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Wiki Selling TSLA Options - Be the House

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Question about max pain graphs: what if retail traders one week sold more than bought options (ie. TSLA weekly calls for next week) so the MMs were net long? Would the max pain graphs showing those call walls be inverted (below zero) or would they still show the "open" positions as positive on the graphs even though it is the MMs who own them? Would there be any way for us ignorant retail traders to know this has happened? Would this encourage the MMs to try and get those calls ITM so they would profit instead of what happens every week?
 
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So I just got some fantastic news on this front - I'm going to be able to recognize several hundred thousand in losses due to this accounting treatment (just confirmed with my broker). My old broker did disallow some losses as wash sales even for different option strikes / dates. This is huge for me! I can't share my excitement with anyone I know in real life, so have to gush here.

That last bit - I totally feel you there. I've got one person that I can kind of talk about this outside of my family - mostly can't talk about it because of size of positions, or because nobody hears anything beyond "options" :)
 
What a great day 😀

STO 8/20 $740 CC for $9.50
BTC for $7.40

STO (same) for $6.90
BTC for $5.55

net -> $3.45 per share on the day

Also sold 8/27 $700 P for $13.00. Okay for these to be assigned to reach my share goal

Cheers-
Well done! I was all in on the 722.50 and didn't have any dry powder. Nothing nekkid for me.
 
Yeah, I'm doing the same. My $720c BTC order was filled for my standard close amount ($0.69) to ensure that it gets closed for certain without any after hours shenanigan's.

Unfortunately, I'll be asleep next market open as it opens like 430 AM here. I have put in a limit order for $735 at $14, but I might change that out later.
Dunno about your broker, but Fidelity (and I think eTrade) do commission free BTC at .65 and under. You might like a .60 close over .69 for the incremental penny worth of commissions you don't fork over as well.
 
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Dunno about your broker, but Fidelity (and I think eTrade) do commission free BTC at .65 and under. You might like a .60 close over .69 for the incremental penny worth of commissions you don't fork over as well.
What are the range of things that could happen in "AH shenanigans"?

For example, if we close end-of-day at $719.50, could the closing cross and AH conceivably nudge the price up enough to trigger assignment for $720 cc's?
 
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What are the range of things that could happen in "AH shenanigans"?

For example, if we close end-of-day at $719.50, could the closing cross and AH conceivably nudge the price up enough to trigger assignment for $720 cc's?
Biggest I've seen was teh closing cross for S&P inclusion. Shares were around $640 near last trade. Closing cross / official close was $695. That'd hurt - being $20 OTM and learn later in the evening you were $35 ITM and just got assigned.
 
good grief that's toe-dipping? o_O
One of the benefits or perspectives I've acquired from ~10 years of being a Tesla car owner/driver and TSLA investor is that we all have a financial threshold below which it's "noise" (see, want, get is the purchase cycle) and above that gets research, consideration, and maybe even extensive planning.

Wherever we are in life we can find those with a higher threshold and those with a lower threshold. I learned this from other Tesla owners, especially when Ludicrous first came out when there were people trading in / selling 1 month old Model S's to get the new faster shiny toy. Mind boggling to me - for them $150k for a new Model S was under their threshold.

EDIT to add: The other end of the spectrum -- I figure all of us have a threshold somewhere >$2. So we see a pack of gum at the checkout stand, decide that we want it, and we get it. It doesn't matter if its $1.29, or $1.60, or $0.79. See, want, get. Still wrapping my brain around a threshold >$150k but I've been trying for a few years now.


That shows up here as well - some of us are working with $100k or less; some with $10M or more. This is an important reason why my posts don't have position sizes. The positions and reasons for getting in/out are always helpful. The only incremental information that I get from position sizes are to learn about really large positions that start being a challenge to get in and out of quickly - sizes that are moving the prices and need planning to get in and out beyond just "I want in/out".


Which is a long winded way of getting around to - for some, yes - that's toe-dipping.o_O
 
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One of the benefits or perspectives I've acquired from ~10 years of being a Tesla car owner/driver and TSLA investor is that we all have a financial threshold below which it's "noise" (see, want, get is the purchase cycle) and above that gets research, consideration, and maybe even extensive planning.

Wherever we are in life we can find those with a higher threshold and those with a lower threshold. I learned this from other Tesla owners, especially when Ludicrous first came out when there were people trading in / selling 1 month old Model S's to get the new faster shiny toy. Mind boggling to me - for them $150k for a new Model S was under their threshold.

EDIT to add: The other end of the spectrum -- I figure all of us have a threshold somewhere >$2. So we see a pack of gum at the checkout stand, decide that we want it, and we get it. It doesn't matter if its $1.29, or $1.60, or $0.79. See, want, get. Still wrapping my brain around a threshold >$150k but I've been trying for a few years now.


That shows up here as well - some of us are working with $100k or less; some with $10M or more. This is an important reason why my posts don't have position sizes. The positions and reasons for getting in/out are always helpful. The only incremental information that I get from position sizes are to learn about really large positions that start being a challenge to get in and out of quickly - sizes that are moving the prices and need planning to get in and out beyond just "I want in/out".


Which is a long winded way of getting around to - for some, yes - that's toe-dipping.o_O
It's definitely all super relative. Max loss on that position is ~150k, but that is a fairly unrealistic end result given that I will manage the position first. That said, that amount of money is certainly still significant to me, but not devastatingly consequential. I think if you play this game (options trading) a lot you sort of need to get to the point of looking at it more as a score, not as real money, and then it's just a game of odds. Other folks here do things I'd be a lot less comfortable with, but everyone has their own tolerances. As long as people are not putting their livelihood at risk, it's all good.
 
With the closing price today I've been able to let all of my IC's and spreads expire, saving a few hundred in commissions. I had a boost in available margin this week from old expiring puts last week, so was able to put that to good use to achieve my first week above $100k in options premiums. Going into next week I'll have no short term options open and a further boost in margin so will wait to see what happens on Monday before opening anything else.

The best bit is I was able to get one of my early 20's sons set up with an account to trade options this week. He's started small with some spreads but was still able to add 4% on capital for the week and he's looking forward to where this takes him long term.
 
Well, it's now been one year since I started doing covered calls methodically, and I thought I'd share the approach and results since so much of what I've learned how to do has come from this awesome group. Paying it forwards......

It is interesting to see how comparatively cautious I was in August 2020 -- both in terms of overall allocation to TSLA, and the percentage of shares with CC sold against. As the SP surged from $297 to $900 and down and up to today's $717, I raised my holdings 5x, and as I learned more about covered call mechanics (particularly rolling) from so many of you, got more aggressive with commitments and strike prices. I'm pleased with the result which is well above my highest year of salary/bonus as a senior staffer at a US Fortune 100 company.
  • 120% = total CC premiums (not including long call or capital gains) vs. total value of shares as of 4Aug20
  • 16% = same vs. total value of holdings as of today
As a rough benchmark for others, the current general approach is to sell mostly weekly calls against at least 80% of shares held in my Roth IRA in a ladder between ATM and ATM+$50. A 20%-30% return looks achievable with that more aggressive approach, even with occasional negative rolls to protect shares held, excluding capital gains and long calls. Maybe one day I'll get comfortable enough with puts and spreads to incorporate them into the strategy.

Good luck all, thank you, and HODL!
 
OK, the c722.50's finally down below $1 - kudos to anyone that sold those earlier at $9.40!

Seriously, who are the suckers buying these calls and puts?? Every week, the money they're losing 🤷‍♂️
Ok, I’d love to toot my own horn here but……. I only got $8.20 on those. ;) :cool: Got $8.63 for c725s. On Monday I also sold (STC) some 720s for $9.60-$10.00 and STC 722.50s for $9.01. In fact, everything listed below that I sold expired WORTHLESS today. WOOOOOOOHHHOOOO. I had a lot of confidence picking the strikes. Unfortunately, I lost my resolve towards the end of the week and didn’t let them all go to expiration, instead rolling the puts to 8/20, closing the calls for $1-$2, and one set of 722.50s rolled up to 8/20 -c740s (which I subsequently closed about 15:45). I had to be away from the “trading desk” after about 12:30 today, so had to close out everything early instead of letting it ride Lycanthrope-style. Overall it was a very profitable week, plus I picked up 25 shares around $705. I’m not planning on selling calls next week due to possible announcement uncertainty, though I might sell CCs above $750-$800 for the right price.
I’m still holding -p700s, -p710s, -c722.50s, and -c725s for this week. I looked at rolling the puts to next week, but the premium improvement was only about $8-$9. Since I got $13 last week, I’ll wait until Thursday or Friday to roll the puts, though I’m contemplating letting the p710s exercise. Along those lines, does MaxPain & SP take a dump on Friday BECAUSE all of us close out the puts and roll to the next week? I’d like to think that we have that much influence.:D:cool:

Expecting the calls to expire worthless per @Chenkers and @Lycanthrope SP predictions. Will reopen -c755s on Monday.
 
Dunno about your broker, but Fidelity (and I think eTrade) do commission free BTC at .65 and under. You might like a .60 close over .69 for the incremental penny worth of commissions you don't fork over as well.

I'm with TDAmeritrade, I pay a $0.65 commission fee though for every trade, regardless of cost or buying or selling options.