All Star Options Articles

[12/4/23: updated stop to 100]

Crypto is showing signs of a resurgence. With Bitcoin trading north of $35,000 this week, many of the old bulls are coming out of the woodwork calling for the next crypto run.

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What a difference a week makes!

The powerful rally in stocks shows where the "pain trade" is (higher), and now I'm on the hunt for strong, leading stocks that will continue to turn the screws on the bears.

Let's get after 'em!

The "pain trade" is always higher.

I say that often. And its usually true.

And nothing turns the screws harder on bears than rallies in Tesla $TSLA.

So let's get after them with a "double or nothing" bet.

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The Junior Gold Miners appear to be temporarily stuck in the rocks. And with juicy options premiums to sell, we will take advantage of the range with a delta-neutral credit spread.

If/when the market can find it's footing, today's trade is in a name that I'd like to get aggressively bullish in for a long-term bet.

In the meantime, I'm not ready to be aggressive yet, but there is an opportunity for us to get paid to wait...

I'm making the bet here the Bond Bears may have overshot here. And today's trading action feels to me like $TLT put in an actionable level to lean against for risk management purposes.

This is not a bet that the final bottom is in for bonds....

Well, every attempt I've made at wading back into the bull market pool has been swiftly met by a destabilizing splash made by a bear cannonballing off the diving board.

So, until further notice, I'm going to hang by the cabana sipping on my...

I don't like this market. It can't make up its mind. Things were starting to look promising last week, then Friday happened. And even today, intraday, we're seeing weird, indecisive trading action.

So I know I'm a broken record, but as long as...

The utilities sector has been schmeissed (technical term) over the past couple of months. Its like all of a sudden investors all woke up en masse to finally decide the rising interest rates environment offers better alternatives for their...

Costco earns its margins before you even whip out your credit card at the checkout counter.

How?

They get paid upfront, selling you an annual "membership" that allows you to shop at Costco. That membership is all margin for Costco....

Depending on who you ask, people might agree that consumers are feeling the pinch of inflation. The sentiment that I encounter on a nearly daily basis is: "I can't believe how much _____ costs now. It's insane!"

If we look at a daily chart of...

Yesterday's trading action in $TLT, the 20-year treasury bond ETF, gives me confidence that it might have been a near-term low.

I'm making the bet that it'll hold for at least a few weeks. And the elevated options premiums here give us ample...

After slowly dipping my toes last week into the idea that it might be time to start getting into some new long exposure, the market's reaction to the latest Federal Reserve action tells me the direction is still sideways until further notice.

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The post-fed interest rates decision hangover this week has thrown stocks back into the sideways slop zone. Therefore, until conditions change, we're going to keep selling premium to ride this out.

Today's trade is a defined risk premium...

While the stock market continues to digest its recent run and weave through this sideways consolidation, we're starting to get some pretty clear hints on which stocks will likely be leaders if/when the bull market resumes.

Today's trade is an...

The markets are telling us it still wants sideways for longer.

We know this script, and we know it's been working. So we're going to keep chopping this wood until the markets tell us to get more directionally aggressive.

Ok, that's a stupid question but I'm out of pithy headlines.

When the market more or less is only offering you one style of options trade that makes sense in this environment, things might get a bit monotonous around here. And when that...

The hunt for premium selling opportunities continues. And today's trade is in a name that is heavily weighted in the Home Construction sector ETF, where options premiums -- sector-wide -- are a bit more elevated than the rest.

Thankfully,...

As I mentioned last week, we're in an environment where we want to be collecting delta-neutral options premium. Unfortunately, we can either pick instruments that are in well-defined ranges or we can sell high implied volatility, but it's...

Today's trade was crowdsourced in the All Star Options Telegram chat. Thanks to those of you who brainstormed with me.

As you know, I'm on the hunt for rangebound instruments to sell delta-neutral premiums in. The problem is -- it's getting...

This trade doesn't need a long-winded send-up. Because it's the same story as the trade we put on in $FCX on Friday.

So let's get right to it.

Here's the trade:

As I and the team have discussed on The Morning Show and this week's Options Jam Session, I'm on the hunt for opportunities to sell delta-neutral option premium with $VIX exploring higher levels than we've seen in recent months.

Today's trade...

No matter how you measure volatility, there is no ignoring the fact that the daily moves (both realized and expected) have shrunk dramatically in the cryptocurrency space, most notably in granddaddy Bitcoin $BTC.

Here's Strazza this morning on...