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NikTam

CML TradeMachine Trade Ideas

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1 hour ago, Mark100 said:

Hi,

I am considering purchasing the CML TradeMachine software and am wondering if anyone who has been using it for a while would be willing to post their results.

Thanks very much,

Mark

I would also consider subscribing to Return Matrix/Return Scanner that @Djtux offers at a discount to SO members.  I like using both to prospect for high probability PE momentum trades.

Edited by NikTam
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I entered a pre-earnings call on ORCL earlier today: Mar23 $53 call for $1.13.  This was from a CML blog post in September, with setup of weekly 50 delta call 3/0, SL/LG 40%. Today is 3 trading days before earnings and with a choice of ~52 or ~48 delta at the time I opened, I chose the 48 delta.

 

@Mark100 I've posted my results a few times somewhere earlier in this thread, so if you search back through, the last breakdown might be useful info. As of right now, I've made 174 trades since mid-June 2017 with an average gain of 6.4% while trying to follow the setup close to the backtested result. However, all of this was an experiment to see if it was worth a subscription, so I've only followed trades that have been posted on the CML News blog (http://www.cmlviz.com/cmld3b/lite.php?app=news&referral=menu) or that other members have posted (where I can check the details of the trade myself). I'm planning to complete 1 year without a subscription and analyze the results, but the way its looking so far, I almost feel bad about not paying for a subscription since I've made quite a bit of money off the trades

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16 minutes ago, greenspan76 said:

I entered a pre-earnings call on ORCL earlier today: Mar23 $53 call for $1.13.  This was from a CML blog post in September, with setup of weekly 50 delta call 3/0, SL/LG 40%. Today is 3 trading days before earnings and with a choice of ~52 or ~48 delta at the time I opened, I chose the 48 delta.

 

I am in 53 straddle so can't open 53 call...

Alsoin NKE call...  And they both go in the same direction. I need ORCL go down and NKE up :)

Edited by IgorK

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16 minutes ago, greenspan76 said:

I entered a pre-earnings call on ORCL earlier today: Mar23 $53 call for $1.13.  This was from a CML blog post in September, with setup of weekly 50 delta call 3/0, SL/LG 40%. Today is 3 trading days before earnings and with a choice of ~52 or ~48 delta at the time I opened, I chose the 48 delta.

 

Entered 53 call for 1.08   Thanks for heads up.  Recent history looks very good.

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1 minute ago, IgorK said:

I am in 53 straddle so can't open 53 call..

I believe you can. As long as you don't have  a short strangle with a 53 strike.

It just means that you have extra 53 calls.

 

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5 minutes ago, IgorK said:

I am in 53 straddle so can't open 53 call...

Alsoin NKE call...  And they both go in the same direction. I need ORCL go down and NKE up :)

 

2 minutes ago, zxcv64 said:

I believe you can. As long as you don't have  a short strangle with a 53 strike.

It just means that you have extra 53 calls.

 

I've adopted an approach of more trades with lower allocations per trade, so I don't have a problem with holding both the call and the straddle (I have the 52.5 straddle). There's no problem with holding both, but obviously if you're concerned about overallocation then you're better off skipping it since there will always be another trade.

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9 minutes ago, zxcv64 said:

I believe you can. As long as you don't have  a short strangle with a 53 strike.

It just means that you have extra 53 calls.

 

Correct. I had to cancel straddle sell order first... Thanks for heads up.. Will see...

    BOT    1    ORCL Mar23'18 53 CALL    1.07   
 

Edited by IgorK

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4 minutes ago, greenspan76 said:

 

I've adopted an approach of more trades with lower allocations per trade, so I don't have a problem with holding both the call and the straddle (I have the 52.5 straddle). There's no problem with holding both, but obviously if you're concerned about overallocation then you're better off skipping it since there will always be another trade.

Me too. One CALL and one straddle.

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ORCL not behaving very nicely.  I need to take a closer look....

 

I'm out at .98.  Lost a few bucks.  Will look at again tomorrow.  I've been losing on these PE trades lately and getting a bit gun-shy.

Edited by NikTam

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3 minutes ago, NikTam said:

ORCL not behaving very nicely.  I need to take a closer look....

Couple things and I'm in all the trades with you folks. Stock is near 52wk high. There is 33,000 open interest in the MAR16 52.5 call. Personally, I am waiting till Friday to decide but Ophir has identified a good candidate here and barring a brown swan or black pelican, I don't plan to lose much on the trades.

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4 hours ago, greenspan76 said:

@Mark100 I've posted my results a few times somewhere earlier in this thread, so if you search back through, the last breakdown might be useful info. As of right now, I've made 174 trades since mid-June 2017 with an average gain of 6.4% while trying to follow the setup close to the backtested result. However, all of this was an experiment to see if it was worth a subscription, so I've only followed trades that have been posted on the CML News blog (http://www.cmlviz.com/cmld3b/lite.php?app=news&referral=menu) or that other members have posted (where I can check the details of the trade myself). I'm planning to complete 1 year without a subscription and analyze the results, but the way its looking so far, I almost feel bad about not paying for a subscription since I've made quite a bit of money off the trades

 

@greenspan76 Thanks for the response. I looked back and found some of your posts and I was wondering how you calculate the return on your trades.

Mark

On 11/6/2017 at 1:25 AM, greenspan76 said:

Just to follow up a bit on this point about my personal results with CML trades. I'm up to 62 total CML trades so far with an average holding period of 12 days and an average gain of 4.1%.  I realized after looking a little closer that if I removed the post-earnings short put spreads and the iron condors, my results were actually pretty good. For pre-earnings calls, I've made 21 trades with an average holding period of 4 days and an average gain of 5%. For straddles (most pre-earnings, but a few post-earnings), I've made 12 trades with an average holding period of 11 days and an average gain of 16.3%. I'm just going to keep going. Have limited time and don't want to hijack the thread, so I'll just try to post aggregate results after 6 months and maybe after a year of trading them.

On 1/11/2018 at 12:30 AM, greenspan76 said:

Overall, I've now made 103 CML-based trades with an average gain of 7.2% and average holding period of 14 days. The post-earnings ICs have been big losers on average (7 trades / -41.8% avg) and the post-earnings Short PS's are now the most consistent (35 trades / +10.2% avg) 

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7 hours ago, zxcv64 said:

I believe there are at least a couple of experienced guys on here who have a good track record with CML. 

Give me another week or so, and when I have completed another 7 trades, I will post my results (currently on 93 CML trades).

 

 

Okay, thanks I appreciate it. I see a lot of trades being talked about but not too much posted about long run results.

 

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1 hour ago, Mark100 said:

 

@greenspan76 Thanks for the response. I looked back and found some of your posts and I was wondering how you calculate the return on your trades.

Mark

I don't want to discuss the specific dollar amounts I trade, but I have a set dollar amount allocated per trade and open the number of contracts needed to get closest to that dollar amount. If the trade can't be constructed within $100 above or below that set allocation, I either modify the trade (for example, I might trade a higher or lower delta or maybe turn a call into a call spread instead) or I skip it. So, while it might be better to normalize the trades to the exact dollar amount to give a fairer comparison, I ignore this because $100 one way or another isn't going to make a big difference in my trade results. Beyond that, I'm simply taking the dollar gain divided by the capital at risk. And since the trades are all substantially the same dollar amount, I report the totals by taking the cumulative gain on all trades and dividing by the cumulativel capital at risk to get an average gain per trade.

 

Edit: I should probably note that my early results were less promising - if memory serves me, it was around 1.x% avg per trade over the first maybe 30ish trades, but then the results improved and have been relatively consistent since (keeping in mind that these are higher risk/reward, with many trades averaging something like 50% on gains and 38% on losses or something similar)

Edited by greenspan76

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@greenspan76 thank you for posting your findings. I do not follow this thread on a regular basis, so please pardon my ignorance.

Do you trade mainly the long calls before earnings? If you do, what delta do you trade? Any other entry/exit criteria you follow?

Thank you.

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8 hours ago, NikTam said:

I would also consider subscribing to Return Matrix/Return Scanner that @Djtux offers at a discount to SO members.  I like using both to prospect for high probability PE momentum trades.

These two services should unite ;)

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6 minutes ago, Maji said:

@greenspan76 thank you for posting your findings. I do not follow this thread on a regular basis, so please pardon my ignorance.

Do you trade mainly the long calls before earnings? If you do, what delta do you trade? Any other entry/exit criteria you follow?

Thank you.

I trade every trade I've come across on the CML blog or posted on this thread by others that looks like a valid result to me, which means for each potential trade, I look at the details of the backtest and decide whether some anomaly is causing the overall results or it looks like a legit trend. Of the 174 trades, I've made 39 post-earnings Short PS, 90 pre-earnings calls, 22 straddles (~15 pre- / ~3 post-earnings / ~4 non-earnings), 15 post-earnings Iron Condors (some short / some long - don't have that breakdown), 6 TTM Squeeze, and 2 that I classified as Other.

 

As far as deltas, entry/exit criteria, etc, I trade whatever the backtests show. In many cases (particularly pre-earnings calls), the backtests will show results for multiple deltas. In that case, I trade 40-delta unless the 50 delta results look better. Most trades have their own stop losses and/or limit gains (typically, but not always 40-50%) and I follow that. I try to follow the CML methodology of waiting to determine stop losses/limit gains until the end of the trading day, but find it hard to stick with that on large gains (particularly when they're approaching 100% gains), so I've closed a lot of trades early. I don't track how many are better holding vs closing earlier, but it seems like holding until end of day would have been better in most cases. I open trades in the last hour unless I don't have time later or I see a dip in price that presents a good entry point (for example, if I'm watching a 50 delta call early in the day and the stock price drops and now I can get it for 20% cheaper. Well, I know I'm going to open it in a couple hours anyway, so I'll usually open a little early). Lastly, I limit to 10 ongoing trades at once and if a trade loses twice in a row, I assume the trend is dead and stop trading it.

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11 hours ago, IgorK said:

These two services should unite ;)

Right!  I use both now.  I also really like the Alerts feature now available on CML Trade machine.

Edited by NikTam

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19 hours ago, IgorK said:

Correct. I had to cancel straddle sell order first... Thanks for heads up.. Will see...

    BOT    1    ORCL Mar23'18 53 CALL    1.07   
 

    SLD    1    ORCL Mar23'18 53 CALL    1.09   

Essentially BE after commissions... Too much up and down...

NKE not looking good so far...
 

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I"m out of all ORCL trades. Small profit. Was worried that if it did rally, my 53 straddles would suffer. Might come back for a call tomorrow if lower.

Edited by scubaskeeter

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2 minutes ago, greenspan76 said:

Unless my trade is up or down 40%, I won't be closing until Mar 21st.

I see. You have Apr20 CALL . My is Mar23. Theta will kill it faster.

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2 minutes ago, greenspan76 said:

Unless my trade is up or down 40%, I won't be closing until Mar 21st.

For my clarification, the NKE table show T0 as the date for max profit. Wouldn't that be Mar 22 since NKE reports that day after close ?

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8 minutes ago, rasar said:

For my clarification, the NKE table show T0 as the date for max profit. Wouldn't that be Mar 22 since NKE reports that day after close ?

Yeah, I believe the last day tends to have increased volatility and increase in price, but I'm just following the posted backtest of opening 9 days before and closing 1 day before. I'm not trying to suggest my way is better, or even that it is optimized. However, you make a great point.

Edited by greenspan76

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13 minutes ago, IgorK said:

I see. You have Apr20 CALL . My is Mar23. Theta will kill it faster.

I have the Mar 23 also and that is my biggest concern.  

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1 minute ago, NikTam said:

I have the Mar 23 also and that is my biggest concern.  

I though adding another contract to bring price down. But it may end up in more loss as well...

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9 minutes ago, IgorK said:

I though adding another contract to bring price down. But it may end up in more loss as well...

Based on limited experience, I've never found that to be a successful strategy.

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23 minutes ago, siddharth310584 said:

@NikTam

 

how ow do you use djtux charts ? To find candidates or determine when to enter ? And how do you read them 

The scanner is pretty self-explanatory.  It screens by median returns in different time frames.  It also screens for confirmed earnings vs unconfirmed and weekly and non weekly symbols.

Return Matrix is a symbol generated grid that shows median returns for long calls and puts, and straddles, for each day leading up to earnings date.  And it's color coded as a "heat map" so you see at a glance if it's interesting.  It's a different approach than CML Trade Machine which shows good, average and poor statistical results in terms of occurrences.  So I think the two complement each other.

@Djtux allowed me a 7 day trial to see what it could do -- that's the best way to find out.  There are other graphs also that we've seen for quite awhile that measure historical RV, IV, etc for straddles and calendars.

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3 minutes ago, siddharth310584 said:

What delta does it use though for the calls ? Or is it a range ?

Forgive me for jumping in, but it allows you to choose whatever delta you want in multiples of 10, so.....you can have deltas like 10, 20, 30....up to 90.

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2 minutes ago, siddharth310584 said:

What delta does it use though for the calls ? Or is it a range ?

 

5 minutes ago, siddharth310584 said:

What delta does it use though for the calls ? Or is it a range ?

@siddharth310584 Here is dedicated thread. You can ask all questions there: 

 

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@siddharth310584,

For the return matrix, you can select the strategy, and for long call or long put, you can select the delta from a list :

image.png

If someone makes a screenshot of the return matrix, look at the title, there is all the information you need to know : https://steadyoptions.com/forums/forum/topic/4072-cml-trademachine-trade-ideas/?do=findComment&comment=97282 : you know it's the symbol NKE, testing a 40 delta call over 8 earning cycles (so 2Y history), the backtest was done 2018-03-13 which is T-7 trading days before the earning date which is 2018-03-22 AMC confirmed.

I can move my answer to the volatilityhq.com threads if it's polluting this thread.

 

 

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1 hour ago, IgorK said:

So any thoughts on NKE?

I am showing big loss because of overall market volatility but will hang on for now.

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I hold the 68 strike long call in NKE and am sitting at 30% loss. Not too alarmed as that is part and parcel of CML - big wins and big losses.

ORCL was a 45% loss for me - closed today.

 

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6 minutes ago, zxcv64 said:

ORCL was a 45% loss for me - closed today.

I'm looking at 15% loss right now, but because it's only 1 contract, i might play at the casino today and keep it though earnings.

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I am right at 40% loss on the 68.5 NKE call right now.  I will wait for end of day to decide.

Showing some strength on the 1 hour chart.  I'm going to hold on for another day.

Edited by NikTam

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PLAY Return Matrix.png

5 minutes ago, Djtux said:

image.png

I'm not even sure what this company is doing.

Please share your thoughts.  I thought the heat map looked pretty good for Long Call Pre-momentum Earnings strategy.

Edited by NikTam

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5 minutes ago, NikTam said:

Please share your thoughts.  I thought the heat map looked pretty good for Long Call Pre-momentum Earnings strategy.

I never looked at that stock before, so i don't know it that well. Also the earning date has not been confirmed.

The return matrix look good indeed, but i'm not sure there is an upward trend right now.

The stock chart doesn't look good after their announcement on Jan 8th : http://ir.daveandbusters.com/news-releases/news-release-details/dave-busters-entertainment-inc-updates-fiscal-2017-guidance.

Seems there are some resistance at 43.5 and we just pierced that today but is it going to be confirmed or will we rebound ? I have no idea.

What do you think ?

I would at least wait until the earnings are confirmed, and monitor where the trend is going, and keep the allocation small. Personally i might skip it altogether.

image.png

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@Djtux These are all good points and I may skip it as well.  I will be looking for a major reversal this week or I will not partake.  In general, I much prefer stocks that are in an uptrend for the PE Momentum trades.  PLAY has a 7-1 win-loss over past two years, which is unusual and the only reason I'm considering.

 

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I have family visiting and will have limited availability for trading the next 2 weeks (until yesterday, I was only expecting next week to be effected), so closed ORCL right after the open and tried to close MU and NKE (originally, the plan was Thursday unless 40%+ gains). Didn't get a fill on NKE, though, so I'll have to try to close it on the mobile app tomorrow (or might even wait until Thursday now) With that said: 

 

Closed ORCL call for 14.1% loss (Mar23 53 Call. In 1.13. Out 0.99).

 

Closed MU call for gain of 6.5% (Mar23 61 Call. In 2.03. Out 2.18).

Edited by greenspan76

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2 minutes ago, IgorK said:

Missed NKE spike at the open. Now it's down again :(

It did gap up, though; on decent volume.  I'm staying positive.

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1 hour ago, IgorK said:

Missed NKE spike at the open. Now it's down again :(

It's back up to the opening level....

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Regarding NKE which reports AMC on Thursday, I wonder if we should be concerned about Fed meeting tomorrow?  As we’ve seen, these general market downdrafts often affect our positions.  

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24 minutes ago, NikTam said:

Regarding NKE which reports AMC on Thursday, I wonder if we should be concerned about Fed meeting tomorrow?  As we’ve seen, these general market downdrafts often affect our positions.  

This and Theta. 

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      That's 40.1%, winning both of the last two pre-earnings trades. 

      WHAT HAPPENED 
      This is it -- this is how people profit from the option market. Identifying strategies that are tightly risk controlled, take no stock direction bets or earnings risk. It's preparation, not luck. 

      To see how to do this for any stock we welcome you to watch this quick demonstration video: 
      Tap Here to See the Tools at Work 

      Thanks for reading. 

      Risk Disclosure 
      You should read the Characteristics and Risks of Standardized Options. 

      Past performance is not an indication of future results. 

      Trading futures and options involves the risk of loss. Please consider carefully whether futures or options are appropriate to your financial situation. Only risk capital should be used when trading futures or options. Investors could lose more than their initial investment. 

      Past results are not necessarily indicative of future results. The risk of loss in trading can be substantial, carefully consider the inherent risks of such an investment in light of your financial condition.
    • By Ophir Gottlieb
      How to Profit from Trading Options in Autodesk Inc Right After Earnings
       


      Date Published: 2017-05-18 
      Written by Ophir Gottlieb 

      LEDE 
      While Autodesk Inc (NASDAQ:ADSK) just crushed earnings again, sending shares soaring in the after hours trade, one option trade after earnings has been a consistent winner. It takes no earnings risk, little stock direction risk and over the last year has never lost while returning over 160% annualized returns. 

      The Trade After the Excitement 
      While most of the focus is on the actual earnings move for a stock, that's the distraction when it comes to the option market. For Autodesk Inc, irrespective of whether the earnings move was up or down, if we waited one-day after the stock move from earnings, and then sold an out of the money put spread, the results were very strong. 

      We can examine this, objectively, with a custom option back-test. Here is our earnings set-up: 
       


      Rules 
      * Open short put spread 1 day after earnings 
      * Close short put spread 29 days later 
      * Use the option that is closest to but greater than 30-days away from expiration 

      Here are the results over the last year: 
       


      That's a 47.3% return, with 4 winning trades and 0 losing trades. The total holding period was less than 4 full months, meaning the annualized return was over 160%. No earnings risk was taken -- this is not a coin flip over earnings. 

      The Logic 
      This strategy works beautifully in many companies where heavy stock volume follows the earnings release. The logic behind this trade follows a narrative that even after a bad earnings release, if we wait a day after, we find the stock at a point of equilibrium. 

      If it gapped down -- that gap is over. If it beat earnings, the downside move is already likely muted. Here's how this strategy has done over the last 6-months: 
       


      That's a 21.3% return, on 2 winning trades and 0 losing trades. Since this is a total of a two-month holding period, that 21.3% is actually over 120% annualized. 

      If you're curious, yes, this also produced positive returns over the last 3-years. Here are those results. 
       


      Now we can find some comfort in this approach where is shows 9 winning trades and just 2 losing trades over the last three-years. 

      WHAT HAPPENED 
      There are patterns to stock behaviors before and after earnings and those patterns reveal opportunities in the option market, without taking the actual risk of earnings. You can find them, stock by stock, Apple, Google, Netflix and of course Autodesk Inc are just a handful of examples. There has been edge here with this strategy. 

      To see how to do this for any stock and for any strategy with just the click of a few buttons, we welcome you to watch this quick demonstration video: 
      Tap Here to See the Tools at Work 

      Thanks for reading. 

      Risk Disclosure 
      You should read the Characteristics and Risks of Standardized Options. 

      Past performance is not an indication of future results. 

      Trading futures and options involves the risk of loss. Please consider carefully whether futures or options are appropriate to your financial situation. Only risk capital should be used when trading futures or options. Investors could lose more than their initial investment. 

      Past results are not necessarily indicative of future results. The risk of loss in trading can be substantial, carefully consider the inherent risks of such an investment in light of your financial condition. 

      The author has no position in Autodesk Inc (NASDAQ:ADSK) as of this writing. 

      Back-test Link
       
       
       
       
       
    • By Ophir Gottlieb
      How to Trade Options Before Earnings in Broadcom Limited (NASDAQ:AVGO)

       
      How to Trade Options Before Earnings in Broadcom Limited (NASDAQ:AVGO)
      Date Published: 2017-05-15 

      PREFACE 
      Trading options in a short window before earnings are released benefits from the rising implied volatility but avoids the risk into the actual earnings release and also avoids any kind of stock direction risk. 

      This approach has returned a annualized rate of 198%. Now that's worth looking into. 

      STORY 
      Everyone knows that the day of an earnings announcement is a risky event for a stock. This can be explicitly seen in the option market, where the implied volatility (the expected stock move) rises into the earnings event. 

      The question every option trader, whether professional or amateur, has long asked is if there is a way to profit from this known volatility rise. It turns out, that over the long-run, for stocks with certain tendencies like Broadcom Limited (NASDAQ:AVGO) the answer is actually, yes. 
       
      Yes, there is a systematic way to trade this repeating phenomenon, without making a bet on earnings or stock direction.

      THE SET UP 
      What a trader wants to do is to see the results of buying an at the money straddle a few days before earnings, and then sell that straddle just before earnings. The goal, is two-fold: (i) to benefit from that known implied volatility rise, and (ii) to own the straddle for a very short period of time when the stock might move 'a lot,' but taking no earnings bets. 

      If either of those two phenomena occur, there's a very good chance this wins, if neither occur, the amount risked is normally quite small. Here is the setup: 
       


      We are testing opening the position 6 days before earnings and then closing the position 1 day before earnings. This is not making any earnings bet. This is not making any stock direction bet. 

      Once we apply that simple rule to our back-test, we run it on an at-the-money straddle: 

      RETURNS 
      If we did this long at-the-money (also called '50-delta') straddle in Broadcom Limited (NASDAQ:AVGO) over the last three-years but only held it before earnings we get these results: 
       
      Long At-the-Money Straddle * Monthly Options * Back-test length: three-years * Open 6-days Before Earnings * Close 1-day Before Earnings * Holding Period: 5-Days per Earnings   Winning Trades: 5 Losing Trades: 7 Pre-Earnings Straddle Return:  17.1%  Annualized Return:  102% 
      We see a 17.1% return, testing this over the last 12 earnings dates in Broadcom Limited. That's a total of just 60 days (5 days for each earnings date, over 12 earnings dates). That's a annualized rate of 102%. 

      We can also see that this strategy hasn't been a winner all the time, rather it has won 5 times and lost 7 times, but here's the key -- it wins about half of the time, but the average gain per winning trade is substantially larger than the average loss on a losing trade: 
       


      Consistently Successful 
      This idea has also been a successful approach over the last two-years:
      Long At-the-Money Straddle * Monthly Options * Back-test length: two-years * Open 6-days Before Earnings * Close 1-day Before Earnings * Holding Period: 5-Days per Earnings   Winning Trades: 4 Losing Trades: 4 Pre-Earnings Straddle Return:  22%  Annualized Return:  198% 
      Now we see a 22% return, testing this over the last 8 earnings dates which is a annualized rate of 198%. 

      Yet again, we see a trade that wins about half the time, but the average win is much larger than the average loss: 
       


      If you really want to see how we found this, and how to do it for other stocks like Apple, Google and Amazon, here is a 1-minute and 34-second video that every professional option trader would rather that you don't see. 

      Learn more here: Try the Back-tester Yourself

      WHAT HAPPENED 
      There are patterns to stock behaviors before and after earnings and those patterns reveal opportunities in the option market, without taking the actual risk of earnings. You can find them, stock by stock. This is how people profit from the option market -- it's preparation, not luck. 

      To see how to do this for any stock we welcome you to watch this quick demonstration video: 
      Tap Here to See the Tools at Work

      Thanks for reading. 

      Risk Disclosure 
      You should read the Characteristics and Risks of Standardized Options. 

      Past performance is not an indication of future results. 

      Trading futures and options involves the risk of loss. Please consider carefully whether futures or options are appropriate to your financial situation. Only risk capital should be used when trading futures or options. Investors could lose more than their initial investment. 

      Past results are not necessarily indicative of future results. The risk of loss in trading can be substantial, carefully consider the inherent risks of such an investment in light of your financial condition. 

      Back-test Link
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
    • By Ophir Gottlieb
      The Secret Behind Options Pre-Earnings Trading in Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC)
       
       
      Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC): The Wonderful Secret Behind Options Pre-Earnings Trading
      Date Published: 2017-05-4

      PREFACE 
      There is a wonderful secret to trading options right before earnings announcements in Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) , and really many stocks, that benefits from the rising implied volatility but avoids the risk into the actual earnings release and also avoids any kind of stock direction risk. 

      THE WONDERFUL SECRET 
      What a trader wants to do is to see the results of buying an at the money straddle a few days before earnings, and then sell that straddle just before earnings. 

      The goal, is two-fold: (i) to benefit from that known implied volatility rise, and (ii) to own the straddle for a very short period of time when the stock might move 'a lot,' but never take the risk of actually owning options during the earnings release. 

      If either of those two phenomena occur, there's a very good chance this wins, if neither occur, the amount risked is normally quite small. Here is the setup: 
       


      We are testing opening the position in Intel Corporation 6 days before earnings and then closing the position right before earnings. This is not making any earnings bet. This is notmaking any stock direction bet. 

      Once we apply that simple rule to our back-test, we run it on an at-the-money straddle: 

      RETURNS 
      If we did this long at-the-money (also called '50-delta') straddle in Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) over the last three-years but only held it before earnings we get these results: 
       


      We see a 47.8% return, testing this over the last 12 earnings dates in Intel Corporation. That's a total of just 72 days (6 days for each earnings date, over 12 earnings dates). That's a annualized rate of 242%. 

      We can also see that the win/loss rate is split with 6-wins and 6-losses, yet the return is enormous. That means the winning trades are much larger than the losing trades, which is exactly what a successful trading strategy attempts to do. No magic bullets -- rather smart methodologies for wealth creation. 

      MORE TO IT THAN MEETS THE EYE 
      While this strategy is benefiting from the implied volatility rise into earnings for Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC), what it's really doing is far more intelligent. 

      The ideal stocks for this strategy have a couple of common characteristics: 

      (i) The companies rarely pre-announce earnings -- this is an investment that does not look to make an earnings bet, so an earnings pre-announcement is the opposite of what we're hoping for. 

      (ii) The underlying stock price of these companies tend to move a lot (or some) as earnings approach and various institutions and traders shuffle the stock price around in anticipation of the earnings result. The more one sided the outside world starts betting on direction -- up or down, the better it is to own the straddle. 

      WHAT HAPPENED 
      This is it -- this is how people profit from the option market -- it's preparation, not luck. 

      Test the results on Apple Inc and Alphabet Inc, and the results are staggering. 

      To see how to do this for any stock and for any strategy with just the click of a few buttons, we welcome you to watch this quick demonstration video: 
      Tap Here to See the Tools at Work 

      Thanks for reading. 

      Risk Disclosure 
      You should read the Characteristics and Risks of Standardized Options. 

      Past performance is not an indication of future results. 

      Trading futures and options involves the risk of loss. Please consider carefully whether futures or options are appropriate to your financial situation. Only risk capital should be used when trading futures or options. Investors could lose more than their initial investment. 

      Past results are not necessarily indicative of future results. The risk of loss in trading can be substantial, carefully consider the inherent risks of such an investment in light of your financial condition. 

      The author has no position in Intel Corporation Inc (NASDAQ:INTC) as of this writing. 

      Back-test Link (does require custom earnings settings).
       
       
       
       
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