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Showing posts from January, 2022

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How Option Makers Are Trying To "Close The Door" On Afternoon Last Day Option Trading"

This is something new that is affecting retail option traders which I have never really paid attention to before. I guess I am always learning. Option makers are taking steps to steer option traders away from chasing the option market from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. on the "last-day-Friday-afternoon-options". It's only noticable on certain stocks like Exxon. I just came apon this after writing a blog about trading friday morning one day Call options on Exxon. Look at the "bid-and-ask" on this series of Calls on Exxon at 1:11.p.m. Look at how wide the spread is. Sixty one cents! That's crazy wide and if your stuck in a postion that you want to get out of at a fair price well good luck. Placing in a sell ticket by spliting the difference between the bid and ask would probably cause the bid to drop. This would force you to lower your asking price once again. In other words the liquidity is not there. This is in spite of it's mornings option trading being bris...

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...