Weekly: Faceplant and Musk rat FB TSLA

Facebook and Tesla tumble on Friday on news. FB on a data breech, TSLA on CEO Elon Musk being charged by the SEC on securities fraud for his tweets about taking the company private.

Here are the trades (p=puts, c=calls, number near end is price per contract, sell means sell-to-open, cover means buy-to-close):

Mon Third week option expiration tends to free up a lot of buying power. I slowly put it to work.
Sell TSLA Oct12 220 p 133
Sell SPG Nov 150 p 44

Sell QQQ Oct26 165 p 39
Sell AAPL Oct26 200 p 88

Sell AMZN Oct 2250 c 78
Sell TLRY Oct 350 c 60
Tue Sell TLRY Oct 310 c 65
Sell BRKB Nov 200 p 78
Sell ABMD Oct 360 p 150

Sell UAL Nov 70 p 29
Sell FB Oct 140 p 15

Sell FB Oct 182.5 c 19
Sell FB Oct 145 p 23

Wed Sell GOOGL Nov 950 p 200
Sell PANW Nov 180 p 56

Sell NFLX Oct 500 c 45
Sell FB Oct26 150 p 57

Sell PAYC Nov 120 p 85
Sell BA Nov 300 p 89
Thu Cover GOOGL Oct 1000 p 50 for profit
Cover GOOGL Oct 1300 c 175 for loss
Turned out to be relatively poor timing on closing the straddle, but an overall profit on the two positions while reducing risk.

Sell FB Oct 155 p 39
Sell AMZN Oct26 1600 p 340

Fri Tesla and Facebook tumble on news. I sell calls to offset sold puts, but paper losses are a plenty.
Sell FB Oct26 190 c 17

Sell TSLA Oct05 320 c 39
Sell TSLA Oct 350 c 135

Monthly: 66-4 grade B+, TLRY TSLA and landmines

SPY moves to all time record highs. I count 66 winners 4 losers for the September option cycle. Grade is B+. TSLA was the biggest loser this month. Before new readers get excited about the high win percentage, understand that I have been especially cautious. I am selling options way, way out of the money. Often the probability going in is 92% or higher at entry. So the 94% win rate is about as expected.

Personally, moving was the big story these past few weeks. The move took up a lot of my time and energy. I will be continue to be time pressured during the fall. I will try to keep up with the blog as best I can.

Here are a few etfs year-to-date:

IWM +11.8% Russell 2000 US small cap stocks
SPY +9.8% S&P 500 US large cap stocks

TLT -7.7% US 20-year treasuries
GLD -8.2% gold

EEM -8.3% Emerging market stocks
SLV -15.9% silver

My account up about 12.5% for the year. I am ahead of SPY and IWM. I don’t include QQQ in the etf summary, but am a bit behind that. If at the start of the year, someone offered me up 12%, I’d take that. I am not a spring chicken, so need to be more conservative than a young person with a high savings rate.

As for the market, new highs, new highs, more new new highs. It is still a bull market. Perhaps the most hated bull market of all time. Newbies and veterans keep looking for a crash. To be sure, some valuation metrics such as the Schiller PE10, and GDP vs. total US market cap are at danger levels. The yield curve is flattening, perhaps on its way to inversion. However, all three of those are not timing indicators. To me, it means to stay cautious because a correction can happen at any time.

Weekly: Tilray and the ghost

TLRY had a wild ride. Marked to the market mid, I am in the red, but I am fairly confident that all the options I sold will come in at a profit.

The ghost involves a back office glitch on Thursday morning, causing the margin requirement to be erroneously reported for the first 45 minutes of trading. I wasn’t at a place where I could call, so I closed some profitable positions. When in doubt get out.

Mon Amazon leads a tech sell off. I lose about 1.7% today. Ouch. That’s a really bad day, considering SPY is down 0.56%. I sell calls to reduce my delta. I go way otm, because I fear a snap back rally.

Sell AMZN Oct 2200 c 490
Sell AMZN Sep28 2100 c 278

Sell AAPL Oct5 245 c 14
Sell GOOGL Oct 1300 c 150

Tue I bounce back, recovering all of Monday’s losses.
Cover AMZN Sep28 2100 c 225 for a nice one-day profit

Sell PYPL Oct 77.5 p 21
Sell TSLA Oct5 190 p 127

Sell NFLX Oct 280 p 142
Sell TLRY Oct 40 p 70

Wed Cover GOOGL Sep 1150 p 390 for profit
I took the money and ran after being deep in the red at times on the above put. Had I waited until the close, the put is 118 mid. Ouch.

Tilray has the wildest day imaginable, trading as high as 300, as low as 162, at least five trading halts for volatility.
Sell TLRY Oct 15 p 15

Sell GOOGL Oct 1000 p 190
Sell AMZN Sep28 2110 c 88

Thu A back office glitch causes the margin requirements on my open Amazon positions to skyrocket for the first 45 minutes of trading. Not being in a place to call and question, I close a few positions for profit. When in doubt get out, especially if I can book profits. This is at least the second time I’ve seen this kind of glitch. The other time was after the market close. During trading hours, it seems much scarier.

All profits:
Cover AMZN Sep 2200 c 02
Cover AMZN Oct 2200 c 350
Cover AMZN Sep28 2300 c 22
Cover GOOGL Sep 1300 c 05

Tilray naked calls? The catch is what seems like an absurd 600 strike price. Then again 300 seemed absurd a week ago, and it touched that. I’ll leave the more risky, more profitable plays for the nimble traders.

Sell TLRY Oct 600 c 170
Sell GOOGL Sep28 1075 p 75

Fri Sell SPY Oct26 272.5 p 50

Weekly: mild up week

A mild up week, with SPY challenging its old highs. No major hits or misses for me this week. The moving saga continues. Other parts of my life are also demanding more time, so less time for trading.

Here are the trades (p=puts, c=calls, number near end is price per contract, sell means sell-to-open, cover means buy-to-close):

Mon Cover AAPL Oct 275 c 04 for profit
Sell AAPL Oct 250 c 34
Sell TSLA Sep28 190 p 147
Sell AMZN Sep 2175 c 93

Wed Sell MU Sep 35 p 23
Sell NFLX Sep28 310 p 55
Sell PANW Oct 190 p 35

Thu Rally day. I add long delta.
Sell AAPL Oct5 195 p 27

Sell PAYC Oct 130 p 45
Sell GRUB Oct 115 p 55

Sell IWM Oct5 157.5 p 20
Sell QQQ Oct5 170 p 30

Sell SPY Oct12 275 p 57

Fri Cover BA Sep 275 p 02 profit
Sell BA Oct 300 p 42

Sell NVDA strangles: Sell NVDA Oct 325 c 29
Sell NVDA Oct 230 p 73

Weekly: stress test, down 3%

A stressful week for me. This is an abbreviated post because I’m moving. So I won’t detail the trades. Moving is stressful enough, but the market made for a lot more stress.

I closed positions in Facebook and Tesla for huge losses. Declines in Alphabet aka Google, and Amazon added to the red ink. Overall down about 3% for my account. My gains for the year are around 8% after this horrid week.

I haven’t met anyone that enjoys moving. Hopefully, I’ll get done soon, but it may be a few more weeks of stress. Cheers.