Featured

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.
Post a Comment

Young People And Options

Let me spill out some information. Next-Generation Investors Are Different. An organization called "Finra" published this information. In a 2021 survey the Finra Investor Education Foundation found that 36% of respondents aged 18 t0 34 said they have traded options. That compares with 21% of respondents ages 35 to 54 and just 8% of respondents age 55 and older. Then there are crypto investors. According to something called a Pew Research survey based on Feb 2024 data, 42% of men aged 18-29 have invested in, traded, or used cryptocurrency compared with 17% of women in the same age range. Interestly, just 17% of all adults say they have invested in, traded, or used a cryptocurrency, according to the same 2024 survey. When it comes to buying on margin,in 2021, just under of a quarter, or 23%, of investors ages 18 to 34 said they have made purcheses on margin, compared with 12% of respondents aged 34 to 54 and 3% of respondents age 55 and older. Opening accounts is now easier and there's an explosion of new sources of information and social networks that can encourage risky behaviors. Let's not forget the recent frenzy of meme stock trading. Robinhood knows all this and works in this space.
Look at how it's stock has traded in the last one year.
My point is that young people are experimenting with option trading and the trend is only going to continue. Pick twenty or thirty stocks and just watch them for a few months. Write down turning points you see happening and check out how much at that point in time a Call or a Put costs on any series you pick. Then check back later to see if you were correct in making such a call. Option trading, unfortunately is very much a self taught process.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Living on Kraft Dinner?

Image
What does the word disconnect mean? As a verb it means "to sever or interrupt the connection of or between; detach". Option trading - one day options - is a disconnect from the world. What happens to slightly "out-of-the-money" Call options on Costco when the stock shoot up thirty dollars on the day? I will show you what happened on Friday to Costco Calls and the options on a few other stocks I frequently watch. What a disconnect from the real world. But before that a look at how the indexes traded. 1) Costco. It's five day chart and a look at how three of it's option series moved upwards in one day. You may not know how to read these printouts but try to read the highs and lows on these option pricings. One printout shows an "at-the-money" option which means you are buying a contract on the stock, good for one day only at a locked in price equal to (or very close to) what the stock is currently trading at. The other two contracts shown are ...
Read more

The Little Engine That Could

Image
Walmart again. It's all I seem to blog about. Here is it's five day chart. The stock keeps going up and the option series are set up in one dollar spreads. Even a fifty cent move on the stock moves the needle on these Calls. Look at how this series of Calls was trading yesterday at 3:00 p.m.. Now here is this same series of Calls just before noon today. Thirty days of upward action like this punctuated by the off day of decline. Now notice the higher volume of trading in the series of Calls with the higher striking price. These are the ones's with more leverage. At the same time look at the five day chart on Costco. The two stocks sometimes trade in tandem. Humpty dumpty sat on a wall .... a had a great fall. Someday soon a fall might happen but what a great ride it has been.
Read more

A Fireside Chat - One Year Options and Thirty Day Options. Which is Better?

Image
Some say to think small, not big. Trying to play Disney options is thinking big. It is a stock slightly out of favor. If we start with it's a three year chart, we will see it is down by about 50% over that period of time. Now it's one year chart. If the stock can break 110 in early 2024 the sky is the limit. It does have a lot of moving parts so anything could happen. Look at these Calls options one year out. One year in options buys a lot of time.They look reasonable. If the stock ever inched up to the $105.00 price level in the three or four months these options would jump up in price by about 50%. Even more if they had really good news. Yet it's the "what-if" aspect of the equation that castes such a trade in doubt. "What if" stories just don't cut it. There are to many variables in play. Then again, why are we even thinking of long-term Call options after a December's rally? Let's switch gears. If consumers are out spending for X-ma...
Read more