I’m short four AMAT naked puts and it’s been falling since soon after I got in. This morning, shortly after opening, while AMAT was trading at 18.90 I sold four uncovered May 20 calls (ANQED) and received $207.00 after commissions.
I like AMAT long term, so I opted not to buy my naked puts back, but don’t see it above 20 before expiration, so I sold the calls at the same strike. I’ll profit on at least one of the options and hopefully enough to cover the loss on the other. If AMAT does climb again, 21-22 might be a hard ceiling to pass. The short-term downside looks more likely though since it spent last week crossing back and forth over the 50 day moving average and then finally fell through hard where it opened today. The 20 moving average has been a tough ceiling too and it’s declining now. I’ll try to ride this one out now. I’m also closer to delta neutral on it with these new calls.
While all this was going on an order hit that I entered last week. I opted to not chase SLB after I learned from my mistake with DD earlier in the week. Mistake might be too hard of a word. I just left money on the table by not using a better limit order even though the chart suggested a small decline was due. I priced my new SLB options to hit when SLB’s price came down. While SLB was trading around 90.30, I sold one May 85 naked put (SLBQQ) and received $219.25 after commissions. At 12:30, I’m still the high price of the day. My order was based on my belief oil will stay up and that SLB’s chart looked like it would pull back some and hit its trend line again. It did and my order hit. I sold farther OTM because I wanted to reduce risk if that level of support broke. 85 looks like the next level of support that could save me if SLB turns south again.