After creating a position with SPY on Wednesday at 111.07 I added to my covered calls on Thursday, buying SPY at 110.12, selling 110 strike calls at 0.71. At one point this morning (Friday) , when SPY was off to about 109.5 my 111 strike calls had dropped from Wednesday’s 0.83 to 0.08. These strong moves are characteristic of options with only a …
Update 3-Feb-2011: Schwab recently added weekly and quarterly option support to all their trading platforms. See here for more information. Update: In March 2011 Schwab plans to introduce StreetSmart Edge™, their new flagship trading platform. Among other things this platform will include, “Major options trading improvements, including the ability to trade weekly and quarterly options.” When SPY dropped to 111 this morning I started …
Created a covered call position today with SPY at 106.89 and 107 SPY calls expiring this Friday–the 23rd. The calls sold (to open) at 1.18, giving a 1.2% best case profit for the week if SPY closes Friday above 107. Fidelity supports trading these weekly options, but apparently Schwab does not.
Anyone that trades options knows that the pace quickens the last few days before expiration. The delta (the change in option price relative to the underlying) for the ATM option is still around .5, but instead of gradual changes for the deltas on the strikes in / out of the money, the curve starts resembling a step function, going from zero for out-of-the-money, to …
I bought SPY at 111.64, and sold-to-open SPY 108 June-30 expiration calls at 4.08 for a net investment (debit) of 107.58. I used the quarterly SPY options because I could go considerably deeper in the money with the calls and still get a premium that is close to the likely SPY dividend for this quarter (around $0.50). Schwab does not appear to …
