Good morning readers! It’s Monday, the day after Superbowl Sunday. And a super bowl it was! Being a New Yorker, it’s tough to watch the Eagles or the Patriots win, but congratulations to Philadelphia on their first Superbowl win ever.
I’m sorry I haven’t gotten to this report over the weekend but I had a lot going on with the Superbowl, coaching basketball and running Fiore’s Pizza. Being Monday, it’s time to get to work, so let’s get to my trades that came to an end this past Friday.
I had trades ending with Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Skechers (SKX) and RH.
Advanced Micro Devices
Way back on 6/26/17 I bought 2000 shares of AMD at $14.39. At that time I sold a few Calls. In Oct the stock took a big dip and I haven’t been able to get Calls sold. This week, going into earnings, the stock came up to the point where I was able to get a Call sold with a decent premium. I was hoping the earnings report was great and I would get assigned. The earnings were very good and the stock came up a little but now it pulled back again. As I write the stock is at $12.15, two bucks below where I bought. I keep the stock and I keep my $400 premium.
1/30/18 – Sell to Open 20 AMD 2/2/18 $14.50 C @ 20¢ (+$400)
2/2/18 – Expired 20 AMD 2/2/18 $14.50 C
Profit +$400
Skechers
On Monday I saw a good opportunity for a SKX Covered Call. I bought 1000 shares at $40.80 and sold 10 contracts of the $41 Calls. The stock was above my Strike Price for most of the week but on Friday it dropped below. On Friday, with the market pulling back, I had a basketball practice at 3pm and wasn’t going to be near my computer at the close. I wanted to get assigned to get out of the position, but with the market heading south it looked doubtful. With the stock at my buy-in price of $40.80, and me having to go to practice, I decided to take a chance and sell my 1000 shares and go naked on my Call with an hour and a half left to the trading week; I got out at $40.80. The stock did continue down and closed in the $40.50 area. I was out of the stock, my Call expired and the entire position was closed out. I broke even on the stock and kept the $700 premium.
1/29/18 – Buy 1000 Shares SKX @ $40.80
2/2/18 – Sell 1000 Shares SKX @ $40.80
Profit 0
1/29/18 – Sell to Open 10 SKX 2/2/18 $41.00 C @ 70¢ (+$700)
2/2/18 – Expired 10 SKX 2/2/18 $41.00 C
Profit $700
RH
Also on Monday I put in an order to sell a 15 contract Call on RH against 1500 shares I own. As soon as I entered the trade order I was executed on 12 of the 15 Calls. The stock headed down and I was never filled on the other 3 contracts. This was a nice Call with a $2 premium. With the 15 Calls I would have made a $3000 premium but since I was only filled on 12 my total premium was $2400. I’ll take it! I was not assigned on this Call so I still own my 1500 shares of RH.
1/29/18 – Sell to Open 12 RH 2/2/18 $106 C @ $2 (+$2400)
2/2/18 – Expired 12 RH 2/2/18 $106.00 C
Profit +$2400
It was another great week of locking in profits, however, my 3 holdings of RH, Advanced Micro and Micron are all down from where I bought so getting a Call sold this week might be difficult. Let’s see what happens this week.
Total Weekly Gain +$3500
I hope you had a great Superbowl weekend!
Steve
The Options Coach
Hello Steve.
I am curious about whether you take a different or modified approach to Options Trading when the market is heading down like it has last Friday and today. Is there anything that you do that is fundamentally different or do you apply the same rules whether in a bull or bear market?
Thank You.
Devan
Hi Devan, thank you for the question. Yes, I do have a different approach for a bull and bear markets. I will not change too much after a few days of the market going down. However, once it’s established the market will go down for a while or we get into a long term bear market you will notice I’ll do a lot more Naked Calls. During a flat or down market I don’t like to own stock. Selling Naked Calls is my #1 strategy. I haven’t done many lately because the market has been only moving up. Naked Call in a bull market is very dangerous.
Steve
Thanks Steve. Appreciate the knowledge and education on how to handle both types of markets. Agree that we are not in a bear market, just very volatile.
Regards,
Devan