Dear Friend,

Last week I recommended buying a calendar spread on SVXY to take advantage of the extremely high option prices for the weekly options (at-the-money option prices had more than doubled over the past two weeks).  The stock managed to skyrocket over 7% for the week and caused the calendar spread to incur a loss.  When you sell a calendar spread, you want the stock to be trading very close to the strike price when the short options expire.  When the underlying stock makes a big move in either direction, you generally lose money on these spreads, just as we did last week.

Ironically, this spread was the only losing portfolio out of the 10 portfolios we carry out at Terry’s Tips (ok, one other portfolio lost a couple of dollars, but 8 others gained an average of almost 5% for the week).  The only losing spread was the one I told the free newsletter subscribers about.  Sorry.  I’ll try to do better next time.

Terry

Maybe it’s Time to Buy Options Rather Than Sell Them:  

Option prices are almost ridiculously low.  The most popular measure of option prices is VIX, the so-called “fear index” which measures option prices on SPY (essentially what most people consider “the” market).  Last week VIX fell almost 11% to end up below 11.  The historical mean is over 20, so this is an unprecedented low value. 

When we sell calendar or diagonal spreads at Terry’s Tips, we are essentially selling options to take advantage of the short-term faster-decaying options.  Rather than using stock as collateral for selling short-term options we use longer-term options because they tie up less cash.

With option prices currently so low, maybe it is a time to reverse this strategy and buy options rather than selling them.  On Friday, in the portfolio that that lost money on the SVXY calendar spread, we bought at-the-money calls on SPY  for $1.36.  It seems highly likely that  the stock will move higher by $1.50 or more at some point in the next 3 weeks and make this a winning trade (SPY rose $1.81 last week, for example). 

With option prices generally low across the board and the stock market chugging consistently higher in spite of the turmoil in Iraq, maybe this would be a good time to buy a call option on your favorite stock.  Just a thought.

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      Any questions?   I would love to hear from you by email (terry@terrystips.com), or if you would like to talk to our guy Seth, give him a jingle at 800-803-4595 and either ask him your question(s) or give him your thoughts.

You can see every trade made in 8 actual option portfolios conducted at Terry’s Tips and learn all about the wonderful world of options by subscribing here.  Why wait any longer to make this important investment in yourself?

Even better, you can become a Terry’s Tips Insider, and receive all our educational reports and materials absolutely free by opening a new account at the best options broker around - thinkorswim. If you open an account with our link, they will give you 60 days of free trading or up to $600, the same deals they give to everyone who opens an account with them. You must use this link to sign up - open thinkorswim account – and once you have funded your account with at least $3500, email Seth@TerrysTips.com and let him know that you have done it, and this is what he will do – sign you for our Premium Service package ($119.95 value plus an extra 4 months of our Premium Service, valued at another $190.80).  You get $300.65 worth of services without paying us one penny.

I look forward to having you on board, and to prospering with you.

Terry

    

  open thinkorswim account

“By the way I told Terry I was going to try to donate $1000 a month for this year from the gains of my trades with you guys. So far, total is $6886.00 not counting this week.  Looks like I am ahead of my goal. Thanks for all you do.” -  Roger S

Thank you again for being a part of the Terry's Tips newsletter. If you are interested in signing up as an Insider, visit Terry's Tips today for details.

Sincerely,
Dr. Terry Allen
Terry's Tips