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For me the jury is still out on CMLTradeMachine but more because I cant find something to research myself with it. I have followed their earnings momentum trades and participated on and off my record is below. I avoided most of the straddle trades because from the beginning these never made sense to me and paper trading them showed a loss despite their analysis. They have recently started coming up with other technical indicators and what not - I have not followed these as often-times I am not sure I get what the rationale behind the analysis is. This is probably more due to me than them but I avoid trading something I do not understand. During the process I also saw that as quite a chunk of money is on the table using the +40/-40% cutoff is smart. You may miss a few big winners but other winners turn to losers on the last day. The trades below are all real trades: Infosys Jan 8 OB 10 CJAN18 INFY 16 for 0.80$ Jan 10 CS 10 CJAN18 INFY 16 for 1.10$ Result: +0.30$/37.5% ASML Jan 12 OB 8 CJAN18 ASML 150 for 2.60 EURO Jan15 CS 8 C JAN18 ASML 150 for 4.00 EURO Result: +1.40 EURO/53.8% (I cant trace whether this was an earnings trade made at their advice or based on my own research but it was their earnings approach for sure) NFLX JAN 18 OB 8 C FEB18 NFLX 220 for 10.07$ JAN 22 CS 8 C FEB 18 NFLX 220 for 14.17$ Result: 4.10$ or 40.7% LRCX JAN 18 OB 8 C FEB18 LRCX 210 for 5.75$ JAN 24 CS 8 C FEB18 LRCX 210 for 8.30$ Result 2.55$ or 44.3% AAPL JAN 23 OB 8 C FEB18 180 AAPL for 3.20$ JAN 29 CS 8 C FEB18 180 AAPL for 4.25$ Result 1.05$ or 32.8% MSFT JAN 24 OB 20 C FEB18 92.50 MSFT for 1.99$ JAN 31 CS 20 C FEB18 92.50 MSFT for 3.72$ Result 1.71$ or 85.9% REGN - STRADDLE JAN 25 OB 4 FEB 18 392.50 REGN STRADDLE for 28.39$ JAN 29 CS 4 FEB 18 392.50 REGN STRADDLE for 28.40$ Result: 0 BA JAN 29 OB 10 C FEB18 BA 350 for 7.85$ JAN 30 CS 10 C FEB18 BA 350 for 5.45$ Result -2.40$ or -30.5% GOOGL - here I accidentally held through earnings JAN 30 OB 2 C FEB18 GOOGL 1180.20 for 37.30$ FEB 2 CS 2 C FEB18 GOOGL 1180.20 for 4.64$ Result -32.66$ or -87% AKAM - the position was losing money before earnings, I held through them thinking: how bad can it be? JAN 30 OB 8 C FEB18 AKAM 66.50 for 3.60$ FEB 8 CS 8 C FEB18 AKAM 66.50 for 0.20$ Result -3.40$ or -94.4% TEVA - STRADDLE FEB 1 OB 4 FEB 18 21 TEVA STRADDLE for 2.47$ FEB 7 CS 4 FEB 18 21 TEVA STRADDLE for 2.34$ Result - 0.13$ or -5.2% NVDA FEB 2 OB 8 FEB18 240 NVDA for 9.60$ FEB 12 CS 8 FEB18 240 NVDA for 5.33$ Result: 4.27$ or -44.4% ATVI FEB 5 OB 8 FEB18 70 ATVI for 3.10$ FEB 8 CS 8 FEB18 70 ATVI for 1.50$ Result: -1.60$ or -51.6% SQ FEB 14 OB 8 MAR18 43 SQ for 2.64$ FEB 23 CS 8 MAR18 43 SQ for 3.57$ Result: 0.97$ or 35.2% INTU FEB 20 OB 10 MAR18 180 INTU for 2.72$ FEB 23 CS 10 MAR18 180 INTU for 3.30$ Result 0.58$ or 21.3% PANW FEB 21 OB 8 C MAR18 170 PANW for 6.10$ FEB 26 CS 8 C MAR18 170 PANW for 7.40$ Result: 1.30$ or 21% ALRM FEB 22 OB 10 C MAR18 40 ALRM for 1.73$ FEB 27 CS 10 C MAR18 40 ALRM for 1.30$ Result: -0.43 or -24.8% COST FEB 28 OB 10 C MAR18 195 COST for 3.10$ MAR 3 CS 10 C MAR18 195 COST for 1.03$ Result: -2.07$ or -66.9% MU MAR 8 OB 10 C APR18 55 MU for 3.87$ MAR 21 CS 10 C APR18 55 MU for 6.40$Result: 2.53 or 65.3% LRCX APR 11 OB 8 C APR18 LRCX 200 for 8.25$ APR 17 CS 8 C APR18 LRCX 200 for 11.00$ Result 2.75$ or 33.3% NFLX APR 12 OB 5 C MAY18 NFLX 322.50 for 10.55$ APR 17 CS 5 C MAY18 NFLX 322.50 for 7.64 Result -2.91$ or -27.5% INTC APR 12 OB 10 C MAY18 INTC 52.50 for 2.37$ APR 26 CS 10 C MAY 18 INTC 52.50 for 1.77$ Result -0.60$ or 25.3% SPOT APR 13 OB 5 C MAY18 SPOT 150 for 10.08$ MAY 2 CS 5 C MAY18 SPOT 150 for 21.50$ Result: 11.42$ or 113.2% MSFT APR 20 OB 20 C MAY18 MSFT 95 for 2.45$ APR 26 CS 20 C MAY18 MSFT 95 for 1.81$ Result: -0.64$ or -26.1% EA MAY 3 OB 8 C MAY18 EA 118 for 4.55$ MAY 7 CS 8 C MAY18 EA 118 for 8.10$ Result: 3.55$ or 78% BZUN MAY 9 OB 10 C MAY18 BZUN for 2.30$ MAY 16 CS 10 C MAY18 BZUN for 1.24$ Result: -1.06$ or -46% AMAT MAY 10 OB 20 C MAY18 AMAT 55 for 1.40$ MAY 17 OB 20 C MAY18 AMAT 55 for 0.75$ Result: -0.65$ or -46.2% URBN STRADDLE MAY 17 OB 10 MAY18 URBN 44 STRADDLE FOR 2.46$ MAY 22 CS 10 MAY18 URBN 44 STRADDLE FOR 2.05$ Result: -0.41$ or -16% MOMO MAY 23 OB 15 C JUN18 MOMO 40 for 2.20$ MAY 27 CS 15 C JUN18 MOMO 40 for 4.55$ Result: 2.35$ or 100.6% MRVL MAY 24 OB 50 C JUN18 MRVL 22 for 0.85$ MAY 31 CS 50 C JUN18 MRVL 22 for 0.27$ Result: -0.58 or - 68.2% PANW MAY 25 OB 8 C JUN18 PANW 210 for 7.85$ MAY 30 CS 8 C JUN18 PANW 210 for 9.00$ Result: 1.15$ or 14.6% GWRE MAY 31 OB 40 C JUN18 GWRE 95 for 2.50$ JUN 5 CS 40 C JUN18 GWRE 95 for 2.35$ Result: -0.15$ or -6% RH JUN 5 OB 8 C JUN18 RH 107 for 7.00$ JUN 7 CS 8 C JUN18 RH 107 for 10.00$ Result: 3$ or 42.8% MU - I was delayed in a plane and missed the possibility to close ahead of earnings JUN 13 OB 10 C JUL18 MU 60 for 4.40$ JUN 25 CS 10 C JUL18 MU 60 for 0.64$Result: -3.76$ or -85.4% NFLX JUL 2 OB 3 C JUL18 NFLX 400 for 18.99$ JUL 9 CS 3 C JUL18 NFLX 400 for 27.38$ Result: 8.39$ or 44.1% GOOGL JUL 2 OB 2 C JUL18 GOOGL 1150 for 27.50$ JUL 12 CS C JUL18 GOOGL 1150 for 57.50$ Result: 30$ or 109% JNJ JUL9 OB 20 C JUL18 JNJ 128 for 0.94$ JUL12 CS 20 C JUL18 JNJ 128 for 1.37$ Result: 0.43 or 45.7% INFOSYS JUL9 OB 20 C JUL18 INFOSYS 20 for 0.55$ JUL13 CS 20 C JUL18 INFOSYS 20 for 0.37$ Result:- 0.18$ or -32.7% MSFT JUL 12 OB 20 C JUL18 MSFT 105 for 1.24$ JUL 13 CS 20 C JUL18 MSFT 105 for 1.93$ Result: 0.69$ or 55.6% Net for these trades before Commissions was 18,709$ Ok Am tired of going through all the trades there is half a dozen more : a disaster with NFLX due to a dinner running late and a few duds along the way; most recently NVDA was but BABA a star- you get the idea. Active management of the positions is required - several of the best results are the consequence of profit taking plain and simple when I found the numbers to be dizzyingly attractive. The results aren't bad however I remain sort of wondering whether this isn't simply a normal tendency of stocks to rise somewhat close to earnings and gain in volatility which makes the options dearer. I have ignored their new ideas for the moment and still need to figure out how to institutionalise use the positive results above and avoid some of the losers. Admittedly the biggest ones were mainly my own fault!

Congratulations to @Yowster for this deserved acknowlegment. Ive always had him as a most valued member of this community. And congratulations to @Kim for this happy decision. Very good indeed. Rodrigo.

also factoring into this is that gamma gains are slower the higher the IV... so although during earnings times the IV rising helps offset theta, but that same IV rise also causes gamma to grow slower.

Thanks for this, @TrustyJules. (I think I was right there with you on some of those trades , like AKAM). There is one additional resource that I found interesting, if you haven't used it already. VolatilityHQ provides a detailed and back-tested return matrix. It works well with these momentum trades. I had recently joined this forum, and tagged along for a few of these rides. Just when I was about to dive in deeper, the trades pretty much dried up.

@Andrew I've deployed the fix in production, the charts should get updated today over time as the cache is getting updated.