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Blah I can't get filled :( Nice eye. Libor gonna take them down down down.
$NAV losing it here..
Out $NFLX w 80 puts @ .20 from .09
.18 x .21
.14 x .18 gogogo
$NFLX w 80 puts .12 x .14
$NFLX 80 w puts .12 x .13
Looking for an exit around .20 here
$NFLX w 80 puts .10 x .11
In $NFLX w 80 puts @ .09 from the first tee
Yessir.
Optionshouse clock is on eastern time so when you get filled at 9:40 (eastern) it says 8:40 on the time sheet. I live in Texas, central time.
In $NFLX w 80 puts @ .09 from the first tee :)
I like it sam. Was eyeing these at .20 yesterday and wish i had pulled the trigger.
Don't trade like this:
SPY 6 Jul 12 (W) 135.00 Put $0.17 Limit Day BTO 500 Filled 07/06/2012 08:40:46
SPY 6 Jul 12 (W) 135.00 Put $0.19 Limit Day STC 500 Filled 07/06/2012 08:53:11
It takes 2 things to trade large amounts of OTM options on expiration day, stupidity and brass balls.
It would depend on your trading style, but trading through TDA would certainly be more cost effective than trading through options express, and TDA's TOS tools are second to none imo. Understand though that many plays on this board involve OTM (out of the money) options which will be priced low, so let's say for example an option is priced at .05 (so $5 per contract), and someone on this board who you respect buys the options at that price and you would like to as well.
Let's say you start with $1,000 in your account, and you only want to spend $50 on each options trade (note that this is high and you usually only want to be using 1-2% of your total liquidity for options trading on one trade at any given time).
So, you buy 10 contracts at .05 (or $5 since you multiply the options price x 100 to get the price of one contract) a piece at TD Ameritrade. Now here is the problem, you have to pay $9.99 + .75 per contract to TDA. So you've bought $50 worth of contracts but you've also spent $17.50 in commissions! So now your cost basis is $67.50 and you only have $50 worth of options. Now let's say the option goes to .10 from .05. You've made a double, nice work! Your $50 option is now $100, nice!
But not so fast. Now you have to pay the commissions again to be able to trade out of the option. So you pay the $9.99 + .75 per contract commission again. So now you've spent another $17.50 in commissions, so $35 total, and even though you've doubled your money from $50 to $100, you've really only made $15! ($100 profit - $50 options cost - $35 in commissions). Just to break EVEN on this trade you needed an increase in the option price of 70%. That's insane to try to do consistently.
You can see how these plays would be off-limits to you, and you'd be limited to buying a higher or lower strike price which would be more suitable for your commission and fee structure. For instance if this were a $100 strike price on stock XYZ and it were priced at .05, perhaps you would have had to buy the $98 strike price for .50, so that you would only have to buy one contract instead of 10. Even then, you would have to make a considerable gain to break even, and if the stock moved up quickly you wouldn't reap the benefits that you would have if you had been able to buy the .05 options.
If we had made the same trade at optionshouse you would have been able to buy those same contracts for only $8.95 + .15 per contract, or a little over $10. This would have saved you an extra ~$14 in commissions just on this ONE trade. That's $14 more in your portfolio to trade with, or $14 for you to spend on your wife at dinner : P
Anyway hope this helps, it is important to have great tools and great pricing, which is why sometimes using the best parts of each broker at the same time can be beneficial.
Wow this was hard to type on a phone haha.
Optionsexpress has good tools, but is very, very expensive. I wouldn't recommend them for a beginner. Your best bet is to open an optionshouse account and use TD Ameritrade's tools for learning/charting/analyzing/researching. Just my 2 cents but I think many here would agree. It is by far the most cost effective.
OK off to golf for real, tee time in 50 minutes. Have a good one folks!
You can open up accounts with very little. Optionshouse has a $1,000 minimum which isn't a lot. You can get started with that much as well. Buying even $20 worth of options can sometimes yield $200 in profits if played correctly. You can build a sizeable bankroll from just about nothing. Other brokers require more or less. Interactive Brokers, for example, requires $10,000.
The two brokers I recommend from a professional standpoint are Interactive Brokers and Optionshouse. I would suggest opening up an account with OH and using tools from a different broker (for instance TOS by TD Ameritrade). OH's tools aren't great, but their commissions are fantastic especially when buying large amounts of OTM/low priced contracts. Other than that just read reviews of the various brokers and choose which one best suits you, but I feel confident in both of those brokers.
Actually one more trade, In $SPY July-13 133 puts @ .42
I expect this to run to well over a dollar.
I'm off to the golf course boys, happy trading!
Out $GLD 154 w puts @ .50
$GLD 154 w puts closed @ .27 and will double that tomorrow.
In $GLD 154 w puts @ .24
Its going to completely depend on the jobs report.
Nice to see all the respected penny players making a transition over to options. Welcome to all of you guys! I think your skills will translate well, good luck!
$GLD 154 w puts closed @ .27 and will double that tomorrow.
In $GLD 154 w puts @ .24
$GLD puts for tomorrow, my only play.
In $GLD 154 w puts @ .24
Grrrr, the selling comes in before market open, hate that.
EUR/USD down over 1%, markets pretty steady. I think I'll be grabbing puts today. Just my opinion.
Hmm, quite a few opposing views all over the place today. Going to be a much harder trading day than anticipated for many I think.
Down $1100 in the last week or so Mikey, I feel your pain..
We'll get 'em next week bud!
Ronin!
Out $SPY w 136 puts @ .36 from .37
Meh.
DON'T FORGET MARKETS CLOSE AT 1 P.M. EST TODAY!
Just a friendly reminder.
$SPY 136 weekly puts .42 x .43
In $SPY 136 weekly puts @ .37
In $SPY 136 w puts @ .37
$VXX testing 14...wow
In the coming month, yes, I do. Not specifically talking about today.
$NFLX puts gonna be money in the next month imo.
Big divergence going on. Price staying steady while big selling continues.
Great resource for economic reporting events
http://globalbasic.econoday.com/byweek.asp?cust=global-basic&lid=0
This is a great resource tool for unemployment numbers, PMI, construction numbers, home sales, factory orders etc. etc.
Basically any numbers that are to be reported can be found here along with an explanation for what each of them mean.
Enjoy!
Calls for today.
Resistance @ 595.60, then depending on headlines out of Europe should technically be clear up to about the 612.70 area.