Tomorrow is August options expiration. I like to look at selling straddles or a ratio trade if one of the stocks below looks like it is pinned to a strike. Here are the usual suspects from a table on Thursday before April expiration.
| Stock | Thursday Close | Nearest Strike | Number of Calls | Number of Puts | ATM Straddle | 30 day Hist. Vol. | Probability To Exceed Either |
| GS | 162.33 | 160 | 8,900 | 9,500 | $2.8 | 26.4 | 31% |
| AAPL | 166.30 | 165 | 25,828 | 12,087 | $2.2 | 26 | 42.8% |
| GOOG | 461.29 | 460 | 5,026 | 1,631 | $5 | 21 | 41.6% |
| RIMM | 75.45 | 75 | 19,238 | 8,349 | $1.1 | 36 | 53.4% |
| FSLR | 130.29 | 130 | 2,613 | 8,634 | $3.65 | 65 | 50.4% |
| MA | 203.02 | 200 | 3,925 | 1,313 | $3.85 | 23.8 | 21% |
| AZO | 151.81 | 150 | 1,153 | 1,256 | $2.45 | 26 | 34.5% |
| BIDU | 339.25 | 340 | 4,126 | 1,677 | $4.9 | 40.22 | 57% |
| CME | 271.89 | 270 | 971 | 1,942 | $5.30 | 31 | 32% |
Most of the straddles are fairly priced. MA and GS and CME look like possibilities. The last column is the probability to exceed either break even point, stock + straddle and stock – straddle value.
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