Wiki Selling TSLA Options - Be the House

[PastorDave]

Anyone subscribe to any of the Option monitoring sites to see what other big traders may be doing? Sites like cheddarflow.com. Wondering if it may be worth a subscription?

I signed up to Cheddarflow maybe two weeks ago. I'm not a huge fan, honestly. I'm not sure in which direction the trades are happening. Eg, this is what it looks like right now:

Is that 216 contract order for 840 calls being sold or bought? No way to tell, that I know of. However, I can guess that it's being sold, so someone thinks 840 is safe this week. But if that was closer to the money, I'd have a hard time telling you. When if I'm stressed out and desperate for more data, it does supply a steady stream of that, lol.

I do like their charting, and for what we're investing, I'm not going to sweat $80 a month.

 

[Tslynk67]

I was wondering: have any of you been setting up BPS and BCS on other stocks than TSLA? I've so far not ventured to other stocks because TSLA has some of the best option premiums, although IV has gradually been dropping over the past nine months and there must be stocks out there with better premiums. I have a lot of faith in TSLA and wouldn't want to dabble with NIO, BYND or other young stocks because I consider them too risky. But TSLA is not immune to a possible black swan either and putting all my eggs in one basket might not be the best risk management.

Yes, plenty of higher IV stocks, but I won't touch them as I don't know the companies, the typical trading patterns, the upcoming events, etc., I stick with $TSLA because I believe I have an information/knowledge advantage, which gives an edge

 

[Yoona]

Anyone subscribe to any of the Option monitoring sites to see what other big traders may be doing? Sites like cheddarflow.com. Wondering if it may be worth a subscription?

thanks, i signed up just now for the 7-day trial; just need to study/understand what it means

 

[Cherry Wine]

Another related thing that has me worried is the wide release of FSD beta. In the long term, no doubt this will be huge for Tesla, but In the short term I can only see negative catalysts coming from FSD (mainly the inevitable first FSD accident and blowback).

I was concerned enough to only carry a small amount of margin risk over this weekend, compared to normal. Now this is pushed to Sunday/Monday so it could affect next week.

I share this concern to an extent - more so as it rolls out to an even wider audience.

I’m actually one of the 100/100s. If it’s any consolation, it takes a significant amount of effort / attention to maintain that rating under normal circumstances, which hopefully translates to careful monitoring of FSD beta. Hopefully those that gamed the safety scoring system through whatever method to achieve that score are a) in the minority and b) just as careful with the beta as those who didn’t.

Right now I think the FSD Beta is definitely something to watch out for as a negative surprise. I have it as of this morning and based on my first drive I would not be too surprised if we hear about an accident soon with someone using it. It's both incredibly impressive and wildly not ready for public use in my opinion. I hope they roll it out extremely slowly.

Got it also - can confirm.

 

[AquaY]

I was wondering: have any of you been setting up BPS and BCS on other stocks than TSLA? I've so far not ventured to other stocks because TSLA has some of the best option premiums, although IV has gradually been dropping over the past nine months and there must be stocks out there with better premiums. I have a lot of faith in TSLA and wouldn't want to dabble with NIO, BYND or other young stocks because I consider them too risky. But TSLA is not immune to a possible black swan either and putting all my eggs in one basket might not be the best risk management.

I haven't found underlyings as good as TSLA generally speaking. Also, the last few weeks while other stocks I've written puts on have been bearish TSLA has still been bullish.
I think there is another thread for this exact topic that I haven't looked at in a while.
I've been writing BPS and BCS in Apple, AMZN, RBLX and SHOP.

 

[ammulder]

I went back in with 700/750 put spreads on one of the not-quite-a-proper-dip dips. It gave me a lot of confidence that TSLA was up first thing while macros were down. I don’t think we’re going real low before earnings. It‘ll be a bummer post-earnings if there’s not a near-term big event to keep the buying coming… we’ll have to see where earnings takes us.

I also stuck my toe in with two $830 calls for this week. I can’t bring myself to sell more… don’t want to part with shares before earnings… but I feel like I should have *some* option to take advantage of any macro weakness the rest of this week. Hmm.

 

[Discoducky]

STO 5x $820 and $825 when it touched $798 and then $800, wish I had closed out my puts from last week at the same time, but they are holding at 50% profit right now (did 8x $750 @$11.44). I'm not touching 10/22 expiry yet. Waiting for price action to see how the call walls hold this week and if new OI appears for next week. My guess is that we'll do ~$2.00 EPS and it will pop the stock, if above $830, I don't want to be caught in the retail buying madness.

 

[pz1975]

I’m waiting until Friday to open new positions for next week. Big IV weeks when there is an ER are when one can make big profits even selling very OTM options. That’s how I started doing this strategy 3-4 years ago. I’m going to save some margin powder for just before close Wednesday as well.

 

[Tslynk67]

I'm putting some faith in the MM to keep the price down this week before letting it run up next week. Adding to the 300 x 735/760BPS opened on Friday.

STO 400x BCS split between 820/850 830/860 & 835/860 @ $3.35, $2 & $1.35 also a few $745CC @ $1.35
Now waiting to see if there's a delayed MMD to sell a couple more BPS or IC.

I am but a naïve child next to you, sir!

 

[CHGolferJim]

Isn't the correct terminology BEAR Call Credit Spread?

Thanks for the correction. I misunderstood, and am glad I didn’t get in deep lol. Had a nagging feeling something was wrong.

 

[TheTalkingMule]

Right now I think the FSD Beta is definitely something to watch out for as a negative surprise. I have it as of this morning and based on my first drive I would not be too surprised if we hear about an accident soon with someone using it. It's both incredibly impressive and wildly not ready for public use in my opinion. I hope they roll it out extremely slowly.

Yeah, the spectre of a kid getting mowed down has me hesitant to jump into my new BPS rhythm just yet.

Gonna wait and see how we look as the week progresses and simply target buying calls if IV is low and SP drop sub-785.

I don't see Wall Street putting any further value on FSD yet, and the possibly of something "bad" happening that's entirely not Tesla's fault is much higher.

Wild times. This next 6 months anything could happen in either direction. Actually, I would argue something wild MUST happen in either direction. SP ilhas been held down too long and PE will be verging on rational inside of 4 months.

 

[generalenthu]

I went back in with 700/750 put spreads on one of the not-quite-a-proper-dip dips. It gave me a lot of confidence that TSLA was up first thing while macros were down. I don’t think we’re going real low before earnings. It‘ll be a bummer post-earnings if there’s not a near-term big event to keep the buying coming… we’ll have to see where earnings takes us.

I also stuck my toe in with two $830 calls for this week. I can’t bring myself to sell more… don’t want to part with shares before earnings… but I feel like I should have *some* option to take advantage of any macro weakness the rest of this week. Hmm.

I rolled my 690/600 bps for this Friday which were at ~80% profit (At around 10:15 AM), to the same expiry 750/700. I was impatient to get in, and consequently have the dubious distinction of selling these at the lowest premium of the day at $2.4. I'm sure you got at least 30% more.

VIX has gone up a bit since the market top at 10 AM which spilled over into the Tesla option chains keeping the pricing on these spreads firm.

 

[Cherry Wine]

There are some potential macro catalysts this week in the form of some inflation indicators as well as the release of the Fed minutes from the September meeting. For those looking for entry points on the put side, it might be worth waiting to see how those go; inflation has been stubbornly high as I'm sure you all know.

On the call side, release of China sales data tonight might be a catalyst to finally break through 800, especially if the macro environment cooperates.

I'm sitting tight for now, with my existing positions at $880 on the call side and $700 on the put side.

 

[Discoducky]

release of China sales data tonight

The CPCA data right? Will basically just let us know what % of cars were sold in China vs exported as we already have the official Tesla #'s for Q3.

 

[Discoducky]

Staring at OI, I just noticed the $750 call wall hiding with the $750 put wall on Max-Pain. Swaggy shows it much better, so I'm switching FYI

 

[charlesgres]

How much % of your cash reserve do you typically use as margin? Is 75% risky, given that you can always roll (theoretically) when SP goes the wrong way? What are the risks that can bite you? Margin calls, I suppose, but is the margin requirement not fixed with a BPS?

 

[Discoducky]

How much % of your cash reserve do you typically use as margin? Is 75% risky, given that you can always roll (theoretically) when SP goes the wrong way? What are the risks that can bite you? Margin calls, I suppose, but is the margin requirement not fixed with a BPS?

I keep mine under 40%. I had a margin call and while it wasn't that bad, just had to move some stocks into the account, I don't want it to happen again. I like the extra cushion and the income is already great, so I don't push it.

 

[BornToFly]

I rolled some of this weeks 720/670s to 720/670s and 700/650s for next week. I will wait a few days on the rest to see what happens with the SP and prices. I was really hoping to be no higher than 700 going into next Friday, but the extra income of the 720 and Greed got me. I hope the ER next week is strong enough to keep the SP from dropping like it usually does.

 

[CHGolferJim]

Back to the old familiar, STO 101521C820 at $4.00

 

[stealthyc]

I rolled some of this weeks 720/670s to 720/670s and 700/650s for next week. I will wait a few days on the rest to see what happens with the SP and prices. I was really hoping to be no higher than 700 going into next Friday, but the extra income of the 720 and Greed got me. I hope the ER next week is strong enough to keep the SP from dropping like it usually does.

My usual move for earnings is to go way OTM for the actual event, capture some IV crush post event, then when the inevitable slight drop happens on good news I go in big for the following week at a more aggressive strike.