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Monday, December 17, 2018

Options trades: SPX short call options (bearish trades)

Monday 12/17/2018 (Expiration Monday)

Trade 1 (9:04:09 am, PT)

sell (to open) -1 Dec 17, 2018  2620 call option at $1.45  (15 delta)

Trade 2 (9:25:29 am, PT)

buy (to close) +1 above call option at $0.45

PROFIT:  $100 (in 21 minutes)


Trade 3 (10:30:59 am, PT)

sell (to open) -1 Dec 17, 2018  2590 call option at $2.25  (18 delta)

Trade 4 (11:52:46 am, PT)

buy (to close) +1 above call option at $0.20

PROFIT:  $205 (in 1 hour, 22 minutes)


Trade 5 (12:36:43 pm, PT)

sell (to open) -1 Dec 17, 2018  2545 call option at $1.95 (30 delta)

Trade 6 (12:49:05 pm, PT)

buy (to close) +1 above call option at $0.40

PROFIT:  $155 (in 13 minutes)


TOTAL PROFIT (selling call options 3 times):   $460


COMMENTS:

  • As SPX started dropping, I would buy back my short calls and sell (to open) new ones that were closer "to the money"


  • Notice that my "deltas" started rising with each subsequent trade (once SPX started dropping, I felt pretty confident that the downward trend would continue at least until 12:50 pm or so)


  • Quite often, after a whole day of selling, the buyers come back in towards the end of the day and push the SPX back up (at 12:49 pm, PT, SPX hit an intraday low of 2530.54 and then reversed back up to close at 2545.94)


  • It's a GOOD thing I bought back my short call (2545 strike) at 12:49 pm because it would have ended up "in-the-money" at the close!