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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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Ford Always Piggybacks G.M.'s Earning Reports

Look out. Option players can get whipsawed. A good earnings report can turn out to be a bad earnings report. If you have time read this.
Here is how G.M. traded yesterday after the release of their quarterly earnings report.
A heathy earnings report and the stock sold off in price. Now these two readouts.
With the stock closing at $50.02 cents might it rebound on the morning after? Now look at this.
These options in the first hour of trading don't know what they want to do and they still have a few days life left in them. Ford has an earnings report coming out Feb. 5th. The results of G.M. large cash flows might tweak the interest in owing Ford Calls. Folks this is real time action where trading decisions abound. Here is a 10:03 a.m. printout of how G.M. is trading on the day.
The stock is doing nothing. Let's look now at the Ford short options knowing their earning report is coming out in a few days. .
Here is it's five day chart. It sold off yesterday in sympathy with G.M.'s decline.
What do I think is going to happen? The tariff talks are a big scare and options on $50.00 priced stocks do not swing as much as options on stocks that cost double or triple that amount. Yet the real point of this blog is to point out that this piggyback type of action of Ford and G.M. happens four times a year. It's now 3:17 p.m., a few hours after this first posting. G.M. makes cars and trucks in both Canada and Mexico. Trump is talking tariffs this weekend. Will this become a new reality which might start to weigh in and push the price of both of these stocks down? G.M. isn't rebounding.
.Now this.
. Now the Jan 30th opening for the 50 series G.M. Calls. These are dangerous options to be in with time running out and the clock ticking as to why the tariffs might be imposed. I would just bail on them and step aside from trying to play Ford for the upside.
I actually like options on higher priced stock better which often swing more or options on stocks in the $10.00 range. Now this. A look at the G.M. chart for the day.
Here are the 50 series of Calls at the end of the day.
G.M. ended up closing out the week (Jan 30th) at $49.43. After following this action all week waiting for an upward rebound the stock fizzled out. Now let's look ahead to February 4th which is a Tuesday. As we can see G.M. is still caught up in tariff worries.
The new question is the one of will Ford stock now suprise? None of this is a walk in the park. With earning coming out after the closing bell tomorrow here is the Feb 4th five day chart and the closing readings on this Friday's Calls and Puts. Their numbers are all crazy expensive.
Read my Feb 9th blog to see how next week Ford Put options fared.

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