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Showing posts from October, 2022

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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

A Canadian Electric Bus Maker with a Story and A December 13th 2022 Update

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In the past bus manufacturing companies in Canada got a bad rap. Overhead is high and after sales servicing costs can bury you. Having said this do you know about The Lion Electric Company? A Quebec based maker of electric school busses and now planning on opening up a plant in the U.S.. Earnings come out in ten days.They might be losing money but they might be onto something good. Here is some background information as to why the timing may be right this time. Read about them on the "Sedar Website". That tells you everything. Interesting right? A backlog or 2,357 vehicles. They need to execute better to speed up production. In the past that has being a problem. Let's hope they are not locked in at fixed prices. Now for a thirty day chart. Now for it's three year chart. This might suprise. It is a business which requires economies of scale. So here is what I did in the recent past. I am currently down $25.00 I bought two Jan 19th 2024 Calls with a striking price

Boeing Tanks On Bad Earning Reports

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Their third quarter profit came out today. The stock tanked. Then their soldiers quickly marched up and offered support. Here is what they said. The company doesn't appear to be worried about competition but there is repeated mention of supply chain issues. Here is how the stock traded on the day. This is a five day chart so only really focus on it's last day of trading. I think Boeing will be able to shake off a little of this bad news in the next day or two. I bought one Call option at $3.28 at 3.08 p.m. Yet then again with Boeing anything can happen. Now the following day, a Thursday. I bought seven days of trading time but I picked a price I wanted and got out in the premarket at 8:54 a.m. See the time of the fill on the ticket below. I picked my price and it turned out to be the price this series of Calls opened at. I got out at $6.25. I saw Caterpillar up like ten dollars in preopening markets so I knew it was going to be a strong opening. Here is how the stock end

News About Moderna

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There is always news on Moderna. Look at these two charts both showing how it jumped up in price ten days ago. When stocks have a pattern of jumping you only win when you catch the right direction. Here is the background to today's action (Monday Oct 24th and I am looking for an entry point). As mentioned before Mondays are not my favorite time to be purchasing option that expire on Friday. The D.J.I. and Moderna were up today. Moderna is in the spotlight concerning how much the government going to pay for their vacines going forward. Now look at the stock's one day and five day charts. I didn't end up playing it. Let's move on to Tuesday and here is some action. There was a short and slight selloff around 2:15 p.m. Here is what I did. I got in at 12:57 p.m. looking for an afternoon selloff and I got out a 2:16 p.m. at the height of it's mini crash. It was a question of just getting out and asking questions later. (I did spend 15 seconds looking for news but I

A Surprise Caterpillar Jump on a Friday That Option Players Missed.

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The action on Caterpillar on October 21st, 2022 defies logic. Here is it's five day chart showing Friday's action. Read On. In the past I have said that it's stupid to be buying Call or Puts just before a Thursday's closing that expire the next day in anticipation of a rally or a sell off that day. The future market was down big time between 8:00a.m. and 9:00a.m. and then the markets opened flat and then took off. Look at how these for series on Caterpillar Calls traded on the day. $.16 to $510.00 $.05 to $250.00 $.01 to a high of $.67. In hindsite, the tip off to this possibly happening was in the premarkets turning from negative to positive in a short period of time before the opening bell. This kind of action makes it difficult refocus. Now what I didn't show you was the 180 Calls. With the stock trading around 180 on the opening this is the option series you would expect most casual options traders to be playing. Look now at the suprisely low volume of tradi

Towards Understanding the Bids and Asks and a Look at Friday Morning Reversals on An Option That Expired That Day.

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Trying to get a fill can sometimes be an exacerbating experience. On Thursday of last week I wanted out of a Caterpillar 175 Call and had to cancell and wait and resubmite my ticket three times. Why? Whenever my sell ticket would pop up halfway between the bid and ask they would bump down their bid. Cancel my ticket and the bid would move up again. Now take a look a this quote. This time it's of Caterpillar last Friday thirty nine minutes into the trading session.The stock was clearly dropping. At 10:09 a.m. Caterpillar was going down in price after a slight morning uptick. Look at how wide apart the "Bid" and "Ask" where on the Caterpillar 180 Puts. If you want to buy in and place an order of lets say $1.40 what do you think will happen? Watch the bid jump to $1.40 and the ask to $1.65. If you let it sit for a couple of minutes and nothing happens you might decide to cancell your order. What typically then happens is that the bid and ask will drop down again,

Sept. 23 th. The DJI Up Over 800 Points and Caterpillar Jumps

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I played Boeing Calls three times this week and won everytime. In a blog two days ago I reported I don't like playing options on Thursday that expire the next day. The reason being is that if you guess the wrong direction you will lose all your money. Failure is harsh medicine.That being said this time I was watching Caterpillar and it opened down as did the markets. Inflation report numbers came out and everyone got it wrong. I jumped in. Look at how it crashed on the opening. I got in at 9:39 a.m. Look at the chart to see where the stock was at that time. Call me crazy. Here is a better "one day" look at the chart. Now look at when I got in. I got in at 9:35 a.m. and paid $250.00 for one contract. The low on the day was $2.05 and that was before I got in. I had just made more than twice that amount in Canadian dollars paying Boeing so that's the way I justified my actions. A drop of like six or seven dollars. For the first ten minutes after I got in I thought I

Boeing on a Monday Morning

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Last Friday saw a 500 point drop in the DJI. Could you play a Monday morning rebound? I did. I bought in at noon on a friday and on a day where the markets were crashing. Why did I buy in? Sometimes Boeing is first out of the gate on a Monday morning. Now the sale on Monday morning. I was out at 9:55 a.m. Why did I get out? When you turn your computer in the morning and see a Call option you own up four or five dollars you know you have to do something quickly. With Puts not so much. Smart investors just get out. As quickly as it goes up it can also come down. Get out without even researching why it is up. Learn to be happy to catching a blip. That's the way I think. Last week the only real news I saw on Boeing was that they have enough orders on the books to keep everything running. That means money coming in as fast as they can make them. Getting out of the Call option was a little bit of a hassle as it was just starting to sell off. I am always afraid to sell "At Market&