Options Geek» Trade Ideas Archives – Options Geek

Natural Gas setup

OptionsGeek — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 14:39:59 +0000

Based on fundamental and technical factors, Natural Gas looks well setup for call option selling. For those of you who’ve never traded Natural Gas options before, there can be some volatility (which is of course a good thing in many cases from a premium collection perspective). A couple of approaches you can use to mitigate this volatility, would be to use credit spreads, or “calendar credit spreads” (covering the short call with a purchase of the same strike in an earlier month). I’m looking at April options, well out of the money. Thanks to recent volatility, good premiums are available at strikes that are almost double the current price of Natural Gas.

Crude Oil Call sales

OptionsGeek — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:58:14 +0000

Hey guys. Based on what I’m seeing in the energy markets, I’m looking at selling some WOOM calls on crude oil. Probably the April contract. There are good premiums available at 50% or more out of the money, and I think this is a fairly conservative play based on the economic fundamentals that are in-play out there at the moment. As always though in the energy markets, keep a close eye on things and don’t hesitate to use credit spreads if you are a little more risk-averse, or make sure you stick to your buyback price (e.g., double or triple) if you’re selling naked.

Good trading!

Coffee calls

OptionsGeek — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:10:17 +0000

It looks like it might be time to sell some WOOM calls on Coffee again. The market seems to be setup well for some premium collection here — fundamentally there doesn’t seem to be much of a driver higher to the upside, and there is some technical resistance as well. Have a look – it might be just the boost of energy your portfolio needs.

GBP setup

OptionsGeek — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 18:51:16 +0000

With the current “lack of clarity” around the global economic situation, the British Pound looks well setup for a short strangle. I’ll be looking at selling some WOOM (way-out-of-the-money) puts and calls over the next week on the March contract/expiration. The GBP has been range-bound since June, and may very well continue chopping around for some time longer. The exit strategy would be to buy back the short options if they double (conservative) or triple (aggressive).

Sugar follow-up #2

OptionsGeek — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 21:06:53 +0000

A quick belated follow-up on my earlier Sugar trade. I actually did quite well on this one, as I adjusted the trade – converting it from naked short calls into a debit spread. Somewhat risky, but it can work out quite well at times when a market is strongly trending. In this case, I ended up closing the trade with around 30% more profit than I would have if the original premium collection strategy had worked out. The ability to adjust your positions on the fly can be very useful at times

Sugar follow-up

OptionsGeek — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 16:58:06 +0000

Keep an eye on sugar guys — it put the position under pressure after our original recommendation, but it’s easing off the throttle now and looks to be forming a potential long-term double-top. This may present further premium collection opportunities here for call sales if the weakness continues.

Sugar looking sweet

OptionsGeek — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 19:23:32 +0000

Sugar seems to be having a very hard time breaking through it’s current price level. Selling some October calls and/or spreads well out of the money may be something to consider for those with a sweet tooth.

Gold…fizzling out?

OptionsGeek — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 21:46:08 +0000

Ok guys, as I briefly mentioned a couple of days ago — I think it may be a good time to look at selling some calls or credit spreads on Gold. The October contract looks good, somewhere around the 1500 strike. For those with a higher risk tolerance, you could sell naked calls, and for those who like some air-cover, you could work with ratio spreads or credit spreads.

I’m not (at the moment) as fired up as the Gold lovers are who are forever trying to convince everyone that Gold needs to be above 1K.

I just don’t see it at the moment, and am not inclined to buy into the notion that “the world is going to end”.