Look at how this stock opened.
Now look at these two series of Puts that expire tomorrow.
What do I notice? The stock is up almost $20.00 and trader's are not jumping in to play the downside. There has to be a reason for that. It's not like seeing Boeing jump up $4.00 on a Monday morning and to then decide to play it downwards. What I do notice is the number zero when it comes to the number of Puts traded on it's options that expire tomorrow. This is at a time when the DJIA is down 101 points.
Now this 17 minutes later. The stock has not given up any of it's gain.
Now this.
What to I think? My focus is on "daytrading" options with Thursday being my least favorite day of the week to be making trades. If you are playing the options series expiring the next day (the Friday options) the premiums charged to be in the game are to expensive. That plus you have about a 50-50 chance of guessing corectly which way the market is going to open on the following day. I would rather catch the fresh action of the first few seconds or moments on the Friday's opening. Therefore I wouldn't be trading these "First Solar" Calls. Now back again to this mornings action. As the stock jumped upwards I had no tools to access information as to why this move was happening. It wasn't a day for earnings reports day or anything like that. Let's jump forward and look at how First Solar closed out the day.
Is a look at the 300 series of Puts that expire tomorrow shown above warranted? Here is it's five day chart.
Friday morning and the stock jumps again. Now look at what the 300 series of Puts are trading at.
This stock can't go up forever. Let's look at what the series of Puts ten dollars higher is now trading at.
Now it's chart.
This is where it is going to start to get interesting. The spike upwards could be sputtering. Now the 310 series of Puts at 10:16 a.m.
Notice the low of the day of $3.20 and the "bid-and-ask" of $1.82 and $4.95 back at 9:54 a.m. Now a 10:30 a.m. update.
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Fighting strong stocks is an interesting game.
Now this at 11:05 a.m. Here is the dark side of option trading rearing it's ugly head on last options on high flying stocks. The option makers are taking a defensive stance to keep traders away from chasing the action. Look a the crazy high spreads that have suddenly popped up on the "bids-an-ask". Suddenly these options have become near impossible to trade. But wait. That's not entirely true. This stock could be entering a severe downside. Having the option makers become defensive in their pricings could be viewed as a signal that a downside move is invevitable.
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To prove my point let me quickly show you the "bid-and-ask" on Walmarts Calls also expirig today.
Now a noon hour look at First Solar.
Now this. Snowflakes one day chart. What a ride the 300 series of Puts had on the day. Getting into these Puts at noon was the way to go.
This chart also shows us that getting into next weeks's Call options at 3:00 p.m. and getting out at 3:59 p.m. was also a major play it itself. I recognize that reading these blogs is a somewhat exhausting experience. Don't let these blogs be your sole guide to option trading. It is a rough game to be playing. My point in writing this material is to expose you to a world of trading most people never get to see. * Here is how next week's series of 300 Call options traded on the day.
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