading right at $53.  According to the graph, EBAY can fall over $4.00 before I lose anything on the downside, and a profit will result no matter how much it moves higher.  I really like these possibilities.

With a month to go until expiration, an at-the-money EBAY option should be trading about $1.50, or almost three times as much as the average calendar spread here costs.  If the stock ends up Friday afternoon near any one of the strikes for these calendar spreads, one of the spreads should be a triple-bagger.

The graph shows that if EBAY closes at any point between $52 and $56 on Friday, these positions could make as much as 100% (including commissions, our best goal should be in the 70% to 80% range, however, especially if we close them all out before waiting until the last minute).

The big risk is on the downside.  If the stock falls more than $4, a loss would occur.  If you wanted to expand the downside break-even point you would buy additional spreads at the 50 strike.

I want to thank our old friend Fred for sending along this possible strategy.  If you do it and it doesn’t  work out, please blame Fred instead of me.  I won’t blame him no matter what happens – he has given me so many good ideas over the years that I will still be way ahead if this one does badly.

As usual, don’t invest any money that you can’t afford to lose.  Good luck to all of us.

The Perfect Way to Play the Apple Earnings Announcement

Monday, December 24th, 2012

Apple (AAPL) options continue to fascinate me.  Today I would like to discuss a set of calendar spreads designed to capitalize on the escalating AAPL option prices that will come into play when Weeklys which expire just after the January earnings announcement become available. Those Weeklys will come on the scene on the Thursday before the January 2013 options expire the next day.

Check it out.

The Perfect Way to Play the Apple Earnings Announcement

Apple (AAPL) is due to announce earnings on January 22, 2013 (although this is currently unconfirmed). A year ago they announced earnings on Tuesday, January 24, 2012 just after the monthly options expired. The January 22, 2013 date would be consistent with that pattern. Of course, this is the big quarter when iPhone 5 and the iPad Mini results will be known for the first time.

A year ago the market responded favorably to the announcement and the stock moved $26 higher on the news (and then continued to move up more slowly for several months).

Who knows what will happen this time around?  I sure don’t, although I expect it will be higher than it is today.  I have devised a strategy for those of us who really don’t know where Apple will end up a month from now. 
My strategy is fully explained in a Seeking Article I published yesterday -

The Perfect Way to Play the Apple Earnings Announcement

The key thing to remember here is to buy calendar spreads at a variety of strike prices to increase the odds that the stock ends up near one of those strikes during the second half of January.

Happy trading.

An Interesting Bet on Apple

Monday, December 17th, 2012

Today I would like to share an actual spread I placed in my personal account today.  It is a simple bet that come January 18, 2013, Apple will be trading at some price above $500.  As I write this, AAPL is at $513.

This little bet will make 62% after commissions at any ending price above $500.  It doesn’t have to go up a penny to make this much in a single month.  In fact, it can fall $13 and the same gain will come my way.
Check it out.

An Interesting Bet on Apple

One of the biggest stock market mysteries I have ever experienced in 30 years of trading almost every day has been the recent implosion of Apple stock.  For years, I was on the lookout for companies whose P/E ratio was less than its growth rate.

Two months ago when AAPL was trading north of $700, its growth rate was more than double the P/E ratio (not even adjusting for cash), even taking the traditionally-conservative company projections for next quarter.  Opportunities like this are quite rare in the investment world, at least they have been in the past.

Since that time the stock has fallen nearly $200.  I was not alone in my surprise at such a drop.  The average price target for 48 analysts is $750.  How can so many presumably smart (and well-informed) people be so horribly wrong?  Maybe they aren’t, at least in the longer run.

Trying to catch the bottom of a falling stock has been compared to catching a knife dropped from a great height (with your bare hands, of course).  I must admit that I have made several attempts to catch a bottom over the past two months, and my portfolio value has dropped right along with the stock.  It has been a painful time for us Apple bulls.

But now I think the bottom is finally here.  From a technical standpoint, there seems to be a strong resistance point at $505.  I’m not much of a technical indicator guy, but so many people are that sometimes you just have to follow their lead.  It has come close to $505 a couple of weeks ago, rose sharply, and then retreated to test that level once again last week, and has since recovered a bit.

Much of the recent sell-off has been attributed to tax-related selling.  If a person had a huge gain in the stock (and anyone who has bought it in earlier years surely has), it might be better to sell your shares in 2012 to avoid what looks like a higher long-term capital gains rate that may be instituted in 2013.  Many people are expected the rate to increase from 15% to at least 25% next year.  That would make it a good time to take some profits.

Anyone who sold AAPL for tax reasons probably still likes the stock (after all, it did give them a big win) and may buy it back once they read about millions of new iPhone 5 sales at Christmas and in China (and now, even at Wal-Mart) and anticipate what those sales might mean to earnings.

There are many other reasons that the stock should be trading higher in 2013.  It usually spikes higher in advance of the January earnings announcement which should come just after the January options expire.  When the announcement is made, the P/E ratio will surely be even lower than it is today since this will be the first quarter when the iPhone 5 results are in (the most profitable Apple product, and the biggest problem has been making it fast enough to keep up with the demand).

So here’s the little bet I made that Apple will be trading at some point higher than $500 on January 18, 2013:

I bought AAPL Jan-13 495 puts and sold Jan-13 500 puts, collecting $195 per spread, or $192 after commissions (in options lingo, I sold a vertical put spread).  If the stock closes at any price below $495, I will have to buy the spread back for $500 and I will lose $308 (the maximum risk I am taking).

My broker will issue a maintenance requirement for $500 per spread (this is not a loan like a margin requirement, but $500 per spread will have to be set aside in the account).  Since I collected $192, my actual net charge will be $308.  By the way, this kind of a spread is allowed in IRA accounts at most brokerages, including thinkorswim.

At any price above $500, both options will expire worthless, no commissions will be due, and I will make a gain of $192 on my maximum risk of $308.  That works out to about 62% on my money at risk.  Not bad for one month.

Of course, you should not take this risk with money you can’t afford to lose.

 

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I have been trading the equity markets with many different strategies for over 40 years. Terry Allen's strategies have been the most consistent money makers for me. I used them during the 2008 melt-down, to earn over 50% annualized return, while all my neighbors were crying about their losses.

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