Option expiration week is one of those “love it or hate it” times in the market. I love it as that’s when I reap the majority of my rewards for selling front-month premium in the $SPX. One of the most difficult obstacles I face is not letting my bias cloud my objectivity. To help lessen
Tag: option expiration
Something noteworthy is going on and occurs more often than most may know. I’m referring to pivot points acting as support/resistance. Most traders are familiar with pivot points and they come in many flavors. One of my favorites is the opex pivot based on John Person’s work. The calculations are from opex to opex rather
Historically there’s a positive bias to December in the markets. As an option trader I like to look at the returns for the option cycle versus the calendar month. Specifically, I want to know if there is a difference between the December cycle (4th Monday of November through 3rd Friday of December) and the 4th
It doesn’t get much better than option expiration week. Throw in a nice little pullback and increased volatility and you’ve got a market again. Lots of economic data coming out this week starting Monday with retail sales. Tuesday has the Producer Price Index (PPI) and Wednesday brings the Consumer Price Index (CPI) both of which
I love to trade options expiration week and thought I would share one of my strategies that involves credit spreads. I choose the $SPX because it’s what the IRS calls a “broad-based index” and thus is taxed at a 60/40 rate where 60% of my gains are treated as long-term capital gains. I like to
Retail sales will set the tone early tomorrow followed by consumer sentiment, but it’s the close that I’ll be watching. Will the recent bullishness, suggesting a gap fill of 2/3 in the $SPY hold going into a three day weekend? Combine that with option expiration next week and all the geopolitical events occurring and there’s
Look at the option chains for the stocks listed below as their option activity has seen some tremendous increase today. Typically you can see what others are thinking by looking at the option volume and perhaps see some institutional action as well. As an example, Simpson Manufacturing ($SSD) had a nice 2,500 put spread between
Look at the option chains for the stocks listed below as their option activity has seen some tremendous increase today. Typically you can see what others are thinking by looking at the option volume and perhaps see some institutional action as well. As an example, Anworth Mortgage Asset Corp ($ANH) had 5,000 calls for the
Look at the option chains for the stocks listed below as their option activity has seen some tremendous increase today. Typically you can see what others are thinking by looking at the option volume and perhaps see some institutional action as well. As an example, $GR saw a nice 3,000 contract put butterfly go out
October’s Option Cycle
The MLB playoffs isn’t the only wild event going on in early October. We are entering option expiration! And it’s an election year as well. Rob Hanna (@QuantEdges) over at Quantifiable Edges was nice enough to let me share the graphic below. This setup looks at buying the S&P 500 the Friday before option expiration