5 Ways To Play Google Earnings

Google (GOOG) reports earnings on Thursday, April 12, 2012, after the market close.

There are many ways to play earnings. Some people would bet on the direction of the stock movement after the announcement and buy or short the stock. Others will buy call or put options. My opinion is that predicting the market reaction to earnings is an extremely difficult task. In case of Google, the options expiration is the next day after the announcement, so if you are wrong, you are likely to experience a 100% loss.

The rest of this article is devoted to non-directional strategies to play the event. All trades refer to weekly options expiring on April 14, 2012. The stock is trading around $641.30.