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A Jumpy Week For Caterpillar - A Week With Earning Reports

Here is Thursday's trading on the day on Caterpillar. Here is how the $417.50 calls that expire tomorrow closed the day. Something happened this week. Caterpillar had a quarterly earning report come out on Tuesday. It's stock trading action survived this news unscathed. Here is it's five day chart as of the end of Thursday. Maybe the 420.00 or the 422.50 series Calls are better to look at? Here they are. But wait. Deere got clobbered today on the release of a quarterly earning's report. Why didn't Caterpillar sell off in price in sympathy? It shoud have. Deere sold off $34.70. For this reason alone I would be more inclined to purshase the Puts. Here is the series I would consider. To be continued.
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Exxon Mobile - Numbers On Option Prices Swirling In The Air

Is this a game to hard for the little guys to play in? I don't usually follow options on Exxon but I played them often forty years ago when I was a stockbroker. Back then the spreads on options were in 1/8 th's. Sometimes the back office would skim an 1/8 off the ticket fills especially if the ticket was for like ten contracts. Exxon had a big jump today. People again are talking about the price of oil.
Might it retrace half it's gains?
I note that in the last six minutes of option trading on the day today (Tuesday June 7th) these option prices remained unchanged. That's a bullish signal as day traders were not anxious to cash out. Let's see what happens next. I jumped in and watched the "oil news". Every hour a new article would seem to pop up about why it is surging. Is it surging or spiking? It's a game most people should not being playing. It's dangerous and it's price swings are impossible to predict. I got in on Tuesday and on Wednesday with Friday Puts. I don't want to tell you what I got out at but my perspective is that the exercise requires way too much babysitting. If your running on profits and if you want to see if you can extend your winning streak then go ahead and knock yourself out and try it.
It's not a fun game to play because so much of what might happen is out of your control. Look at how the spike I was initially attracted to turned out to be a nightmare until Thursday. There is a lot of short term action in this five day chart. It's crazy. *** Look at what happened to Exxon the following Monday.
Sometimes it pays to buy options two weeks out and not only days from expiring. ** a June 17th update. Look at this stock drop over five dollars in one day. What a freefall.

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