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Caterpillar - Catching A Reversal On A Monday

Mondays are not the best of days to look for reversals however Caterpillar jumped upwards a modest amount which impacted the value of this series of Puts. The Puts are off about 50% on the day at this point in time. This is a 1:36 p.m.readout. Here is it's five day chart. Now its one day chart. It's Puts. Why consider them? It would seem like kind of a random thing to do. Why fight a strong stock? One reason is that the markets are only mildly up and could give back some of it's gains before the end of the day. Caterpillar could be gaining strenght based on all of last weeks business articles talking about how Caterpillar could potentially benefit from all this new AI movement. Caterpillar afterall builds heavy equipment which can be used in the construction of nuclear reactors. Notice that the five day chart is in an uptrend and notice the small open interest numbers in the Puts. That's understandable. No one wants to hold Puts on Caterpillar when it is in this...
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The Power Of "One-Month-Out-Options" For Short Term Gains.

It helps when the markets rally on a Monday but that's a secondary issue.
This blog is about stocks in the seventy dollar price range with options on them staggered in thirty day intervals. Is trading in options which trade in only in thirty day intervals better than options on stocks in the same price range that expire every Friday? My experience is that options on stocks that trade every thirty days tend to attract less interest which in turn means that they are less susceptible to "market-maker" manipulations. Yet this isn't really a point I want to debate. Now this, a look at the seventy series of Calls on "Carmax" at the end of the trading session today.
Bid 5:70 ask 5:90. Only two options traded on the day. Let's now look at it's five day chart.
So it jumped a touch but nothing to crazy. Now this, I did a blog last Friday, my previous blog where I showed what the same options were trading at on that day. Here is the printout I want to show.
A 10:39 a.m. readout on Friday morning showing only three option contracts traded with a last trading price traded of $4.07. Is there a lesson here to be gained? Yes, thinly traded "one-month-out" options can be successfully traded. What appreciations are there to be gained? Well there is less market maker manipulations. When you put in a closing sell ticket for only one, two or three contract and if the trend of the stock is upwards you will get a fill without going through the game of watching option makers wiggle the "bid-and-ask" in their favour. One month out options, played correctly are also less stressful to hold because the premiums built into an options price for it's time value will not disappear as quickly as the premiums built into one week out options. That's just the way I see it.

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