And then there were 35

This week CBOE expanded their selection of  weekly options from 31 to 35.   The symbols added this week (expiring November 5th) are:  IBM PCLN RIMM SLV.   All these except PCLN (Priceline.com Inc.) have previously been on the list at some point.   For more on the CBOE’s weekly options see here,  or see my guest post in the August issue of the online …

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Saving money with combination orders

If you ever plan to trade more than straight long options you should learn to use combination orders, specifically debit and credit orders. . A combo order allows you to execute multiple trades simultaneously at a single integrated not-to-exceed price.  Some examples: Creating a simple covered call position, buying the underlying equity and selling-to-open calls Creating a call bear option spread, selling the lower strike …

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Back to the oil well

I’m back into USO after selling my shares and buying  back my 24-September S33 calls last Friday for a net credit of $32.97 per share.   Bought USO this morning at 33.01, sold-to-open S33 calls at $0.44.  Breakeven is 32.57, maximum profit is $0.43 per share.    Best case this is a 1.3% return for a 5 day investment.

VXX prospectus

You can find Barclays’ VXX prospectus here.  The prospectus covers both the short term VXX, and the medium term VXZ. This post discusses going long on VXX. This post discusses some choices if you think VXX is going to go down. For an estimated date for VXX’s next reverse split see this post. For an overview of how VXX works, see “How Does VXX Work?” …

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