TSLA Trading Strategies

[D-egg-O]

I had sold a put, which I just bought back this morning, and loaded up on some Jan19 600 calls. I have a total of four covered calls I sold prior to earnings. I'm rolling them over when they are about a week from expiration.

 

[AlMc]

I rolled my Sept 15 300 puts 'out and down' to Dec 250s. They are for protection.
I really don't want to sell stock if I can help it as a 'hedge' to a bad ER. RE: Tax consequences.

I like far out of the money puts as a hedge for 'bad Tesla news' and possible general macro protection.

I also carry some TVIX now as protection.

I may dampen my gains but that is my strategy.

Not advice

 

[MitchJi]

I just sent this to a friend via a PM and decided to post it here.

I sold everything except one share of stock on Tuesday the eighth, based on my wife's intuition. She thinks that the entire market is going to drop by about 10-20 percent between Monday and the end of August. We are planning to buy back in when the SP hits about $310 in September. If that happens it'll be great. Another possibility is that the SP pretty rapidly goes to over $:380-$400 and we lose out on most of those gains. So definitely not an advice!

She thought that the SP was going to hit about $364 by the middle of August and I thought when it got there on the eighth that confirmed that she was correct on the trend, but off by a week so I decided to sell everything sooner rather than later.

We cashed out for about a $288k profit on an original ~$180k. I was hoping to make enough to buy one M3 so I'm very pleased whatever happens.

I'm considering doubling down by buying about $50k of puts. Those could be a total loss combined with needing to buy back in at a higher price could mean that our current profit is our high point.

 

[bdy0627]

I just sent this to a friend via a PM and decided to post it here.

I sold everything except one share of stock on Tuesday the eighth, based on my wife's intuition. She thinks that the entire market is going to drop by about 10-20 percent between Monday and the end of August. We are planning to buy back in when the SP hits about $310 in September. If that happens it'll be great. Another possibility is that the SP pretty rapidly goes to over $:380-$400 and we lose out on most of those gains. So definitely not an advice!

She thought that the SP was going to hit about $364 by the middle of August and I thought when it got there on the eighth that confirmed that she was correct on the trend, but off by a week so I decided to sell everything sooner rather than later.

We cashed out for about a $288k profit on an original ~$180k. I was hoping to make enough to buy one M3 so I'm very pleased whatever happens.

I'm considering doubling down by buying about $50k of puts. Those could be a total loss combined with needing to buy back in at a higher price could mean that our current profit is our high point.

You may want to wait and see if TSLA holds above the 50 MA. Staying above that is still bullish, particularly if it does so with these macros.

 

[D-egg-O]

I just sent this to a friend via a PM and decided to post it here.

I sold everything except one share of stock on Tuesday the eighth, based on my wife's intuition. She thinks that the entire market is going to drop by about 10-20 percent between Monday and the end of August. We are planning to buy back in when the SP hits about $310 in September. If that happens it'll be great. Another possibility is that the SP pretty rapidly goes to over $:380-$400 and we lose out on most of those gains. So definitely not an advice!

She thought that the SP was going to hit about $364 by the middle of August and I thought when it got there on the eighth that confirmed that she was correct on the trend, but off by a week so I decided to sell everything sooner rather than later.

We cashed out for about a $288k profit on an original ~$180k. I was hoping to make enough to buy one M3 so I'm very pleased whatever happens.

I'm considering doubling down by buying about $50k of puts. Those could be a total loss combined with needing to buy back in at a higher price could mean that our current profit is our high point.

I gotta ask, why keep the one share? I'm just super curious.

 

[bdy0627]

I gotta ask, why keep the one share? I'm just super curious.

Hedging

 

[AlMc]

I just sent this to a friend via a PM and decided to post it here.

I sold everything except one share of stock on Tuesday the eighth, based on my wife's intuition. She thinks that the entire market is going to drop by about 10-20 percent between Monday and the end of August. We are planning to buy back in when the SP hits about $310 in September. If that happens it'll be great. Another possibility is that the SP pretty rapidly goes to over $:380-$400 and we lose out on most of those gains. So definitely not an advice!

She thought that the SP was going to hit about $364 by the middle of August and I thought when it got there on the eighth that confirmed that she was correct on the trend, but off by a week so I decided to sell everything sooner rather than later.

We cashed out for about a $288k profit on an original ~$180k. I was hoping to make enough to buy one M3 so I'm very pleased whatever happens.

I'm considering doubling down by buying about $50k of puts. Those could be a total loss combined with needing to buy back in at a higher price could mean that our current profit is our high point.

So, did you also sell all shares (but one) and all LEAPS? Just curious. Thanks

Edit: Also NOT advice. Have you considered buying SQQQ and/or TVIX if you/your wife think there are tough times ahead instead of puts? TVIX up about 30% (edit 35%) today. Luckily (and it IS luck) I decided to go this route instead of puts about 5-7 days ago thinking the same as your wife but wanting protection against a whole Tech sell off/volitility

 

[MitchJi]

So, did you also sell all shares (but one) and all LEAPS? Just curious. Thanks

Edit: Also NOT advice. Have you considered buying SQQQ and/or TVIX if you/your wife think there are tough times ahead instead of puts? TVIX up about 30% (edit 35%) today. Luckily (and it IS luck) I decided to go this route instead of puts about 5-7 days ago thinking the same as your wife but wanting protection against a whole Tech sell off/volitility

I've been 100% in LEAPS since November.

I bought and kept one share for $161 two or three years ago so that I can attend shareholders meetings etc.

 

[neroden]

I just sent this to a friend via a PM and decided to post it here.

I sold everything except one share of stock on Tuesday the eighth, based on my wife's intuition. She thinks that the entire market is going to drop by about 10-20 percent between Monday and the end of August. We are planning to buy back in when the SP hits about $310 in September. If that happens it'll be great. Another possibility is that the SP pretty rapidly goes to over $:380-$400 and we lose out on most of those gains. So definitely not an advice!

20% ? Too small a potential move for me to reposition; not worth paying the capital gains tax. I'll get more stock via put exercise if the market does drop.

 

[D-egg-O]

I've been 100% in LEAPS since November.

I bought and kept one share for $161 two or three years ago so that I can attend shareholders meetings etc.

Your decision makes more sense to me now that you mentioned you were 100% LEAPs. I had a hard time in the past trying to determine if I should sell when I was up suspecting a downturn may come. This was before I started messing with options. I posted this before jokingly, but in all seriousness, ever since I started trading options, I do not worry at all about selling shares. So I keep playing the options game to keep me from doing something I might regret with my shares.

 

[MitchJi]

20% ? Too small a potential move for me to reposition; not worth paying the capital gains tax. I'll get more stock via put exercise if the market does drop.

It's a lot more than twenty percent with LEAPS though. We'll probably have enough to buy over one hundred LEAPS, and we sold seventy one. I'm extremely confident that by the summer of 2018 the SP will be between $420 and $450.

$320 to $360 will be about $200k, which is definitely worth it for us, if it happens. But then we'll make an extra ~30% on the remaining increase from $360 to over $420, so in addition to the initial $200k will be another at least $120k.

The problem is that if the SP doesn't drop, but increases instead we'll lose a lot instead of gaining a lot.

Also about ten percent is in a Roth, but I am more concerned about maximizing our gains than minimizing our taxes.

Maybe I should mention two trades that I made, one by accident when I planned to roll our J19 $320's to J19 $380's. I did that on my iPad and mistook the J 19 2018's (day of the month) for J19's. I decided to let it run for a while and when I finally rolled them to J19's we had sufficient funds (about an extra $30k) buy about 5-8 additional J19's.

And when we decided a few weeks ago that we were going sell out by the end of August I rolled about a third of our J19 $380's LEAPS to September 8 $350's (71 J-9's to 70 September's), the deltas were a little higher on the September options. We cashed out the remaining J19's for about $240k. We did that to lock in the $60k profits. But we made about $30k more on the September options than we would have if we had just kept the LEAPS, when we finally sold them.

 

[MitchJi]

Your decision makes more sense to me now that you mentioned you were 100% LEAPs. I had a hard time in the past trying to determine if I should sell when I was up suspecting a downturn may come. This was before I started messing with options. I posted this before jokingly, but in all seriousness, ever since I started trading options, I do not worry at all about selling shares. So I keep playing the options game to keep me from doing something I might regret with my shares.

IMO you should be playing the options game to make the money you make on shares look like mouse nuts.

 

[D-egg-O]

IMO you should be playing the options game to make the money you make on shares look like mouse nuts.

I have a healthy amount of Jan19 LEAPs. Though my risk tolerance has been growing and I find myself owning more and more LEAPs as time goes on.

 

[ggr]

I have a healthy amount of Jan19 LEAPs. Though my risk tolerance has been growing and I find myself owning more and more LEAPs as time goes on.

Do you mean Jan 18, 2019, or Jan 19, 2018? (Not that I care... just hate this ambiguity. A few months ago I bought the wrong ones!)

 

[D-egg-O]

Do you mean Jan 18, 2019, or Jan 19, 2018? (Not that I care... just hate this ambiguity. A few months ago I bought the wrong ones!)

Apologies. Jan 2019... various strike prices.

 

[Chickenlittle]

I am a long time tsla investor trading options and holding stock. I long ago met the needs for my retirement and plan to leave enough for my kids retirement so I am slowly building up cash by selling 5% aliquots at price milestones. I start by selling covered calls for a month or two out depending on how close the share price is to the milestone. For instance I have sold strike 400 calls 4 times now to have them expire. I don't mind if they are called away that was the goal. I have made 45 dollars 'extra' per share on that level so far. When my shares are called away I sell equivalent number of puts with a strike 100 points lower for maximum time available. You would be surprised how much can be generated with that (I love the shorts). I would not mind buying the stock back at that discount price (considering the cash I got for selling the puts and the cash from my called shares and the cash from selling the covered calls). The cash is just sitting in my ira. There are many ways to use options whether deep in the money or far out of the money puts or calls. Don't have tunnel vision and frequently reconsider your strategies based on your goals

 

[Zhelko Dimic]

IMO you should be playing the options game to make the money you make on shares look like mouse nuts.

Same for loses

 

[MitchJi]

Edit: Also NOT advice. Have you considered buying SQQQ and/or TVIX if you/your wife think there are tough times ahead instead of puts? TVIX up about 30% (edit 35%) today. Luckily (and it IS luck) I decided to go this route instead of puts about 5-7 days ago thinking the same as your wife but wanting protection against a whole Tech sell off/volitility

Thanks Al!

Can you provide any additional information about your specific trade or your decision making process?

Or generic information about SQQQ and TVIX before I google those strings?

 

[MitchJi]

So I keep playing the options game to keep me from doing something I might regret with my shares.

IMO you should be playing the options game to make the money you make on shares look like mouse nuts.

Same for loses.

You are saying his goal should be to lose money as well as to make profits .

 

[AlMc]

My reasons for TVIX and SQQQ. (NOT advice);

TVIX: Volatility has been VERY low for an extended period of time. I do not see this going on *forever* and with macros being they way they are for geopolitical reasons I thought it would be a good general hedge going forward. I did not see much more downside to it when it dipped sub $16 so I bought a sizable position.

SQQQ: More of a hedge against the highest flying NAZ stocks. The market is cyclical and it looked like a good general hedge. About 1/2 the dollar commitment here vs the TVIX.

I am (wisely or not) using these as 'put' hedges against individual stock holdings.

***I have said before but it is worth reiterating: I feel that my investment strategy is >50% luck, 40% listening/employing info that I learn from others and the remaining *skill*.