Conservative option strategies, what did you buy or sell today?

[NilesMike]

TSLA down $10 pre market. Let's see the flush.

[crimsonghost747]

(04-11-2019, 06:19 AM)NilesMike Wrote: TSLA down $10 pre market. Let's see the flush.

Was it so that your max profit is when/if it hits $260?

There is a lot of worrying news around Tesla currently. But I might still sell another put around that $245 mark.

[NilesMike]

(04-11-2019, 06:35 AM)crimsonghost747 Wrote:

(04-11-2019, 06:19 AM)NilesMike Wrote: TSLA down $10 pre market. Let's see the flush.

Was it so that your max profit is when/if it hits $260?

There is a lot of worrying news around Tesla currently. But I might still sell another put around that $245 mark.

Expiring at $260 would be max profit, but I'm only looking 25% of max. $125 per on $10 buy.

I have NO IDEA where TSLA or any other name will wind up but I like the R/R

[fenders53]

Looks like it will turn out to be a good play Mike. The only thing that seems certain going forward is that TSLA will be volatile. Sure it could make a round trip to $230 and back. I fail so see an upside catalyst that launches this thing high in the short term. The US demand thesis is broken. If it gets better starting today, the data is not collected and reported 10 days from now.

Be careful here Crimson. TSLA might be a wonderful long term hold. We just don't really know. But this bird is winged and the negative media will be ruthless and wear out the coverage on anything negative for now. TSLA vaguely reminds me of the first decade of AMZN. But Bezos is stable and that is an important difference. Elon is getting in trouble when the sky looked fairly bright. I think that's an important difference. Just sharing thoughts, and trying to be helpful. I know I pretend to "know" a lot of things. Maybe it's because I have been so wrong over the years and learned a few hard lessons on these high fliers when the helium finally gets out of the balloon.

[NilesMike]

Selling 17MAY19P 20 Strike in DAN for .70, 3.6% if expires OTM. Hoping to scoop it up in the 19.30 price though.
It has some room to go and 2.0% dividend isn't the worst thing in the world.

[fenders53]

Here are a few recent success and potentially a fail story to share. I sold puts on DIS, PRU, BWA, several airline stocks and my usual batch of UTES. Very quick profit on most of them and the UTEs are doing well enough. My CVS put sell is hanging in there.

My UNH 235 put is in peril big time and it happened fast, REAL fast. That stock dropped 20 points in a few days with the Bernie plan getting attention. Ill ride it out, and roll it forward if I need to. Selling more time cures most of y problems. I am truly OK with going long UNH, but I prefer not to pay $25 above market if I can avoid it. Nobody said this was always easy lol.

Opinions welcomed on playing health insurance providers at this time. It was obviously a real bad idea this week.

Still hoping AAPL pulls back $10 so I can tap dance and not give away my long position. Cramer has been warning me not to trade AAPL for 5 years. Not the first time he was right on this subject.

You having any problems on any positions right now Mike? Hopefully not. I'll check out DAN. I'm not familiar with the ticker.

[NilesMike]

(04-13-2019, 08:04 PM)fenders53 Wrote: You having any problems on any positions right now Mike? Hopefully not. I'll check out DAN. I'm not familiar with the ticker.

No problems at present time. I don't have a lot open right now but they are balanced long and short directionally.

Can change quickly as you know.

[fenders53]

(04-13-2019, 09:06 PM)NilesMike Wrote:

(04-13-2019, 08:04 PM)fenders53 Wrote:  
You having any problems on any positions right now Mike?  Hopefully not.  I'll check out DAN. I'm not familiar with the ticker.

No problems at present time. I don't have a lot open right now but they are balanced long and short directionally.

Can change quickly as you know.

Yes they can turn on a dime.  I typically have 15 or more open most of the time because most are truly conservative plays and I can let them ride when they should be closed sooner.  It's just a percentage game and I collect my targeted net income most every month, even when things go against me somewhat.  I do cry when one or two become a challenge to manage.  There is some purpose to that though.  I don't have such an ego that I need to brag here when it isn't warranted.   I don't ever want to make anyone think this is always easy so I will keep whining about the bad ones just to keep it real.

[NilesMike]

(04-13-2019, 09:43 PM)fenders53 Wrote:

(04-13-2019, 09:06 PM)NilesMike Wrote:

(04-13-2019, 08:04 PM)fenders53 Wrote:  
You having any problems on any positions right now Mike?  Hopefully not.  I'll check out DAN. I'm not familiar with the ticker.

No problems at present time. I don't have a lot open right now but they are balanced long and short directionally.

Can change quickly as you know.

Yes they can turn on a dime.  I typically have 15 or more open most of the time because most are truly conservative plays and I can let them ride when they should be closed sooner.  It's just a percentage game and I collect my targeted net income most every month, even when things go against me somewhat.  I do cry when one or two become a challenge to manage.  There is some purpose to that though.  I don't have such an ego that I need to brag here when it isn't warranted.   I don't ever want to make anyone think this is always easy so I will keep whining about the bad ones just to keep it real.

I try to avoid the "problems" by only selling puts in something I wouldn't mind owning. Otherwise I buy calendars or butterflies where the R/R is very good albeit a lower winning percentage.

[fenders53]

(04-13-2019, 10:22 PM)NilesMike Wrote:

(04-13-2019, 09:43 PM)fenders53 Wrote:

(04-13-2019, 09:06 PM)NilesMike Wrote:

(04-13-2019, 08:04 PM)fenders53 Wrote:  
You having any problems on any positions right now Mike?  Hopefully not.  I'll check out DAN. I'm not familiar with the ticker.

No problems at present time. I don't have a lot open right now but they are balanced long and short directionally.

Can change quickly as you know.

Yes they can turn on a dime.  I typically have 15 or more open most of the time because most are truly conservative plays and I can let them ride when they should be closed sooner.  It's just a percentage game and I collect my targeted net income most every month, even when things go against me somewhat.  I do cry when one or two become a challenge to manage.  There is some purpose to that though.  I don't have such an ego that I need to brag here when it isn't warranted.   I don't ever want to make anyone think this is always easy so I will keep whining about the bad ones just to keep it real.

I try to avoid the "problems" by only selling puts in something I wouldn't mind owning. Otherwise I buy calendars or butterflies where the R/R is very good albeit a lower winning percentage.

That is my first rule for sure.  Discipline matters or you will get in trou ble soon enough.  Of course the story can change, and sometimes a month later I would much rather buy 25 shares  than 100 in a high SP stock.     If I decide to go long on a falling knife, I would average in for sure.  I think politicians are going to make some buying opportunities in the healthcare industry.  They have me hesitant to be overweight in anything related right now.

[crimsonghost747]

Quick question on rolling forward
I imagine the tactic is slightly different for calls and puts.
But say you have a covered call that looks to be expiring in the money. You just buy it back and sell one for the next week/month/whatever at the same strike? Or do you also mess around with changing the strike to adjust? Timeframe? I guess you guys regularly sell monthly options? I would be mainly interested in using these on a weekly basis, still worth it or not?

With puts I guess it's a pretty decent way to avoid getting assigned? Have you ever been in a situation though that you need to sell a put with a higher strike in order to get enough premium to make it worth it?

[NilesMike]

I do not roll, to my way of thinking it is but a euphemism. When you roll you are booking the loss and continuing to try and make the trade work. When placing the 2nd trade in a roll situation, I would ask, would you put this trade on if you weren't in it already?

I have a friend who will not let a stock "beat" him and will fight like a dog to scratch the trade. That mentality has not helped his returns and in fact has cost him many superior opportunities because he's tied up in some twisted "battle" with a particular stock. For example he has been rolling ES futures since 11/2016. He is short from 2,100. That's down $40,000 per contract while tying up the margin for 30 months now