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Showing posts from January, 2022

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A "Love-Hate" Relationship With Pfizer Options

Pfizer options often disappoint however there are times when they can be your best friend. Let me try and explain. First look at it's five day chart. The 24.50 series of Calls have more than doubled in price in two days. Volatile stocks like this in this price range attract an inordinate amount of attention when it comes to option trading and it only flares up during these brief periods when the stock has these extreme price moves. Look at the open interest in this one series of Calls below. It's quite substantial. Now for a simple calculation. If the stock moves up today to $25.00 these $.37 cent options on the 24.50 series of options will probably move up to the $.55 cent range. Buy and sell let's say a block of 25 contracts and you will be rewarded with a nice gain. Now let we share this one observation. Here is a look at how the D.J.I.A. traded yesterday. It was down. Who wants to be holding short term Call options overnight if the markets are souring? Wouldn't t...

Disappointment on The Opening - Caterpillar Earnings Report

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Caterpillar's earnings report. What I see is 4th quarter sales up 23%. Strong 4th quarter earnings of $3.71 per share.That's a solid number. Just think, the supply chain issue isn't being used as a mistake. Now look at the the opening options market. The stock is down on the news. Management made a few remarks about near term headwinds. They do that sometimes to temper growth expectations. These two quotes are the 205 Call series which expire today. One is at 9:44 a.m. and one is at 10:03 a.m.. They would be very dangerous to consider purchasing since its very unlikely that they could ever shake off this downward spike so early in the morning. So now what? It's at this time in the morning when the decision to reacte to this bad news gets tricky. The stock is down like ten dollars and the DJI is having a good day. There is a strong tempation to jump in on the upside hoping for a quick reversal. That's one of the things that makes option trading so difficult. One...