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This One Is Too Nervous To Watch. Pfizer

This is a short blog full of twists. Try to get through it. First a five day chart of Pfizer. chart. In the past week it was up $1.05 and it was the 7th most activity traded stock on the NYSE most active list. It's in a breakout mode. Look at how it traded over the last three years. This breakout mode might last a few days, weeks or months. This stock has a history of moving somewhat slower than most stocks. A second quarter earnings report comes out July 30th. If it's good that could add a touch to the stock's price. Now this. As a general rule stocks and options on stocks in this particular price range are difficult to play and in this case everyone is following the same story. Fred down the street and John around the corner and Mark across town are all dialed into the same commentary. There is nothing that really gives you an edge when it comes to playing it. That's the problem. Here now is a look at the Pfizer "next-week-out" $30.00 series of Call optio
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Caterpillar "Calls" and an Introduction To Pre Market Trading.

What an exhausting week for seasoned option traders. It's not over yet. Here is a trade I entered into today Thursday at 3:59:32 p.m. Here now is it's five day chart. I could have purchased "Mcdonald's" instead, it's about the same price. Let's see what happens tomorrow.
On a differing note, "Elon" can't be to happy these days with the way his stock is performing.
Part two of this blog. It's an introduction to pre market option trading, something I seldom talk about. When you google "when is the best time to trade options" what comes up? When I did it and here is what I found. Pre-market trading can be very deceiving and should only be reserved for seasoned experienced traders. The most viable types of stock worth trading pre-markets are gapper/dumper stocks, usually during earning season. When I read this type of stuff I get a little bit upset. How are option traders to learn anything from this kind of Mumbo Jumbo? If you come back tommorow I will tell you a story about my "pre-market" trading in "Caterpillar" today. **** Part three of this blog. I want to talk about the 3:59:32 p.m. trade I referred above. This will be a good example of a pre market trade. Here is how the futures looked Friday morning before the opening bell.
What a perfect time to be illustrating an "at market" pre trade knowing that I will not most likely lose any money. With a pre trade ticket there are no "Bids" or "Ask" on the screen so you can specify a price you are willing to sell it at or you can just go in "at market". I did it "at market" to show how it works. Below are two fills, one showing my "at market" ticket for two "Caterpillar Calls", two of which I purchased just prior to the previous closing and a second sale of another two, one being the "at closing" Caterpillar "Calls" and one being a contract I picked up earlier in the previous day.
I know it's difficult to read but the report of my pre market fill came in at 9:30.04 a.m. which is very impressive and the second fill was another 9:32.30 fill. Was I happy with the first fill number? Yes because if you look at the opening chart "Caterpillar" only opened a touch higher at 242.20 after closing at 241.86. Here is a chart of it's action on the Friday morning opening.
What's missing from the printouts of my statements is what time that I placed the order. It was around 8:45 a.m.. forty-five minutes before the opening bell. Why do they do that? Why don't they show you what time the fill actually happened at? I think it has something to do with protecting themselves in case of any price issue disputes going forward. That's only a minor issue. Does all of this leave you scratching your head wondering what I am talking about? In this case I am showing how I went into a Friday morning trading session with four "Caterpillar", "Call options" which expired that day, three of which I purchased only seconds before the close on the previous day and how I came out of the experience with a profit in the first ninety seconds of the trading session. In retrospect had I held onto my positions for thirty minutes or so I would have made more. Also in retrospect I could have bought in again after the dip on the opening like I talked about doing last week at this very same time. Oh well. My point is that pre market trades are done fairly and going in "at market" shows the respect some people like myself have for the system treating all selling tickets fairly. That's a perspective gained from making thousands of option trades over the years. Should I have traded "Mcdonalds" instead of "Caterpillar"? Well here is it's chart and a comparison of how it did on the day.
With both postions selling out in the first thirty minutes of trading rather than in the first few minutes of trading or in the pre markets would have being a better way to go.
More about pre market trading in future blogs. Using such a technique surely does free up your day for other things. Here also is an end of the day printout showing that other opportunities existed to play the 230 series of "Calls" on Caterpillar on Friday.

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