Message from @Deleted User

Discord ID: 396065398908387349


2017-12-28 05:49:08 UTC  

I’m always reminded of my favorite quote, “there are no markets anymore, only manipulations.”

2017-12-28 10:09:49 UTC  

I do feel lonely being the only one trading options here

2017-12-28 10:10:26 UTC  

If you like thinking about volatility and time value then they are very interesting.

2017-12-28 16:36:58 UTC  

@ThisIsChris I think @Deleted User does as well

2017-12-28 16:41:01 UTC  

@ThisIsChris in terms of option strategies I only utilize them in one way. If I see a company that is going into earning where expectations are low (perhaps the stock has sold off quite dramatically prior to earnings). I will buy at the money calls for the front month contract (earnings date is in Jan. 2018, I will buy option contract with expiration in Jan 2018 assuming it does not expire prior to the earnings date). My plan is always to exit the position the day of earnings whether I am right or wrong. My goal being to take advantage of any volatility that was present itself. Time decay is not on my side here so i try to minimize that risk.

2017-12-28 16:41:14 UTC  

I did this with GIII prior to their recent earnings and made out well

2017-12-28 16:41:26 UTC  

What strategies do you use?

2017-12-28 21:26:51 UTC  

@Zyzz Nice, I like to use options during earnings season too, though I will usually get ones expiring a few days or maybe a week max after the earnings report comes out since they respond more sharply to the movement of the stock.
Outside earnings season, I still like to use options for all sorts of things. For a while I was using OTM "protective" puts as insurance on an ETF I was holding (This was USO for the first six months of 2015). Sometimes I buy naked puts deep ITM as a way to short a stock, which I did with SPY in the 3rd quarter 2014 and turned my first profit. More recently I've been selling OTM covered calls on SPY as a way to get extra money out of holding that stock. During earnings season I will usually use vertical spreads as a way to cap the cost of the options I buy and as a way to more easily quantify my risk/reward ratio (vertical spreads, especially with very close strikes, act a lot like binary options). Those are the main strategies I use. Sometimes if I have an opinion about something long term but I don't think it will happen short term, (like if I think SPY will go up in the next 3 months, but not in the next week) then I might buy a calendar spread where I buy longterm OTM and sell short term OTM. I also played with selling an Iron Condor once and I might a few bucks. The covered calls and the Iron Condors I used for safer bets that net me just a few bucks, and they're always near-term expiry.

2017-12-28 22:18:20 UTC  

what are good resources (preferably free) to learn about options and how to use them>

2017-12-28 22:18:22 UTC  

?*

2017-12-28 22:18:50 UTC  

I gave a talk on here a few weeks ago. I can do it again.

2017-12-28 22:19:00 UTC  

If you get one or two more people to join that would be even better @Deleted User

2017-12-28 22:19:51 UTC  

@ThisIsChris Options are a lot of fun. I usually buy puts on stocks I think will bomb on earnings.

2017-12-28 22:20:20 UTC  

Here's a leverage story you might like:

2017-12-28 22:20:43 UTC  

in early summer 2015, I read an article about how Chinese peasants were double-mortgaging their properties to buy into the stock market

2017-12-28 22:21:02 UTC  

there were makeshift "stock cafes" being set up where they could come in and buy stock.

2017-12-28 22:21:24 UTC  

I saw this as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make an obvious play

2017-12-28 22:21:38 UTC  

There's an ETF called YANG

2017-12-28 22:21:54 UTC  

it's a 3x leveraged bear fund for the broad Chinese stock market

2017-12-28 22:22:22 UTC  

Oh yeah YING and YANG lol

2017-12-28 22:22:29 UTC  

so if the chinese market goes down 1%, it's engineered to increase 3%

2017-12-28 22:22:31 UTC  

yeah, exactly

2017-12-28 22:22:45 UTC  

So I bought a couple thousand worth of OOM call options on it

2017-12-28 22:22:50 UTC  

oh god, 3x ETF, in an options story...

2017-12-28 22:22:56 UTC  

😃

2017-12-28 22:23:06 UTC  

worked out pretty well

2017-12-28 22:23:33 UTC  

Wow, I have to call no homo and no schlomo, but that's really awesome

2017-12-28 22:23:34 UTC  

I could have held on a few more weeks, but I was very happy with the return

2017-12-28 22:24:04 UTC  

opportunities like that don't come around very often .I was lucky enough to read the right news article

2017-12-28 22:24:31 UTC  

I was lucky it tanked so quickly too. If I had been off on my timing it would have been a washout

2017-12-28 22:24:36 UTC  

sometimes things work out!

2017-12-28 22:24:45 UTC  

Yeah good job dude putting that into action!

2017-12-28 22:25:04 UTC  

I love those complex strategies though

2017-12-28 22:25:16 UTC  

it's fun to see them mapped out in thinkorswim

2017-12-28 22:25:35 UTC  

I haven't seen a good opportunity for one yet. I usually keep it simple-minded.

2017-12-28 22:28:01 UTC  

Yeah I love looking at charts showing payoffs evolve in time, and how they start off in these weird smooth shapes that slowly converge to rigid slopes

2017-12-28 22:28:12 UTC  

Yes!

2017-12-28 22:28:48 UTC  

Can you tag me if you're making an interesting trade? I'd at least like to follow along. I might jump in too if I understand it enough to make an informed decision.

2017-12-28 22:29:06 UTC  

Yeah dude I definitely will, please do likewise!

2017-12-28 22:29:08 UTC  

I understand the fundamentals, but I don't spend enough time digging into opportunities

2017-12-28 22:29:09 UTC  

you bet!