Today started off boring enough. Choppy. No direction. All we could do was play the levels and be careful ... until we started to see some downside momentum.

If you got short on SPY at the 451 watchlist level fail, you could have snagged 450 puts for about $1.50 a piece. Once it broke the 449 level and selling accelerated, it ran right into our 440.5 watchlist level. What also ran was the price of our contracts — to a high of $9.50.

All it took was some planning and patience. We always take profits on the way down just in case it bounces!

SPY continues to look weak. What with Russia and Ukraine in the news, as well as an emergency meeting of the Fed next week, we expect risk-off and selling into next week.

DDOG Upgrade Turns Into All-Day Seller

Datadog (DDOG) made the list this morning after some PT upgrades. Apparently those upgrades didn't mean "today." We were able to get short vs. the 180 watchlist level and watch one of our favorite setups occur — an all-day seller. The 180 puts went from an easy-to-stomach $2, and rode its way all the way to $12 at the 168 watchlist level. Amazing.

AFRM Swing Pays Off Big-Time

Affirm Holdings (AFRM) was on our radar yesterday, and Edumomo analyst Hunger called out the 50 puts yesterday to swing it ... for $0.35. They went as high as $4 today. I love big-percentage paydays!

More Swings and Hits ...

In other swing news, yesterday's Twilio (TWLO) call paid off. We had grabbed the 200 puts yesterday for as low as $2. They went as high as $10 today. NVIDIA Corp (NVDA) 245 and 250 puts each went from $0.75 yesterday to $3-$5 today; and $1.25 yesterday to $5-$10 today.

... plus a Bunch of Sick Day Trades on the Usual Suspects

A bunch of regulars on our watchlist — including Tesla (TSLA), NVDA, Amazon (AMZN), and Google (GOOGL) — also paid big if you used the levels to position yourself and take profits. I love those levels