Ho hum ... Today we saw the market consolidate, trying to make up its mind which way it would go. We saw less trading volume than normal, possibly due to the holiday on Monday.
It was also a great day to be a "Two Hour Trader," with lots of opportunities to get positioned and get out within the first two hours of the day.
The market opened today about in line with our expectations — a gap down from yesterday. SPY touched our 460.5 watchlist level. If you swung puts you could have taken nice profits on the open. It then went into gap down reversal mode for the rest of the morning before even more selling as it retested the breakdown level at 464.5.
Lots of range in the markets today. SPY 464 calls were going for about $0.60-$0.70 at the open and went to a high of $2. Playing the other side, at the watchlist level the 464 puts were going for $1.50 or so and went to just shy of $4 at the day's low point.
Going Long And Short on TSLA
Tesla (TSLA) gave up a nice long in the morning, followed by some selling after it tested our 1050 level. You could have grabbed the 1045 puts for about $7-$9 and sold them for around $22 at our 1026 watchlist level. Love those levels ...
LRCX Pops Like Crazy
Lam Research Corporation (LRCX) showed strength in a weaker market, crossing a whopping five of our watchlist levels. If you grabbed the 700 calls at the open, you could have paid $2-$3 a contract and seen them shoot to a high of $24!
Timing Was Everything with TSM
Taiwan Semiconductor Mfg (TSM) was strong in the morning after yesterday's selloff. Before it locked in with the rest of the market and went into sell mode, you could have grabbed 140 calls at open for about $0.50 and seen them 8x to as high as $4. Hope those of you who made that trade got out in time, because after that high it went all the way back down!
Our Members Win on GMS's Loss
Some of our members focused on Gamestop (GME), getting short a few times in anticipation that the stock might collapse below 100. If you grabbed the 120 puts as it tested the previous day's close, you could have gotten them for as little as $1.22 a contract. They went to a staggering $8 at the lows before GME bounced with the market.
Member Trade of the Day
Edumomo member mrxandermc made the most of a choppy day, trading Disney (DIS) off the VWAP and a red-to-green setup on SPY to end the day 3.33% ahead.
Long time THT member Fluid took advantage of the early identification of possible short squeeze into the close for SHOP. Taking 12 contracts (under $1k bet) from between 0.30-0.70 leading to a $37k win just an hour or two later. Way to put all that momentum experience to work Fluid!