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Another Attempt To Explain Exxon Options.

There are times I feel safer playing Exxon Call and Put options than I do playing options on other companies. Why? Well today this happened and the options didn't move to much. What the heck was all that stuff? It was information that flows. It's humbling to read it. There are so many parts in motion which somehow mesh together to create Exxon's price at any one momeent. What I like about trading Exxon is that when it moves, it moves quickly. That plus when it does move the options on them move a chunk at a time. That can be a good thing. Here is Exxon's five day chart. It's had some recent really big moves. I picked something difficult. Two series of options on Exxon that expire at 3:00 p.m. tomorow. Here is how they closed today, a Thursday. Let's be clear. This is not a situation I would like to be in. Which way is the stock going to move on the opening? I note that there are four times more Calls outstanding than there are Puts. It's not uncommon t...

Netflix Options Are Humbling

The little small fish players can't play them. Especially on the morning of an earning's release. Here is one comment on what happened.
Is that observation something we should keep in mind (the weakening dollar value aspect) on other soon to be reported earnings reports? The pricings on Netflix options are astronomically high on the eve of their quarterly earnings report. Here is it's five day chart.
Now here we are going into a Friday morning opening fresh after an earnings release and here is how the 1275 series of Puts closed on Thursday at 4:00 p.m.
Are you able to see the price they closed at? They closed at $39.75 a contract! Are the Calls any cheaper? Not really.
True to form there are slightly more outstanding open Call positions than Puts. Now image this. If you own a block of this stock you can sell the Calls and Sell the Puts simultaneously. If the stock closes up ten dollars on the day the Puts expire worthless and that money now belongs to you. Then you would have to buy back the Calls which would then be worth about $9.07. So on one hand you made $39.75 and on the other side you lost $32.18. If the stock goes down $10.00 on the day what you make on selling the Calls more than offsets what you have to pay to buy back your Puts. It becomes a bet on the stock staying within a range of $40.00 of where it closed on the previous day. Forget trying to play them. Stick to the Tesla, Caterpillar and Boeing type of option trades. Now this. A readout at 9:43 a.m.. This is game changing news. The stock is down $54.64.
All of our calculations are suddenly thrown out the window. A straight buy of Puts would have generated a gain of about 50% in the first ten minutes of trading. A better gain had you purchased Puts twenty or thirty dollars "out-of-the-money". Yet let's forget the doing the spread angle on this stock. Or this. Think of the money made from just selling a Call (if your account would allow you to do that) prior to the closing on Thursday! As we will see, a $41.00 Call will be expiring worthless in one day! The charts kind of suggest that this could happen. Netflix options should be viewed as holding "dynamite". Now a 10:30 a.m. chart.
This kind of action can't be reversed. Now the closing numbers on the day.
****
** Alphabet (GOOGL) reports after the close on July 23th. Here are is it's five and thirty day charts.
If you are using You Tube this summer shame on you for not owning Call options on it in the last thirty days. What were you thinking?

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