Terry's Tips Stock Options Trading Blog

This week we are discussing another of Investor’s Business Daily (IBD) Top 50 List companies. In one of our portfolios, we use this list to find stocks which have displayed a strong upward momentum, and we place spreads which will profit if the upward momentum continues for about six more weeks. Actually, the stock can even fall a little for the maximum gain to be made on these spreads.

Terry

Will Nvdia (NVDA) Continue Its Upward Momentum?

Several articles have recently been published on the positive outlook for NVDA. Here are two of them – Nvidia: Citigroup Analyst Thinks The Stock Can Go To $300 and BofAML pushes Nvidia to new price target high; shares up 2.7%.

If you agree with these analysts, you might consider making this trade which is a bet that NVDA will continue its upward momentum (or at least not decline very much) over the next six weeks:

Buy To Open NVDA 21Jul17 145 puts (NVDA170717P145)

For the first time ever, I will share with you the exact strategy we use in one of the 9 portfolios we carry out at Terry’s Tips. I will reveal the exact positions we have in this portfolio, their original cost, and our reasoning for putting them on. This portfolio started out with $3000 at the beginning of 2017, and has gained 83% so far. It is not our best performing portfolio, but it exceeds the average 2017 gain of 51.7% for all 9 portfolios.

Terry

Actual Positions in One Terry’s Tips Portfolio

Our Honey Badger portfolio is one of our most aggressive (least conservative). Our strategy is to select companies which rank high on the Investor’s Business Daily Top 50 List, and make the assumption that these high-momentum stocks will continue to be strong for another six or ten weeks. The stocks don’t actually have to go up at all for us to make the maximum gain on the spreads we place. We select strike prices which are just below the then-current stock price so we can tolerate a small drop in the price while we hold the positions.

Here are the exact words we published in our June 3, 2017 Saturday Report which reviews performance of all nine portfolios:

Summary of Honey BadgerPortfolio This portfolio started with $3000 in early . . .

Today I would like to report on the gains I made last Friday on the trades I told you about that I had placed last Monday in advance of Facebook’s (FB) earnings announcement on May 3. I was fortunate enough for the stock to take a moderate drop after the announcement, and have some thoughts on how I might play the FB earnings announcement in 3 months.

Terry

Closing Out Last Week’s Facebook Trades

A little over a week ago, I passed on a pre-earnings trade I had made on Facebook in advance of their May 3 after-market announcement. Essentially, I bought calendar spreads (long side 16Jun17 series and short side 05May17 series) at the 150, 152.5 and 155 strikes when FB was trading just under $152.

I was hoping that the stock would barely budge after the announcement. I was lucky. It did just that, falling a bit to close out the week at $150.24, about $1.50 lower than it was when I bought the spreads.

Near the close, I was able to buy back all of the . . .

Facebook (FB) has had a great year so far, gaining just over 30%. Terry’s Tips has an actual portfolio that trades calendar and diagonal spreads on FB. This portfolio has gained 157% this year, more than 5 times as much as the stock has gone up. A big part of this gain came just after the January earnings announcement when the stock dropped a small amount on the news.

FB announces earnings after the close on Wednesday (May 3), and I would like to share some trades I made today in my personal account at my favorite broker, tastyworks. These trades approximate the current risk profile of the Terry’s Tips’ FB portfolio.

Terry

Interesting Earnings Play on Facebook

Terry’s Tips carries out 9 actual portfolios for paying subscribers. After the first four months of 2017, all 9 portfolios are in the black. The composite average has gained 34.5% for the year, certainly an outstanding result. The FB portfolio is by far the greatest . . .

Today’s idea involves an esoteric Exchange Traded Product (ETP) called SVXY. It is one of our favorite underlyings at Terry’s Tips. Chances are, you don’t know very much about it, and I can’t help you much in this short note. But I will share a trade I made on this ETP this morning, and my thinking behind this trade.

Terry

40% Possible in 2 Weeks With an Iron Condor?

The best way to explain how SVXY works might be to explain that it is the inverse of VXX, the ETP that some people buy when they fear that the market is about to crash. Many articles have been published extolling the virtues of VXX as the ideal protection against a setback in the market. When the market falls, volatility (VIX) most always rises, and when VIX rises, VXX almost always does as well. It is not uncommon for VXX to double in value in a very short time when the market corrects.

The only problem with VXX is that in the long run, it is just about the worst equity that you could . . .

I have been trading options just about every day the market is open for about 40 years, including some time on the floor of the CBOE. I have made large sums of money at times, and (sadly) have also lost money along the way. But the amazing thing about my experience is that I continue to learn things even after all these years.

Today I would like to talk about trading options with an analogy.

Terry

Trading Options Can be a Lifetime Learning Experience . . .

I would like to share a trade that we made in one of our Terry’s Tips portfolios today. By the way, we have 9 portfolios that we carry out for paying subscribers where they can see every trade (including commissions) as we make them. All of these portfolios have made positive gains so far in 2017, and the composite average has picked up 28.8% at the end of the first quarter. Not bad compared to conventional investment results.

Enjoy today’s offering.

Terry

44% in 46 Days From a Play on ULTA?

There is a lot to like about Ulta Salon, Cosmetics & Fragrance’s (ULTA). It has been a darling of Wall Street this year, rising about 50%. It appears on IBD’s Top 50 list of momentum stocks. The Motley Fool guys have written over 300 articles on the company and include it in their top three beauty stocks. The company has a plan to add on 500 new stores, and they have exceeded earnings estimates every quarter for the past year.

The chart for the last year shows . . .

Today I would like to share some thoughts I sent out on Saturday to paying subscribers at Terry’s Tips. These thoughts reflected on the recent successes of the nine actual options portfolios we carry out and comment on each week. By the way, all nine portfolios are profitable for 2017 and the composite average gain is currently 28.9% since the beginning of the year. Last week while the market (SPY) fell 0.3%, our portfolios gained an average of 3.2% for the week, demonstrating that we don’t have to rely on a rising market to enjoy portfolio gains.

Terry

What Can Be Learned From Successful Option Strategies

If we can identify the strategies that resulted in the extraordinary returns we have enjoyed in the first quarter, maybe we can use those strategies for other underlying stocks or ETPs and time periods.

First, we must admit that we had some good luck. Anyone who makes these kinds of returns must admit that some of it was based on pure luck. Anyone who follows the mutual fund industry knows this intimately. Every year, millions of . . .

First, I would like to report that the 9 actual option portfolios carried out at Terry’s Tips have gained a composite 24.9% so far in 2017. It has been a good year so far for the market, but it (i.e., SPY) is up only 5.2%, so we have done 4+ times better. Maybe it would be a good time for you to take a peek at the exact positions and strategies we are using to ring up these kinds of gains.

I noticed that the value of some of our portfolios was changing after the market for the underlying stock had closed. Clearly, the value of the options was changing after the 4:00 EST close of trading. I did a Google search to find a list of options that traded after hours, and came up pretty empty. But now I have found the list, and will share it with you just in case you want to play for an extra 15 minutes after the close of trading each day.

Terry

Options Which Trade After Hours (Until 4:15)

Since option values are derived from the price of the underlying stock or ETP (Exchange Traded Product), once the underlying stops trading, there should be no reason for options to continue trading. However, more and more underlyings are now being traded in after-hours, and for a very few, the options continue trading as well, at least until 4:15 EST.

Options for the following symbols trade an extra 15 minutes after the close of trading – DBA, DBB, DBC, DBO, DIA, EFA, EEM, GAZ, IWM, IWN, IWO, IWV, JJC, KBE, KRE, MDY, MLPN, MOO, NDX, OEF, OIL, QQQ, SLX, SPY, SVXY, UNG, UUP, UVXY, VIIX, VIXY, VXX, VXZ, XHB, XLB, XLE, XLF, XLI, XLK, XLP, XLU, XLV, XLY, XME, XRT.

Most of these symbols are . . .

Last week I suggested a bearish spread on Tesla that would make 67% in 49 days. The stock has fallen about $7 since then, and the spread that I placed has already picked up 30% in a single week. I am tempted to close it out and take the profit, but I think I will wait it out and happily collect the entire 67% in six weeks.

Today I am reporting on a spread I placed on Ford (F) on Friday when the stock was trading at $12.54.

Terry

How to Make 40% in 45 Days With a Bet on Ford

Several articles have been published lately which are bullish on Ford, including Ford and Its 4.8% Dividend Yield, and Ford: Break-Out Ahead

On Friday, when F was trading at $12.54, I made a . . .