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Costco. It's Short Term Options

 Options on stocks in the $1,000  range often move  50%  or more in only a matter of  minutes on the opening on Wednesday and Thursday's . The trick is to  anticipate correctly which way the markets are going to move. That's a fools game you might say? Yes and no. It may not be a game you ever play but it might be something to consider to put in your bag of tricks when you are on a role. One thousand dollar stocks sometimes move five, ten or fifteen dollars on the day. If you have profits it's best to take them quickly. Costco is a prime example of that. Let's look at this mornings action. First it's five day and one day charts. Tuesday's trading was kind of choppy. Might it drop on the opening tomorrow? Here is a look at where the 1,035 series of Puts closed that expire this Friday. They closed at $8.50. It looks like Costco cycled up about five times yesterday. Given a weak market opening doesn't it stand to reason a three or four or five dollar will be i...
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Snowflake Part Two : Thursday Overnight Position Going Into The Final Day Of An Options Life Are Not My Cup Of Tea

The 172.50 series of options on this stock will expire tomorrrow. Today is a Thursday. The first printout shows a bit of a struggle on the opening in the first nine minutes of trading and a return to price it closed at in the previous session. (It did have a nice rally on the previous day then to only give it up). Could it rally again this morning? Now the second printout below the following paragraph shows the high volume of trading pouring into this series of Calls just after the opening.
These high volumes of trading shown below happened in the five minutes and twenty one seconds of the trading session. Traders bought in on a slight dip looking for a reversal. Good for them. Are these traders hoping to be out at a profit in the next fifteen or thirty minutes? Yes. Get in and get out. Catch a profit as the stock is deciding which way it will go. It's early in the morning trading session and the volume of trading is always the highest in the first and in the last hour of trading. What were the indexes doing? They were somewhat offside. If they were going down in a big way these Call options traders would be sitting on the sidelines.
Can you see these high volumes I am talking about? Contrast these option trading volumes to the stock First Solar I also mentioned in my last blog.
Now for some news. The party for these Call options is now over. The high of the day turned out to happened at exactly 9:39:00 a.m. Look at it's one day chart.
Are you able to see how at 9:58 a.m. these options have gone cold? Yes they still have one day to go before they expire but why not take a profit when it is there? Anyone buying in at 9:35:24 a.m. had a chance to get in at $1.25 and then to get out at prices up to the $1.98 mark per contract at 9:39:00 a.m. That turned into a four minute window of opportunity to take a profit. To much work and to much detail to keep track off you might say? Maybe, however that's what Thursday morning option trading is all about. It's the one day of the week not to let open positions whittle away. The tip off this time that this could happen was the high volume of Call options traded in the first five minutes of trading. Learn to take profits on one day to expiracy options when you see them. Now lets speed things up to the last five minutes of trading with a late in the day look at it's five-day trading chart. Now it's time to adapt a new strategy if you want a piece of the action. Look for a striking price closer to the stocks now current trading price, $2.50 cents lower to be exact. That's if you now want to play the stock for a morning bounce. Yet why would you? The risk is to great. Why hold an overnight postion like this? The stock could sell off two dollars on the opening.
I don't really like it's sideways moving action all day. To me it doesn't inspire a Friday morning bounce. Now look at the 170 Calls with five m inutes to go.
Here are these same options on the close. The last five minutes of trading were rough on them.

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