Dow?

[aquabliss]

Thought about going all cash late last week with North Korean tension, Russians trying to run Syria, etc... guess my laziness paid off, markets have shrugged off the geopolitical issues and are heading right back up.  I say 'lesson learned' but I'll probably want to get out again once the DOW hits  25k...

Made almost 5 figures selling volatility calls for the non-event French election, easy money.  We'll get the same thing in a week and a half when the French runoff election happens on May 7th.

Making five figures is nice, but how large was the wager?

And if they weren't covered, you could lose more than  the money you got selling the calls. 

I can't stomach that type of risk, with my luck I'd sell calls for nonsense political event and then some global event would happen and the market pluges 1,500 points and I owe $300k.

 

[Rtlguru]

Thought about going all cash late last week with North Korean tension, Russians trying to run Syria, etc... guess my laziness paid off, markets have shrugged off the geopolitical issues and are heading right back up.  I say 'lesson learned' but I'll probably want to get out again once the DOW hits  25k...

Made almost 5 figures selling volatility calls for the non-event French election, easy money.  We'll get the same thing in a week and a half when the French runoff election happens on May 7th.

Making five figures is nice, but how large was the wager?

And if they weren't covered, you could lose more than  the money you got selling the calls. 

I can't stomach that type of risk, with my luck I'd sell calls for nonsense political event and then some global event would happen and the market pluges 1,500 points and I owe $300k.

USC is selling naked options on volatility. Definitely not covered 

You mean sell puts.

 

[usctrojancpa]

Thought about going all cash late last week with North Korean tension, Russians trying to run Syria, etc... guess my laziness paid off, markets have shrugged off the geopolitical issues and are heading right back up.  I say 'lesson learned' but I'll probably want to get out again once the DOW hits  25k...

Made almost 5 figures selling volatility calls for the non-event French election, easy money.  We'll get the same thing in a week and a half when the French runoff election happens on May 7th.

Making five figures is nice, but how large was the wager?

About 400-500 vix options contracts or about $200k of margin.

 

[usctrojancpa]

Thought about going all cash late last week with North Korean tension, Russians trying to run Syria, etc... guess my laziness paid off, markets have shrugged off the geopolitical issues and are heading right back up.  I say 'lesson learned' but I'll probably want to get out again once the DOW hits  25k...

Made almost 5 figures selling volatility calls for the non-event French election, easy money.  We'll get the same thing in a week and a half when the French runoff election happens on May 7th.

Making five figures is nice, but how large was the wager?

And if they weren't covered, you could lose more than  the money you got selling the calls. 

I can't stomach that type of risk, with my luck I'd sell calls for nonsense political event and then some global event would happen and the market pluges 1,500 points and I owe $300k.

USC is selling naked options on volatility. Definitely not covered 

You mean sell puts.

Yes sir, I'm selling naked vix options (sold all vix calls prior to that French election) and been doing that for the past 8+ years with profits every single year.  One of the reasons why I trade VIX options is because of the favorable tax treatment of the games (60% of all gains are long-term capital gains no matter how long the trade is).  It's nice to be playing with house money. 

 

[usctrojancpa]

Thought about going all cash late last week with North Korean tension, Russians trying to run Syria, etc... guess my laziness paid off, markets have shrugged off the geopolitical issues and are heading right back up.  I say 'lesson learned' but I'll probably want to get out again once the DOW hits  25k...

Made almost 5 figures selling volatility calls for the non-event French election, easy money.  We'll get the same thing in a week and a half when the French runoff election happens on May 7th.

Making five figures is nice, but how large was the wager?

And if they weren't covered, you could lose more than  the money you got selling the calls. 

I can't stomach that type of risk, with my luck I'd sell calls for nonsense political event and then some global event would happen and the market pluges 1,500 points and I owe $300k.

The trading that I do is definitely not for the faint of heart, but it takes risks to make profits.  Biggest one day loss I had was about $60k back in Aug 2015 with that little Chinese currency thing but I made that back in less than 6 weeks after the loss.  I use stops to not go bankrupt. 

 

[nosuchreality]

Thought about going all cash late last week with North Korean tension, Russians trying to run Syria, etc... guess my laziness paid off, markets have shrugged off the geopolitical issues and are heading right back up.  I say 'lesson learned' but I'll probably want to get out again once the DOW hits  25k...

Made almost 5 figures selling volatility calls for the non-event French election, easy money.  We'll get the same thing in a week and a half when the French runoff election happens on May 7th.

Making five figures is nice, but how large was the wager?

About 400-500 vix options contracts or about $200k of margin.

So last Friday, VIX closed at 14.66, on Monday it opened at 11.76.  You're selling a call so I'm assuming that was good for you, correct? 

If that move would have been the opposite way, say closed at 11.76 and opened at 14.66  or say moved from 14.66 to 17.60 what would your loss have been?  No stop will cut that since it's close/open gap.  I'm not trying to be critical, just trying to understand overall exposure on a derivative.  Or are the VIX options more buffered from the near term volatility?

 

[usctrojancpa]

Thought about going all cash late last week with North Korean tension, Russians trying to run Syria, etc... guess my laziness paid off, markets have shrugged off the geopolitical issues and are heading right back up.  I say 'lesson learned' but I'll probably want to get out again once the DOW hits  25k...

Made almost 5 figures selling volatility calls for the non-event French election, easy money.  We'll get the same thing in a week and a half when the French runoff election happens on May 7th.

Making five figures is nice, but how large was the wager?

About 400-500 vix options contracts or about $200k of margin.

So last Friday, VIX closed at 14.66, on Monday it opened at 11.76.  You're selling a call so I'm assuming that was good for you, correct? 

If that move would have been the opposite way, say closed at 11.76 and opened at 14.66  or say moved from 14.66 to 17.60 what would your loss have been?  No stop will cut that since it's close/open gap.  I'm not trying to be critical, just trying to understand overall exposure on a derivative.  Or are the VIX options more buffered from the near term volatility?

I sold $20+ vix calls so I still would have made the same money if the vix settled at 20 or lower (it settled at 10.50).  With the time decay because I'm trading the front week options that expire before open on Wednesday, if the vix would have gone to 17.60 on Monday at open it'd be doubtful that any of my stops would have triggered given I sold 20-24 vix calls.  I guess you can say that I trade with a cushion to protect myself.  The vix calls (and even puts) premiums were pumped up a lot on Thursday/Friday so it gave me the ability to collect decent premiums on the vix calls on the 20-24 strike prices.  With my trading strategy it is important to keep trading and collecting premiums so that I have more than enough to cover any losses than I may take (very similar to what an insurance company operates). 

 

[aquabliss]

TSLA under 300 again, maybe time to load up... will keep an eye.

 

[usctrojancpa]

TSLA under 300 again, maybe time to load up... will keep an eye.

I'll stick to what I know best...the VIX options. 

 

[eyephone]

Amazon buys Wholefoods......

 

[jmoney74]

Amazon buys Wholefoods......

Crazy. When retail dies Amazon be like ...pschyeeeeee

 

[jerometl]

Amazon buys Wholefoods......

Crazy. When retail dies Amazon be like ...pschyeeeeee

I would understand Kroger and other grocers getting scared -- but it even scare the big retailers who is not really on the same market segment as Whole Food like Costco (down 6%), Walmart (down 5%), Target (down 9%)  ---- scary

 

[irvinehomeowner]

Whole-azon?

Ama-whole?

"Alexa... I need some overpriced groceries."

 

[morekaos]

Buying $85.49

It's good for long term.

Netflix and chill

Yikes!!!

 

[morekaos]

That 20k is pure show. Technically means nada but it makes good press. Don't get caught short we are going much higher next year.

Stay long my friend.

 

[irvinehomeowner]

22k?

Panda!!!! What happened????

 

[OCLuvr]

What about the annual Aug/Sept drop?

 

[OCLuvr]

@morekaos,
What about annual Aug/Sept drop ritual?

 

[morekaos]

Broke that trend last year when the market busted above overhead resistance in July. Market supported there and never broke down in August of that year.  At that point, it was over, and off to the races.  Anything that breaks hard out of a two year basing pattern is not going down, it hasn't since.

 

[lnc]

All the market euphoria, does it feels a little like 1999 or 2005?

Or this time is different?