29 Comments

Do you have any kind of forum or blog besides posting on these pages where we can chat among us? Any thoughts on SFM taking a huge dump today? the 100% up from yesterday is all gone. :0(

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I might be able to create a forum here; let me see what capabilities Substack has for that.

Re the ~3% drop in SFM so far today: I don't have any thoughts on why it happened, but I'll share a thought from David Janello to me yesterday: the correct price to exit is anything above what you paid, and it's best to take profits sooner rather than later. Since this spread is still in the money, we should consider taking profits now. An exit at $0.80, for example, is still a ~78% gain. Not bad for a two-day trade.

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Good advice, better to make some than lose! What are your thoughts on the other 3 open spreads, FULT, NIO & WING?

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The next earnings are the catalysts for all three. WING releases earnings tomorrow, and our spread is a bet on a positive surprise. So I’m obviously going to hold it until then and see what happens.

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Sorry, my mistake: WING released earnings today, and had a big earnings beat. Stock closed up 9.35%. If those gains hold tomorrow, we should be able to exit our spreads with nice gains.

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Yes I do & its a Roth

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Hi David, can you help with selling the SFM, as I am up nice.

35 Call up 138.29% gain to $2,720.20 on $1,143.43 cost basis

36 Call down -211.47 loss to -$2400 on $770.56 cost basis

This is my first spread. When I sell the 35, would I then buy to close? I am buying the shares at the lower price, correct? Thanks for help here.

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Hi Big,

With spreads you typically close both "legs" at the same time, so you would 'buy to close' the short 36 call and 'sell to close' the long 35 call for (currently) a net credit. Try one contract pair to get a feel for it in case you mess something up. If you have a paper trading account it might be helpful to practice there too. FYI. I sold a portion of this spread earlier today for $0.80/contract. It will take a lot of time to get to $0.95 and there is still a lot of time to expiration.

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Yeah, it looks like I might have to wait until Orthodox Christmas morning to get the ~115% gain here.

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Really appreciate your help Glenn, on this I get this

Sell to close 35 I have 8x Value is $2314.80 with a $1176 profit

Buy to close 36 I have 8x value is $1956.20 with a -$1192 loss

So that is about break even?

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Big, you need to look at these together. Based on your numbers above you opened the position at $0.466/contract pair. You should be able to exit (currently) ~$0.75-0.80/pair for a potential profit of ~$0.30-$0.35/pair. If you could sell all 8 at $0.80, you would have a profit of ~$0.334/contract or ~$267 or ~70% in one day!!

Your current values above are skewed because the bid/ask spread of each contract is about $0.30 wide. Your numbers are likely based on selling the bid price (lowest) and buying the ask price (highest), the worst result possible!! Typically you can use the average between these, or 'mid' price (on most platforms) to approximate the value. Remember it's an auction and the only "real" price is the bid and the ask.

Hope this helps.

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Thank you for the idea, so trying to do it with 1 of the 8. Is there any way to do the buy & close in one step like when I purchased or 1 @ a time. When I try to sell the 35 I get this error from Fidelity

(354014) Your order will leave your account with an option position that exceeds your option level. Please review your order.

or do I buy to close the 36 1st?

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With the Fidelity website, go to "Positions" and then click "Options Summary". Then look for your spread, click the drop down arrow to the right of it, and click "Close Strategy". That will bring up an entry field that looks like the one you used to open the trade. Then you can enter your desired net credit as a limit price and place the order.

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Thanks David, thanks for the tip on Option summary, did not know what that was for.

yes, found that, so I sold 1x 35 for $229.31 & bought 1x 36 for $220.68, so $78.63 profit?

What I am confused on is the rest of this, so order type is Net Credit, why do you do a net credit. And as others suggest, go mid way?

Then do I do it as margin or cash? thanks again for helping me get up to speed!

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Hi David, I just went through all the Fidelity options myself and it should be pretty straightforward as you said. The mobile app might not be as easy though.

Big, you do have the right options trading level to be able to trade spreads on what they call "limited margin" right?

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Correct, because you cannot have a "short" position that's not covered by a "long" position. You have it that you would have to buy the short first before you can sell the long. Do you use Active Trader Pro at Fidelity or are you trading from the website or mobile app?

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Oh nice, the longer I am on Fidelity, the more cool stuff I find!

Thank you for your kind help!

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Why do spreads open and close so weird on robinhood? I had an order placed to close SFM spread at $0.95 and I saw the price go way above it but it still hasn't closed yet?

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Not sure about Robinhood, but currently I'm seeing a midpoint of $0.88 at Fidelity. Looks like we may have to wait a bit if we want to hold out for >100% gains. Exiting at $0.88 would give a gain of 95% if you got in at the same net debit I did ($0.45).

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HI David, so if I try to get out of the 7x left, midpoint is $0.80 and I would get $550.90 or a $231 profit. Is that correct?

And does it matter on Order Type Net Credit and Trade Type, Cash or Margin?

thank you.

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That sounds correct about the profit.

When we entered this trade, we entered it with a net debit (meaning we paid for it, on net) so when we exit, we want to do so for a net credit (meaning we get money back). So, net credit on the way out of net debit spreads.

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