January’s rally was admirable. Its perseverance frustrated bears. The infrequent single day declines maxed out at -0.6%.

And the last nine days of the month were more than mind-numbing for most traders as the market traded in a very tight range.

There’s no doubt the bears are ready. Almost every technical and sentiment measure I follow has pushed into a bearish state. Typically, I am ecstatic by the weight of the bearish measures, but it seems everyone is aware of the measures and have joined my short-term bearish camp. And when the herd is anticipating something a bearish move might have a hard time coming to fruition.

That was certainly the case last month.
We must remember that January is one of the strongest month of the year for the market. February not so strong with a historical return of 0.0%.

February swoon? Not yet.

After Friday’s unemployment report, the bulls managed to push the indices, particularly the Dow to highs not seen since before the financial crisis in 2008. A drop in the unemployment rate to its lowest level in three years (8.3%) propelled stocks.

“In this economy only one variable matters right now and that variable is employment,” said Lawrence Creatura, an equity portfolio manager at Federated Investors.

“This report was great news. It was beyond all expectations, literally. The number was higher than even the highest forecast.”

After three months of gains a decline seems the likely scenario. Again, almost all technical and sentiment measures have reached short to intermediate-term extremes, but will they win out for the bears or will the mighty power of the bulls push through the consolidation that has lasted nine long trading days?

Talented analyst Jason Goepfert of Sentimentrader.com recently stated that when “the S&P 500 closed at a six-month high with volume 10% off its low from the past month (as it did on Thursday), then the next two days were positive only 12 out of 46 times.”

Out of the 12 positive occurrences, only twice did it advance more than 1%. Thirteen times it closed with a loss greater than 1%.

Another interesting stat provided by Mr. Goepfert is “the last 8 Fridays when the Nonfarm Payroll report was released” all have closed lower than the prior trading day.

In fact, if you went back to September 2009 and purchased shares of the S&P and sold at the close of the trading day you would have only made a paltry 1%.

Couple the aforementioned studies with short-term overbought readings in three out of the four major indices and I expect to see a short-term pullback over the next 1-5 days.

The two best performing days (on a historical basis) in February are now behind us and now we are entering into a period of bearish seasonality.
Just more food for thought.

Last week I recommended an options spread on AAPL prior to its earnings announcement on Tuesday.   The spread would have made money if the stock fell, remained the same, or rose moderately.  The only scenario where a loss would take place was if it shot considerably higher.

I believed that since the stock had already gone up $50 over the last month, much of the expected earnings blow-out had already been priced into the stock.

I was wrong, and the stock soared about $40 on the announcement.  Today I would like to discuss what we did about it.

Update on Last Week’s Apple Trade

If you missed last week’s trade, this is what it was:

Buy to Open 1 AAPL Feb-12 440 call (AAPL120218C440)
Sell to Open 1 AAPL Jan4-12 435 call (AAPL120127C435) for a debit of $1.05  (buying a diagonal)

The stock shot up to about $452 on Friday.  We had to buy back the Jan4-12 435 for about $17 ($1700).  We retained the Feb-12 440 call, and sold a Feb1-12 450 call, collecting $3 ($300).

This left us with a diagonal spread that will be worth a minimum of $1500 if the stock ends up any higher than $450.  We could earn more than that if it stays flat or moves slightly higher so we can sell more premium in the next two weeks.

With the stock up again this morning, we have recovered about $300 of our loss.   Here is what the risk profile graph looks like with our current positions:

The graph shows that in the next 4 days we should recover up another $400 or so if the stock stays above $450 (it is trading about $452 right now).  We have the opportunity to sell new Weeklys against the Feb-12 435 call for the next two weeks, so additional gains could easily come our way.  We have a very good chance of covering our loss from last week’s trade.

I apologize that this graph (and our manner of contending with a bad trade) is confusing.  Unless you are familiar with option trading, it should be confusing.  I hope you will continue receiving this free newsletter anyway.  Other reports should make more sense to you.

In spite of having 3 of last week’s suggested trades in our actual Terry’s Tips AAPL portfolio, the portfolio gained 25% last week and is now up 170% since we started the portfolio 20 months ago.  This is more than 2 ½ times as great as AAPL has gone up over this period, proving once again that an options portfolio can seriously outperform the outright purchase of stock (if you pick a stock that goes up).

Happy trading.

Simply stated, the rally continues.

?Nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing can hold this market down.

Numerous downgrades from Fitch, Moody’s the S&P and more importantly the World Bank, more European woes, news of inevitable Greek default, financial sector struggles, among bearish technical and seasonal readings hasn’t helped the bears at all during 2012.

As a result, the market has managed to advance on ten of the past twelve trading days leading to gains of 4.6% in the S&P 500, 4.1% in the Dow and a staggering 7.0% in the Nasdaq – in three weeks, yes, three weeks.

If you tack on the gains since December 19th, when this rally started, the gains are even more impressive as they reach over 9% in the S&P.

Are all of these gains really sustainable?

I think we all know the answer to that question. But, just in case you are unsure, just look at the list of indicators at extremes that are now bearish for the market.

VIX. Fidelity Sector Breath, OEX Determination Index, Put/Call Ratio – OEX Open Interest Ratio, Down Pressure – S&P, Down Pressure – NDX, NASDAQ/NYSE Volume Ratio, CSFB Fear Barometer, Rydex Bull/Bear RSI Spread, Daily Cumulative Tick – NASDAQ, TRIN – NYSE, Put/Call Ratio – Equity De- Trended, Put/Call Ratio – Equity Moving Averages, Put/Call Ratio – Equity Options Only, Put/Call Ratio – Total of All Options. Put/Call Ratio – Total of Moving Averages, Liquidity Premium – QQQ, Liquidity Premiun – SPY, TRIN – NASDAQ, NH/NL Ratio – NYSE, Up Issues Ratio – NYSE, Up Issues Ratio – NASDAQ, Up Volume Ratio – NYSE, Up Volume Ratio – NASDAQ, VIX Transform, Sentiment Survey – AAII and AIM Model.

Tack on almost every ETF I follow in a “very overbought” state and you can see why I am leaning towards the bearish camp.

And next week could be the week for the bears. Not only do we have some key earnings plays coming up out week including Apple, but the Fed is also supposed to give us some insight into where they think the economy is headed.

If all of the aforementioned information wasn’t enough to at least make you reconsider being at least a short-term bull, the week after options expiration is historically bearish.

There is no doubt, the risk is to the upside at this juncture.?If you were not privy to the stats I provided last week by the wonderful sentiment analyst Jason Goepfert
of Sentimentrader.com he recently stated the following:?

“Starting around the 2nd week in January, stocks have had a consistent tendency to weaken. Or at least not show much strength. Especially technology.

I don’t want to hammer on this too much. Seasonality is a tertiary indicator at best, and can easily be overwhelmed by fundamental developments, technical breakouts and changes in sentiment.

The performance of various sectors since the day honoring Martin Luther King, Jr. became an exchange holiday in 1998. The performance of QQQ was positive only 1 out of 11 years into the end of the month.”

He goes onto to provide a wonderful chart that shows sector performance after the MLK holiday and the Nasdaq 100 only has a 9%, yes 9% chance of closing higher than its price level before the holiday.

The bears are already in the whole 2.0% and almost 3.0% on the S&P and Nasdaq, respectively so in order for history to repeat itself the bears better start getting to work.

This week I will share an options play that we are taking in advance of tomorrow’s earnings announcement by AAPL.  If you think it is a good idea, you will have to place the trade before the market closes Tuesday, January 24, 2012.

Options Tip Of The Week

Expectations are sky high for Apple.  The company reports earnings for the 4th quarter tomorrow, and Christmas sales are rumored to be through the roof.  People have reported long lines for a month at Apple retail stores.

Demand is so high for iPhones in China that hordes of country dwellers have been hired to take a train to a city to buy a single iPhone (payment $16 for a day’s “work”) but the stores don’t have enough products so many people were turned away.  A riot broke out and the stores were eventually closed (the website stills sells their products, but you wonder why they hire buyers if consumers can buy online).

It is always a good sign for a company when the biggest obstacle to success is making enough of the products rather than selling them.

On a fundamental basis, AAPL is trading at less than 11 times forward earnings, an extremely low number for a company growing at 39% a year (although it may be more than this amount – we will know tomorrow).

So will the stock skyrocket on Wednesday after the earnings announcement?  The answer is an unequivocal “maybe, maybe not”.  Expectations are so high that investors may be disappointed no matter what the numbers are.  The stock has gone up about $50 in the last month in advance of the announcement.   Maybe it will be another “buy on the rumor and sell on the news” event, and the stock falls in spite of the good news.

Terry’s Tips subscribers are already happy about our AAPL portfolio.  It has gained 136% since we started in April 2010, well more than double the increase in the price of the stock.

Here is the trade I am proposing to make right now (we did several similar to this last week in our AAPL portfolio).

Buy to Open 1 AAPL Feb-12 440 call (AAPL120218C440)
Sell to Open 1 AAPL Jan4-12 435 call (AAPL120127C435) for a debit of $1.05  (buying a diagonal) 

This trade will cost $105 (plus a commission of $2.50 at the rate paid by Terry’s Tips subscribes at thinkorswim).  There will also be a maintenance requirement of $500 because the strike price of the long side (440) is higher than the strike price of the short side (435).  The broker holds your cash aside to protect against the maximum possible loss you might incur.

When the Jan4-12 435 call expires next week, if the stock is trading below $435, you do not have to do anything.  That call will expire worthless, and you will be left with a long 440 call which has 3 remaining weeks of life.  No matter how low the stock might fall, it is unlikely that this call will be selling at less than $1.05 (your original cost).  In other words, if AAPL goes up as much as $10 from its current price of $125, or if it falls in value, the spread should make a profit.

If the stock is above $435, you will have to buy back the expiring call and sell the Feb-12 440 call at the same time.  It is uncertain what value of the option might be, but unless the stock goes up be an extremely high amount, the Feb-12 440 call should be worth at least $6.05 more than the expiring call so that you can still make a profit.

I hope if you try this little idea and you make a small gain, you will use it to come on board and start your option education for real.

__________________

Any questions?   I would love to hear from you by email (terry@terrystips.com), or if you would like to talk to our guy Seth, give him a jingle at 800-803-4595 and either ask him your question(s) or give him your thoughts.

You can see every trade made in 8 actual option portfolios conducted at Terry’s Tips and learn all about the wonderful world of options by subscribing here.   Why wait any longer to make this important investment in yourself? 

I look forward to having you on board, and to prospering with you.

Terry

Most of the time, we talk about the wonderful aspects of investing in options. I am proud that the new strategy we set up five weeks ago has now had five consecutive weeks of gains (averaging over 5% a week), but today I would like to discuss some of the negatives in trading options.  Unfortunately, there are a few.

A Look at the Downsides of Option Investing

1.    Taxes.  Except in very rare circumstances, all gains are taxed as short-term capital gains.  This is essentially the same as ordinary income.  The rates are as high as your individual personal income tax rates. Because of this tax situation, we encourage subscribers to carry out option strategies in an IRA or other tax-deferred account, but this is not possible for everyone.  (Maybe you have some capital loss carry-forwards that you can use to offset the short-term capital gains made in your option trading).

2.    Commissions.  Compared to stock investing, commission rates for options, particularly for the Weekly options that we trade in many of our portfolios, are horrendously high.  It is not uncommon for commissions for a year to exceed 30% of the amount you have invested.  Because of this huge cost, all of our published results include all commissions.  Be wary of any newsletter that does not include commissions in their results – they are misleading you big time.

Speaking of commissions, if you become a Terry’s Tips subscriber, you may be eligible to pay only $1.25 for a single option trade at thinkorswim.  This low rate applies to all your option trading at thinkorswim, not merely those trades made mirroring our portfolios (or Auto-Trading).

3.    Wide Fluctuations in Portfolio Value.   Options are leveraged instruments.  Portfolio values typically experience wide swings in value in both directions.

One of our most popular portfolio (we call it the 10K Bear) has gained nearly 70% (after commissions, of course) in the last six months.  The underlying stock for the 10K Bear is the S&P 500 tracking stock, SPY, one of the most stable of all indexes.  Yet our weekly results included a loss of 34.7% in the last week of November when SPY rose $8.52 in a single week (a highly-unusual upside move).  Many times over the past six months, our weekly gains were above 20%, however, when SPY fell in value during the week.

Many people do not have the stomach for such volatility, just as some people are more concerned with the commissions they pay than they are with the bottom line results (both groups of people probably should not be trading options).

4.    Uncertainty of Gains. In carrying out our option strategies, we depend on risk profile graphs which show the expected gains or losses at the next options expiration at the various possible prices for the underlying.  We publish these graphs for each portfolio every week for subscribers and consult them hourly during the week.  

Oftentimes, when the options expire, the expected gains do not materialize.  The reason is usually because option prices (implied volatilities, VIX, – for those of you who are more familiar with how options work) fall.   (The risk profile graph software assumes that implied volatilities will remain unchanged.).   Of course, there are many weeks when VIX rises and we do better than the risk profile graph had projected.   But the bottom line is that there are times when the stock does exactly as you had hoped (usually, we like it best when it doesn’t do much of anything) and you still don’t make the gains you originally expected.

With all these negatives, is option investing worth the bother?  We think it is.  Where else is the chance of 50% or 100% annual gains a realistic possibility?  We believe that at least a small portion of many people’s investment portfolio should be in something that at least has the possibility of making extraordinary returns.

With CD’s and bonds yielding ridiculously low returns (and the stock market not really showing any gains for the past 4 years), the options alternative has become more attractive for many investors, in spite of all the problems we have outlined above.

Today I will list the trading rules for the new strategy that has made an average 6.4% gain every week since we set it up in early December.  

More importantly, we are repeating of our offer of becoming an Insider for the lowest price we have ever offered.

Trading Rules for New 5%-a-Week Strategy

Our goal is to make 5% a week.  Admittedly, that sounds a little extreme.  But we did it for the first 3 weeks we tried it in a real account.  In fact, we gained an average of 6.4% after commissions.  

We call it the STUDD Strategy.  STUDD stands for Short Term Under-Intrinsic Double Diagonal.  How’s that for a weird acronym?

Here are the Trading Rules:

1)    Purchase an equal number of deep in-the-money (5 – 8 strikes from the stock price) puts and calls for an expiration month which has 3 to 7 weeks of remaining life.

2)    At the same time, sell the same number of at-the-money or just out-of-the-money Weekly puts and calls.

3)    Make the above purchases and sales at a net price which is less than the intrinsic value of the long options. (Intrinsic value is the difference between the strike prices.  For example, we purchased IWM January-12 70 calls and 80 puts, and the intrinsic value of these two options will be at least $10 no matter where the stock ends up.  We paid a net $9.46 for the initial spreads, and as long as the short options are out of the money, the long options will eventually be worth at least their intrinsic value of $10).  Any out-of-the-money premium collected in subsequent weeks would be pure profit.

4)    During the week, if either of the short Weekly options become over $1 in the money, buy them back and replace them with another short option which is 2 strikes higher or lower (depending on which way the stock has moved).  Move both short Weekly options by 2 strikes in the same direction, one at a debit (buying a vertical spread) and one at a credit (selling a vertical spread).  The net amount that the two trades cost will reduce the potential maximum gain for the week.

5)    On the Friday when the Weeklys expire, buy back the short Weeklys and sell next-week Weeklys at the just out-of-the-money strike price for both puts and calls.

6)    On the Friday when the original monthly options are due to expire, close out all the positions and start the process over with new positions.
There will invariably be some variations to these trading rules.  For example, instead of selling just out-of-the-money Weekly options, we might sell some which are a dollar more than the just out-of-the-money strike.  We also might close out the original monthly options a week before the final Friday if they can be sold for appreciably more than the intrinsic price (the more the stock has moved during the month, the higher above the intrinsic value the options will be able to be sold for).

This all may seem a little confusing right now, but if you decide to make a serious investment in your financial future, it will all become clear as you can watch how an actual portfolio (or two) unfolds using these trading rules for the next two months as a Terry’s Tips Insider.

As our New Year’s gift to you, we are offering our service at the lowest price in the history of our company.  We have never before offered a discount of this magnitude.  If you ever considered becoming a Terry’s Tips Insider, this would be the absolutely best time to do it.  

So what’s the investment?  I’m suggesting that you spend a small amount to get a copy of my 70-page (electronic) White Paper, and devote some serious early-2012 hours studying the material.  

And now for the Special Offer – If you make this investment in yourself by midnight, December 31, 2011, this is what happens:

For a one-time fee of only $39.95, you receive the White Paper (which normally costs $79.95 by itself), which explains my two favorite option strategies in detail, 20 “Lazy Way” companies with a minimum 100% gain in 2 years, mathematically guaranteed, if the stock stays flat or goes up, plus the following services :

1) Two free months of the Terry’s Tips Stock Options Tutorial Program, (a $49.90 value).  This consists of 14 individual electronic tutorials delivered one each day for two weeks, and weekly Saturday Reports which provide timely Market Reports, discussion of option strategies, updates and commentaries on 8 different actual option portfolios, and much more. 

2) Emailed Trade Alerts. I will email you with any trades I make at the end of each trading day, so you can mirror them if you wish (or with our Premium Service, you will receive real-time Trade Alerts as they are made for even faster order placement or Auto-Trading with a broker).  These Trade Alerts cover all 8 portfolios we conduct.

3) If you choose to continue after two free months of the Options Tutorial Program, do nothing, and you’ll be billed at our discounted rate of $19.95 per month (rather than the regular $24.95 rate).

4) Access to the Insider’s Section of Terry’s Tips, where you will find many valuable articles about option trading, and several months of recent Saturday Reports and Trade Alerts.

5) A FREE special report  “How We Made 100% on Apple in 2010-11 While AAPL Rose Only 25%“.

With this one-time offer, you will receive all of these benefits for only $39.95, less than the price of the White Paper alone. I have never made an offer anything like this in the eleven years I have published Terry’s Tips.  But you must order by midnight on December 31, 2011. Click here and enter Special Code 2012 (or 2012P for Premium Service – $79.95) in the box to the right.

Investing in yourself is the most responsible New Year’s Resolution you could make for 2012.  I feel confident that this offer could be the best investment you ever make in yourself.

Happy New Year!  I hope 2012 is your most prosperous ever.  I look forward to helping you get 2012 started right by sharing this valuable investment information with you. 

Terry

P.S.  If you would have any questions about this offer or Terry’s Tips, please call Seth Allen, our Senior Vice President at 800-803-4595.  Or make this investment in yourself at the lowest price ever offered in our 8 years of publication – only $39.95 for our entire package – http://www.terrystips.com/track.php?tag=2012&dest=programs-and-pricing using Special Code 2012 (or 2012P for Premium Service – $79.95).

For the last few weeks I have been discussing a low-risk strategy that is designed to gain at least 5% each week.  The actual account where we conduct that strategy managed to reach the goal once again last week (gaining 5.5%).  So far, the portfolio is batting 1000 and averaging a 6.4% gain per week even though last week was a challenge because SPY rose almost 4% (the strategy works best when the market doesn’t move very much in either direction).

Tomorrow I will disclose the Trading Rules for this unique strategy, but today I would like to discuss something far more important – your financial future.

Invest in Yourself in 2012 (at the Lowest Rate Ever)

The presents are unwrapped.  The New Year will be upon us in few days.  Start it out right by doing something really good for yourself, and your loved ones. 

The beginning of the year is a traditional time for resolutions and goal-setting.  It is a perfect time to do some serious thinking about your financial future.

I believe that the best investment you can ever make is to invest in yourself, no matter what your financial situation might be.  Learning a stock option investment strategy is a low-cost way to do just that.

As our New Year’s gift to you, we are offering our service at the lowest price in the history of our company.  We have never before offered a discount of this magnitude.  If you ever considered becoming a Terry’s Tips Insider, this would be the absolutely best time to do it.  Read on…

Don’t you owe it to yourself to learn a system that carries a very low risk and could make 5% a week as our actual portfolio has done since we started it?

So what’s the investment?  I’m suggesting that you spend a small amount to get a copy of my 70-page (electronic) White Paper, and devote some serious early-2012 hours studying the material. 

And now for the Special Offer – If you make this investment in yourself by midnight, December 31, 2011, this is what happens:

For a one-time fee of only $39.95, you receive the White Paper (which normally costs $79.95 by itself), which explains my two favorite option strategies in detail, 20 “Lazy Way” companies with a minimum 100% gain in 2 years, mathematically guaranteed, if the stock stays flat or goes up, plus the following services :

1) Two free months of the Terry’s Tips Stock Options Tutorial Program, (a $49.90 value).  This consists of 14 individual electronic tutorials delivered one each day for two weeks, and weekly Saturday Reports which provide timely Market Reports, discussion of option strategies, updates and commentaries on 8 different actual option portfolios, and much more. 

2) Emailed Trade Alerts.  I will email you with any trades I make at the end of each trading day, so you can mirror them if you wish (or with our Premium Service, you will receive real-time Trade Alerts as they are made for even faster order placement or Auto-Trading with a broker).  These Trade Alerts cover all 8 portfolios we conduct.

3) If you choose to continue after two free months of the Options Tutorial Program, do nothing, and you’ll be billed at our discounted rate of $19.95 per month (rather than the regular $24.95 rate).

4) Access to the Insider’s Section of Terry’s Tips, where you will find many valuable articles about option trading, and several months of recent Saturday Reports and Trade Alerts.

5) A FREE special report  “How We Made 100% on Apple in 2010-11 While AAPL Rose Only 25%“.

With this one-time offer, you will receive all of these benefits for only $39.95, less than the price of the White Paper alone. I have never made an offer anything like this in the eleven years I have published Terry’s Tips.  But you must order by midnight on December 31, 2011. Click here and enter Special Code 2012 (or 2012P for Premium Service – $79.95) in the box to the right.

Investing in yourself is the most responsible New Year’s Resolution you could make for 2012.  I feel confident that this offer could be the best investment you ever make in yourself.

Happy New Year!  I hope 2012 is your most prosperous ever.  I look forward to helping you get 2012 started right by sharing this valuable investment information with you. 

Terry

P.S.  If you would have any questions about this offer or Terry’s Tips, please call Seth Allen, our Senior Vice President at 800-803-4595.  Or make this investment in yourself at the lowest price ever offered in our 8 years of publication – only $39.95 for our entire package – http://www.terrystips.com/track.php?tag=2012&dest=programs-and-pricing using Special Code 2012 (or 2012P for Premium Service – $79.95).

Last week was a bad one for the market.  The S&P 500 fell 3.5%.  Six of the 8 portfolios carried out at Terry’s Tips made gains last week. Once again, our subscribers where happy that they owned options rather than stock.

One of the two portoflios that lost money is not carried out with our basic strategy, but is a proxy for owning stock in AAPL (which fell over $12 last week, obviously causing a loss).

Our 10K Bear portfolio gained almost 10% for the week, and now has gone up over 70% since we started it 5 months ago (SPY has fallen 7.5% over that time period).  This portfolio continues to be a good hedge against other investments which do best when markets move higher.

Today I would like to update the report I sent out last week on a $1479 investment which we believe should make 5% a week.

Update on 5% a Week “Conservative” Portfolio:

Three weeks ago, we made the following trades in one of our portfolios as a demonstration of an option play that we believe will make at least 5% a week after paying all commissions.  At the time, SPY was trading just about $125:

Buy To Open 1 SPY Jan-12 132 put (SPY120121P132)
Sell To Open 1 SPY Dec2-11 125 put (SPY111209P125) for a debit of $6.98  (buying a diagonal)
 
Buy To Open 1 SPY Jan-12 118 call (SPY120121C118)
Sell To Open 1 SPY Dec2-11 125 call (SPY111209P125) for a debit of $7.05  (buying a diagonal)

These two spreads cost us a total of $1403 plus commissions of $5 (the commission rate for Terry’s Tips subscribers at thinkorswim).  It is an interesting option play because the deep in-the-money Jan-12 put and call together will be worth at least $1400 (their intrinsic value) when they expire on the third Friday in January (7 weeks after we made these trades).  Since we only paid $1408 for these options, as long as we don’t have to buy back any short options we might sell against them, we are guaranteed to collect at least $1400 when they expire in January.

An interesting additional feature of this portfolio is that if the stock manages to make a big move during the 7 or so weeks of the long options’ existence, the original long put and call might be able to be sold at the beginning of the final week for well more than their intrinsic value.  The closer to one of the original strike prices the stock becomes, the greater the additional time premium will be.  Of course, if the stock moves outside the original range (118 – 132), the total value would exceed the original intrinsic value of $14 (again, as long as the short options continue to be out of the money).

We will have 6 opportunities to sell Weekly puts and calls using the Jan-12 options as collateral for those sales.  Any money we collect from selling those options is pure profit (unless they end up in the money and we have to buy them back on the Friday that they expire).

Since the options we sold were both at the 125 strike price, one of them would have to be bought back on Friday, December 9th (unless SPY closed exactly at $125.00, an unlikely event). 

As we reported a week ago, the portfolio gained 6.2% after commissions in its first week, and we started out last week being short a Dec-11 SPY 127 call (which we had sold for $1.28 and a Dec-11 SPY 126 put (which we had sold for $1.99).  If we would be lucky enough for the stock to remain in the $126 – $127 range all week, the $324 we collected (after commissions) by selling these two options would be pure profit (a whopping 22% on our original investment in a single week).

The secret of success to this little strategy is in the adjustments that invariably need to be made because the stock usually doesn’t stay perfectly flat all week.  Last week was no exception.  SPY fell $4.46.  Ouch!

When SPY fell over $2, we bought back our short 126 put and sold a 123 put which also expired on Friday, December 16.  Buying this vertical spread cost us $181 after commissions, but our net cost was reduced by what we gained by selling a vertical spread on the short 127 call, replacing it with a short 124 call (this sale gained us $104 after commissions).  So we had now lost $77 of the potential maximum $324 gain for the week.

On Friday, we had to buy back the in-the-money 123 put, paying out $133, and we bought back the out-of-the-money 124 call for $1 (no commission charged at thinkorswim for this trade).  These trades reduced the potential maximum gain by $134. For the week, then, we gained $113, or 7.6% on the original investment of $1479 ($1408 plus an adjustment cost) three weeks earlier.

At the outset, we said that we expected this little investment would gain us an average of 5% a week, and we have exceeded that goal in each of the first two weeks.  Going into the third week, we have collected $127 from selling a 121 put which expires on December 23 and $142 from selling a 122 call which expires on that same day. 

If SPY ends up between $121 and $122 this Friday (and no adjustments become necessary), we could earn $269, or 18% on our original investment.  (At the end of the day last Friday, these two options were worth a total of $253, so we had already picked up a paper gain of $16).

Here is the risk profile graph for our positions, indicating the loss or gain next Friday at the various possible prices for SPY. Of course, if SPY fluctuates by $2, we would make an adjustment as we did this week, and hopefully turn a possible loss into a gain (as we did last week).

If you can follow the above trades, you have a good understanding how we carry out our portfolios at Terry’s Tips.  If this strategy can indeed make 5% a week (and there is the possibility of much more), we wonder why anyone would be buying stock or mutual funds rather than investing in an option strategy similar to this. 

Many of our subscribers are mirroring our trades in this portfolio (or having thinkorswim make the trades for them through their Auto-Trade service).  Last week they were all happy campers. 
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Any questions?   I would love to hear from you by email (terry@terrystips.com), or if you would like to talk to our guy Seth, give him a jingle at 800-803-4595 and either ask him your question(s) or give him your thoughts.

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Terry

This week I would like to describe an actual option play we made two weeks ago which you should be able to duplicate with no more than a $1600 investment.  We believe it will make at least 5% a week for the six remaining weeks of its existence.

We are pleased that every one of our portfolios made nice gains last week.  The average portfolio gained 7% after commissions in spite of fairly high mid-week volatility.  We were especially happy with our bearish 10K Bear portfolio – it gained 13% even though SPY ended up going up by 1% last week.  Our William Tell portfolio (using AAPL as the underlying) gained 8.7% while AAPL rose 1%.

An Interesting “Conservative” Option Purchase That Could Make 5% a Week:

Two weeks ago, we made the following trades in one of our portfolios as a demonstration of an option play that we believe will make at least 5% a week after paying all commissions.  At the time, SPY was trading just about $125:

Buy To Open 1 SPY Jan-12 132 put (SPY120121P132)
Sell To Open 1 SPY Dec2-11 125 put (SPY111209P125) for a debit of $6.98  (buying a diagonal)
 
Buy To Open 1 SPY Jan-12 118 call (SPY120121C118)
Sell To Open 1 SPY Dec2-11 125 call (SPY111209P125) for a debit of $7.05  (buying a diagonal)

These two spreads cost us a total of $1403 plus commissions of $5 (the commission rate for Terry’s Tips subscribers at thinkorswim).  It is an interesting option play because the deep in-the-money Jan-12 put and call together will be worth at least $1400 (their intrinsic value) when they expire on the third Friday in January (7 weeks after we made these trades).  Since we only paid $1408 for these options, as long as we don’t have to buy back any short options we might sell against them, we are guaranteed to collect at least $1400 when they expire in January.

We will have 6 opportunities to sell Weekly puts and calls using the Jan-12 options as collateral for those sales.  Any money we collect from selling those options is pure profit (unless they end up in the money and we have to buy them back on the Friday that they expire).

Since the options we sold were both at the 125 strike price, one of them would have to be bought back on Friday, December 9th (unless SPY closed exactly at $125.00, an unlikely event). 

Two days after we bought the two spreads, SPY shot up to $127 (when the stock moves $2 with this strategy, we make an adjustment because we do not want any of our short options to become more than $2 in the money).  These are the trades we placed:

Buy To Close 1 SPY Dec2-11 125 call (SPY111209C125)
Sell To Open 1 SPY Dec2-11 127 call (SPY111209C127) for a debit of $1.33  (buying a vertical)

Buy To Close 1 SPY Dec2-11 125 put (SPY111209P125)
Sell To Open 1 SPY Dec2-11 127 put (SPY111209P127) for a credit of $.67  (selling a vertical)

We paid out $133 to roll up the short call from the 125 strike to the 127 strike, and collected $67 when we rolled up the short put from the 125 to 127 strike.  After commissions, these two trades cost us a net $71.

The stock then fell back to $125 and we reversed the last put trade (but did not bother rolling down the short call to the 125 strike, electing to let it expire worthless):

Buy To Close 1 SPY Dec2-11 127 put (SPY111209P127)
Sell To Open 1 SPY Dec2-11 125 put (SPY111209P125) for a debit of $1.11  (buying a vertical)

This trade cost us $113.50 including commissions.  When we bought back the soon-to-expire short options on Friday (paying no commissions since thinkorswim does not change a commission to buy back a short option for $5 or less), we paid out another $8, making the total outlay $1600.50  ($1408 + $71 + $113.50 + $8). 

At last Friday’s prices, our long Jan-12 options were trading at a total of $1705.50, indicating that we had gained $105 for the week, or 6.2% after commissions.

At the outset, we said that we expected this little investment would gain us an average of 5% a week, so for the first week, we are right on target.

These are the orders we placed on Friday, December 9th:

Buy To Close 1 SPY Dec2-11 127 call (SPY111209C127) for $.05 (no commission)

Sell To Open 1 SPY Dec-11 127 call (SPY111217C127) for $1.28

Buy To Close 1 SPY Dec2-11 125 put (SPY111209P125) for $.03 (no commission)

Sell To Open 1 SPY Dec-11 126 put (SPY111217P126) for $1.99

For the second week, we collected a total of $324.50 by selling a Dec-11 126 put and a Dec-11 127 call which will expire next Friday, December 16th.  By the end of the day, their value had fallen to $252.25, so we had already made some of the gain we expect for the second week. If the stock ends up between these strikes (126 and 127) and we don’t have to adjust mid-week, the entire amount (about 20%) could be profit.

Here is the risk profile graph for our current positions.  It shows the expected loss or gain at the various possible prices where SPY might be on Friday (remember, if the stock moves by $2 in either direction, we will make an adjustment similar to those we made in the first week), and the curve will move in the direction that the stock moved.  Some of the potential gain will be erased when adjustments are made.

If you can follow the above trades, you have a good understanding how we carry out our portfolios at Terry’s Tips.  If this strategy can indeed make 5% a week (and there is the possibility of much more), we wonder why anyone would be buying stock or mutual funds rather than investing in an option strategy similar to this. 

Many of our subscribers are mirroring our trades in this portfolio (or having thinkorswim make the trades for them through their Auto-Trade service).  Last week they were all happy campers.