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testing new preface

Reminder: Kojo is available to chat with Members, comments are found below each post.

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March Trade Cycle – virtual Portfolio Setup

Note: This is not a new trade but the way our March virtual Portfolio is currently set up.




Meet Income Traders, Kojo and Richard

Reminder: Kojo is available to chat with Members regarding his virtual portfolio performance, comments are found below each post.

Click here to learn more about Income Trader

By now, you’ve probably seen the Income Traders in action in the Income Trader section. To provide more detail about their approach to trading options, including helpful definitions of terms, I asked Kojo some questions about terminology and strategy. Here’s a transcript of our conversation. - Ilene  

Meet Income Traders, Kojo and Richard

Ilene: Hi Kojo and Richard, can you tell me a little about yourselves?

Kojo – Richard and I have similar backgrounds. We met at Washington University in St. Louis, at the Olin Business school where we were working on our MBAs. We both have extensive experience in business consulting in areas such as valuations, financial controls and credit risk analysis. I left consulting to concentrate on credit risk analysis for several years while Richard focused on consulting.  Between us, we have about 18 years of self-taught trading experience in equities and options. We have each made our share of investment mistakes and over time, through trial and error, we have reached a point where our returns are fairly consistent.

Ilene:  You stated that “Income Trader” uses option strategies, such as non-directional credit spreads, iron condors, and butterfly options, to generate consistent, monthly income, and that your goal is to earn a modest 2% to 8% monthly return on invested capital, using the RUT and SPY indexes specifically.

I have two questions. First, are you planning to provide one option trade per month, or more than that, in your section at Phil’s Stock World?

Kojo: Our goal is to provide at least one trade per month, but if we find more opportunities, we might post “supplemental trades.”

Ilene:  Second, what are non-directional credit spreads?  Iron condors?  And butterfly options?  When using one or all of these strategies, are you betting that the stock price will not change significantly?  

Kojo: A credit spread involves a purchase of one option and a sale of another option in the same class and with the same expiration dates, but different strike prices. Investors receive a net credit for entering the position and want the spreads to narrow or expire for profit. In contrast, an investor would have to pay to enter a debit spread.

For instance, if a…
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Trade Alert

 Income Trader is initiating the following Iron Condor trade for the March cycle in the virtual portfolio –

Small virtual Portfolio

-15  RUT  MAR11  875C

+15  RUT  MAR11  885C

-15   RUT  MAR11  720P

+15  RUT  MAR11  710P

Net Premiums $1.15 to $1.25

Large virtual Portfolio

-50  RUT  MAR11  875C

+50  RUT  MAR11  885C

-50   RUT  MAR11  720P

+50  RUT  MAR11  710P

Net Premiums $1.15 to $1.25





Trade Alert

The deltas on our short Put has moved from .15 last week to .08, putting as in a great position. If the RUT breaks 800+ we would look to put on a Call Credit Spread at a .08 delta or higher. So stay tuned, we would send an update in case we decide to put on the trade.

Income Trader





Basics of Credit Spreads and Iron Condors

 

Credit Spreads:
 
A credit spread is implemented by simultaneously buying and selling options at two strike prices resulting in a credit to the investor. The investor is trying to sell the more expensive option and finance the purchase of the less expensive option by using part of the proceeds from the sale.
Let’s say the stock of ZUY is trading at $10. The $15 strike price call is priced at $3.00 and the $20 strike price call is priced at $1.00. If the investor sells the $15 strike price call at $3.00 and buys the $20 strike call for $1.00, the investor’s account is credited $2.00 per contract? (A call option consists of a contract for 100 shares of stock.) If the investor sells 10 contracts (buys 10 calls with strike price of 20 and sells 10 calls with strike price of 15),, he is credited with $2000 in his account (each contract being for 100 shares of stock). The risk of the trade is the difference between the two strike prices multiplied by the number of contracts multiplied by 100 less the credit received. For this example –
 
Strike price difference is $5, i.e., $20 – $15 = $5
Number of contracts 10 (each contract controlling 100 shares of stock)
Risk = $5 * 10 *(100) = $5000
Total Risk = $5000 – $2000 (credit received) = $3000
 
Technically no matter what happens to this trade the investor cannot lose more than $3000.
 
Please note the credit spread can be constructed for either Calls or Puts.
 
A call credit spread established at the top of the prevailing price of the instrument of choice is called a Bear Call Spread because we do not want the stock or index to breach the short (sold) call of the spread, i.e. in this example, we do not want the stock to go above $15 – the strike price of our sold calls. The Put credit spread established at the lower price range of the prevailing price is called a Bull Put spread, so named because the desired outcome is that the stock or index of choice does not fall


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Phil's Favorites

Mind Blowing Economic Charts – First Time Claims, The Stock Market, and The Fed

Courtesy of Lee Adler of the Wall Street Examiner

Improvement in first time unemployment claims is slowing. Actual, not seasonally manipulated data, including an adjustment for the usual weekly upward revision, shows that the year to year rate of change is on the cusp of a possible upside breakout, which would be good news for stock market bears if it happens.

Initial Unemployment Claims Chart- Click to enlarge

Here’s why it’s mind blowing. I’ve plotted it below on an inverse scale with the S&P 500 overlaid.

Unemployemt Claims and Stock Prices - Click to enlarge

That speaks for itself. As the i...



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Option Review

Bulls Scoop Up Sprint Nextel Corp. Calls

 Today’s tickers: S, FTR, JTX & SBUX

...



more from Caitlin

ETF Selector

US Markets Drop On Italy Fear (EWI, DIA, SPY, QQQ, IWM, TLT, GLD)

Courtesy of John Nyaradi.

Major US Markets including (NYSEARCA:DIA), (NYSEARCA:SPY), (NASDAQ:QQQ), and (NYSEARCA:IWM) dropped over 3% each on Italian bond fears and an increased worry that Europe will not be able to bail out its 4th largest economy. Furthermore, the iShares MCSI Italy Fund (NYSEARCA:EWI) wiped out over 9% today, further illustrating the dire situation in Italy and the European Union: ...

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Chart School

S&P 500 Snapshot: Down for the Day and the Week

Courtesy of Doug Short.

The S&P 500 broke its string of four-consecutive weekly gains with loss of 0.63% for the day and 2.48% for the week.

The index is back in the red year-to-date, down 0.35% and 8.09% below the interim high of April 29.

From an intermediate perspective, the index is 85.2% above the March 2009 closing low and 19.9% below the nominal all-time high of October 2007.

Below are two charts of the index, with and without the 50 and 200-day moving averages.

 


Click for a larger image ...

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Zero Hedge

Dallas Fed Latest Economic Contraction Confirmation; Survey Respondents' Gloom Soars

Courtesy of ZeroHedge. View original post here.

Submitted by Tyler Durden.

The second economic disappointment of the day comes from the Dallas Fed, which dropped from -2.0 to -11.4 on expectations of -9.0- this was the 4th consecutive negative print month. The report was, in a word, horrible, with just 2 of the 15 constituent indices posting an increase, and the bulk solidly in the red, led by Unfilled and New Orders which dropped 16.8 and 11.2, respectively: not good for economic growth. On the employment side there was nothing good either, with both employment and hours worked declining by -...



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Insider Scoop

Diana Containerships Files To Offer Stock Up To $172.5M -Bloomberg (DCIX)

Courtesy of Benzinga

Bloomberg reports that Diana Containerships (NASDAQ: DCIX) files to offer stock up to $172.5M. Diana Containerships says that Diana shipping will also buy $20M of stock.

Visit Benzinga >

...

http://www.insidercow.com/ more from Insider

Sabrient

Sabrient Risers - 3/12/2011

Top 5 RisersStockRatingAnalysisVLOSTRONGBUYAn increasingly positive growth rate of past earnings, along with improving expectations for long term growth, make Valero a good prospect for high returns.KROSTRONGBUYKronos Worldwide has been gaining recognition from analysts as a good canditate for achieving higher than expected earnings along with higher overall projected valuation.SFIBUYiStar is one of the top candidates projected to achieve both higher than previously projected earnings in the short run and a higher earnings growth rate in the long run.AMATSTRONGBUYApplied Materials has been...

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OpTrader

Swing trading virtual portfolio - week of March 7th, 2011

This post is for live trades and daily comments. Please click on "comments" below to follow our live discussion. All of our current virtual trades are listed in the spreadsheet below, with entry price (1/2 in and All in), and exit prices (1/3 out, 2/3 out, and All out).

We also indicate our stop, which is most of the time the "5 day moving average". All trades, unless indicated, are front-month ATM options. 

Please feel free to participate in the discussion and ask any questions you might have about this virtual portfolio, by clicking on the "comments" link right below.

To learn more about the swing trading virtual portfolio (strategy, performance, FAQ, etc.), please click here

Optrader 

Swing trading virtual portfolio

 

One trade virtual portfolio

...

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Stock World Weekly

Stock World Weekly

NEW: Elliott and Ilene are available to chat with Members regarding topics presented in SWW, comments are found below each post.

Here's the newest Stock World Weekly:  Illusion Based on a Fantasy 

Comments welcome... share your thoughts.  

Download Newsletter 3/6/11


Stock World Weekly archives here >

...

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Pharmboy

Biotech Junkies Update and Momenta Pharma Moving Forward

February is now past, and the Biotech Porfolio is loaded with winners and a miss (PLX).  MRK is down a bit, but I expect that trade to recover, and one could be more agressive and double down on it, or play another round at the Jan13 $30 options for roughly the same price.  Below is the summary, and note the grey boxes are ones that did not fill.  I am still a fan of BMRN, and like DEPO as well.  Now let's look at a few others.

Table 1.  PSW Biotech Plays Since January 2011

 

Our newest play is Momenta Pharmaceuticals (MNTA), who is pursuing a three-part business model which includes complex generic equivalents in partnership with the Sandoz division of Novartis, proprietary compounds, and follow-on- biologics (FOB).  It seems that this company is tied up in competition/litigation wit...



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About Phil:

Philip R. Davis is a founder Phil's Stock World, a stock and options trading site that teaches the art of options trading to newcomers and devises advanced strategies for expert traders...

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About Ilene:

Ilene is editor and affiliate program coordinator for PSW. She manages the Favorites backup site (blogroll, archives, more). Contact Ilene to learn about our affiliate and content sharing programs.

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