Your Option Contract Was Assigned - Now What?

Posted on by The INO.com Team

Options trading can serve as a powerful means to generate consistent income and mitigate portfolio risk while producing high probability win rates. Options trading allows one to profit without predicting which way the stock will move. Options aren’t about whether or not the stock will move up or down; it’s about the probability of the stock not moving up or down more than a specified amount. Options allow your portfolio to generate smooth and consistent income month after month without predicting which way the stock market will move. Options are a bet on where stocks won’t go, not where they will go. Running an option-based portfolio offers a superior risk profile relative to a stock-based portfolio while providing a statistical edge to optimize favorable trade outcomes. Options are a long-term game that requires discipline, patience, time, maximizing the number of trade occurrences and continuing to trade through all market conditions.

Put simply; an options-based approach provides a margin of safety with a decreased risk profile while providing high-probability win rates. Despite this favorable trading backdrop, occasionally options can be assigned and move against you despite managing the risk profile. How do you manage these unrealized losses and navigate these assignments to mitigate downside risk and ultimately sell your assignment at a net gain? This is the scary side of options that is rarely talked about, here I’ll demonstrate the actions I take to manage these assignments.

Assignment

Even though options trading provides a statistical advantage and generates high probability win rates, being assigned shares inevitably occurs. Briefly, when selling a put option, you agree to buy shares at an agreed-upon price (strike price) by an agreed-upon date (expiration) in exchange for premium income.

You collect premium income to compensate you for agreeing to buy shares at the agreed price by the agreed-upon date. As the contract lifecycle unfolds and the stock does not break below the strike price, profits can be realized early by buying-to-close or letting the contract expire to capture the entire premium. When the stock breaks down and trades below the agreed-upon price at expiration of the contract, the stock will be assigned. Continue reading "Your Option Contract Was Assigned - Now What?" →

As Expected The Fed Cuts Rates

Posted on by The INO.com Team

Hello traders everywhere. As expected the Fed cuts rates by 25 basis points to a range of 1.75 - 2.00%. This cut is the second cut that Fed has implemented in 10 years, the first rate cut came back in July when the Fed cut the rate by 25 basis points to a range of 2.0% - 2.25%.

The market was clearly disappointed by the 25 point cut as it was expecting or hoping for a 50 point cut. The S&P 500, DOW and NASDAQ have all headed lower on the day with the NASDAQ leading the way losing -1.0%.

Though the U.S. economy continues growing at a "moderate" rate and the labor market "remains strong," the Fed said in its policy statement that it was cutting rates "in light of the implications of global developments for the economic outlook as well as muted inflation pressures."

With continued growth and strong hiring "the most likely outcomes," the Fed nevertheless cited "uncertainties" about the outlook and pledged to "act as appropriate" to sustain the expansion.

New projections showed policymakers at the median expected rates to stay within the new range through 2020. However, in a sign of ongoing divisions within the Fed, seven of 17 policymakers projected one more quarter-point rate cut in 2019. Continue reading "As Expected The Fed Cuts Rates" →

It's Time To Go long

Posted on by George Yacik

While President Trump’s tweet calling the members of the Federal Reserve “boneheads” for failing to cut interest rates as low as Trump wants them grabbed the financial headlines, his suggestion that the government “refinance” its enormous $22.5 trillion debt got less attention. At the most, it was dismissed as undoable.

It’s hard to believe that the smartest people on Wall Street and at the U.S. Treasury can’t come up with some kind of scheme that would take advantage of today’s – and probably tomorrow’s – historically low bond yields and save taxpayers some money. This job would fall to Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin – himself a former Goldman Sachs investment banker – and not the Fed.

On Thursday, Mnuchin told CNBC that Treasury is “very seriously considering” issuing a 50-year bond next year. “We think there is some demand for it. There are some technology issues we need to make sure we have in place; there are market issues. But we would do this in a way that if there is demand, it’s something that we would meet.”

If Walt Disney and several European countries can sell 100-year bonds, certainly the United States of America can.

The initial reaction to Trump’s suggestion about refinancing Treasury debt was met with derision and skepticism. Continue reading "It's Time To Go long" →

Gold Update: Is A Bear Face Showing Up?

Posted on by Aibek Burabayev

Gold has missed our main target by $20 as it topped at the $1557 on the 4th of September. The gold optimists still benefited nicely as this peak was $67 above the first target of $1490, that we hit more than one month ago. So, it was definitely worth it to keep bullish for one more month.

Let’s see below if there were a lot of gold optimists a month ago.

Gold Poll

Indeed, the majority with a large margin preferred the continuation of the gold’s rally. It means you could book more than $60 for every ounce staying bullish. Thank you for support as I also believed in that outcome.

In the meantime, we should bear in mind that this was just a considerable correction, which had started in December of 2015. It has been retracing the other drop between 2011 and 2015. So, it is evident that the considerable drop and the correction are almost equal in time it took to emerge – 4 years both. Shall we book the recent rally as “done”? Continue reading "Gold Update: Is A Bear Face Showing Up?" →

Weekly Futures Recap With Mike Seery

Posted on by Mike Seery

Silver Futures

Silver futures in the December contract ended the week on a sour note down $0.42 at 17.75 after settling last Friday at 18.11 an ounce as prices are near a 3 week low. I have been recommending a bullish position over the last several months from the 14.93 level originally in the September contract as it is time to exit and move on as prices are right near a 3 week low as the trend in the short-term has changed.

Silver futures are trading below their 20-day but still above their 100-day moving average as all the interest has come back into the U.S stock market which is right near another all-time high as money flows are entering equities and out of the metals.

If you are a longer-term investor, I would still hold on to silver as I still believe prices are cheap historically speaking as this is just the pullback as I will not take a short position as I think the downside is minimal.

I do not have any recommendations in the precious metal as I think this is a pause as we will probably witness a consolidation over the next couple of weeks, but I still believe prices will head into the $20 range come year-end, but it is time to move on and exit.

TREND: MIXED
CHART STRUCTURE: POOR
VOLATILITY: HIGH
Continue reading "Weekly Futures Recap With Mike Seery" →