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THE WEEK AHEAD: M EARNINGS, XOP, TSLA, FCX, X, TWTR, BIDUPictured here is the only earnings announcement-related volatility contraction play with the metrics I'm looking for: greater than 70% rank and greater than 50% 30-day (it was 68/55 as of Friday close). Setup Metrics: 3.40 credit, break evens at 20.60/27.40, -8.20 delta, 3.1 theta. Obvious alternatives would be the April 18th 21/27 short strangle paying 1.21 with break evens at 19.79/28.21, a delta of -4.5, and theta of 2.43 and -- for those with a defined risk bent -- the 19/22/26/29 iron condor in the same expiry, paying 1.23 with 20.77/27.23 break evens, a -2.64 delta, and a theta of 1.15. On the exchange-traded fund front, the highest volatility remains in petro, with OIH, XOP, and USO taking the top three spots for 30-day implied at 31, 30, and 29, respectively, followed by EWZ at 29, and GDXJ at 26. With the exception of GDXJ, however, all of these are in the lower one quarter of their 52-week range (GDXJ's in the 31st percentile). As with last week, I'll continue to sell premium in XOP, albeit smaller than usual, reserving buying power for a richer volatility environment. Single names with earnings in the rear view ranked by 30-day: TSLA (12/49), FCX (24/43), X (18/43), TWTR (8/38), and BIDU (24/35). I'm in a FCX slightly bullish short straddle at 14 as a kind of quasi-bullish copper play, and have gone with a "not a penny more" short put in X (See Posts Below). As alternative plays, the X April 18th 24 short straddle is paying 2.83 (.71 at 25% max) with the 21/27 short strangle paying .84 (.42 at 50% max) The TWTR April 18th 32 short straddle is paying 3.61 at the mid (.90 at 25% max) with the 28/35 short strangle paying 1.19 (.60 at 50% max) in the same expiry. Spreads in both TSLA and BIDU are unattractively wide.
NYSE:M
by NaughtyPines
THE WEEK AHEAD: ADBE, COST EARNINGS; OIH, XOP, UNG DIRECTIONALSPersonally, I'm not doing a ton here beyond looking at cleaning up remaining December cycle setups and evaluating whether there are poo piles that should be looked at for the taking of tax loss in the margin account before year's end. Nevertheless, here's an outline of what's potentially playable in the coming week ... . ADBE (81/49) announces earnings on Thursday the 13th after market close. The 20-delta, January 18th 210/270 short strangle is paying a whopping 8.05/contract at the mid price, with the 25-delta January 18th 215/220/265/270 paying greater than one-third the width of the wings at a mid price of 2.13. Markets are showing quite wide at the moment, particularly in the defined risk setup, however, so it may prove unattractive at New York open from a liquidity standpoint. COST (76/31) also announces on Thursday after market close, but the background implied isn't generally what I'm looking for in an earnings-related volatility contraction play (generally, >50% is where I draw my "picky line"). On the exchange-traded fund front, petro leads the pack, with OIH rank/implied metrics coming in at 95/47, XOP at 79/44, and UNG at 72/86. With OPEC reaching an agreement late last week as to production cuts, I lean toward bullish assumption setups with time to work out/reduce cost basis, since it will take awhile for any cuts to appear in the pipeline. For example: an XOP June/Feb 25/34 upward call diagonal,* 6.55 debit/contract, break even at 31.55 versus 31.54 spot, max profit on setup of 2.45, 72.8% debit paid/spread width ratio. I'm already in a similar OIH bullish assumption setup, which is proving to be a "pulled the trigger" too soon type of thing. The back month in the OIH setup is in April, so I've still got time to reduce cost basis and for the trade to work out in some fashion, even though it's a bit of a rough sled here. With UNG in particular, I continue to look at a bearish assumption seasonality play, but markets on any given setup have been ugly wide, no matter what type of setup I seem to look at, and lack of liquidity is not your friend when doing an options setup. For broad market premium sellers: SPY (47/30), IWM (78/25), QQQ (69/27). * -- Buy the June 25, sell the February 34.
AMEX:SPY
by NaughtyPines
And here's the sell offWhatever you do, dont sell Ripple you bought at a price higher than any fee's and ask/bid spread, if it's too late just hold on, and if you did it right you still have untouched money. Wait it out and try not to sell, it will come back. Most sell off's like this induce fear. Fear generates BAD decisions. Bitcoin is doing terrible. Large investment in XRP has multiple upon multiple profit possibilities. And if you buy it, and have access to useage , use cases, try to support them. In the meantime wait until everyone who freaks out sells and then buy. Big money has been doing to us forever. The signals point down.It will pass. keep money in reserve. Fortis Fortuna Adiuvat. Caveat emptor **I am in no way a professional and posses no license to advise or offer advice, financial services etc. I have studied , can see the b.s. for what it is. I believe in this project, but the community will ultimately decide whether or not they want to replace Bitcoin F.O.M.O. with Ripple proceeds.
BITSTAMP:XRPUSDLong
by Cryptocautious
AUD/JPY Short Sell continue... SELF DEVELOPMENT/METHODOLOGY/PSYCHOLOGY AUD/JPY Short Sell continue... Chart Time frame - 4 Hourly Timeframe - 1-2 weeks Actions on - A – Activating Event Entered short position on the 8th Nov. Below you will see trade management details B – Beliefs Continuing on with trade however moving stop loss closer FX:AUDJPY Trade Management Entered @ 82.93 Stop Loss @ 83.3 (stop loss change to 82.600) Target 1 81.500 Target 2 78.800 Happy trading
Short
by SMPTrader