Friday, February 15, 2008

Last minute juggling of SIRF and BBBY

It's finally here; February options expiration is today (technically tomorrow).

NVIDIA (NVDA) is down again and my Mar 22.5 puts are now in the money. I am not adding more delta until either I can write a lower strike for enough time premium. Through no fault of my own, I sold the puts near the maximum time premium. The option contracts are quoted 1.90/2.00 right now. NVDA is around 22.15 so they have 0.35 intrinsic value and 1.55/1.65 time value.

I tried to close out my AEO/+AEOBD covered call but TD Ameritrade is dumb and won't let me. It says I don't have enough margin sell short AEO and buy +AEOBD. Little does it understand that I am simply trying to close the position. No big deal though, was trying to save a couple of cents on commissions.

As I suspected, BBBY would be interesting. It's down 0.84 to 29.07 so it appears my Feb 30 calls are going to go worthless. In a stupid move (to save a couple dollars), I am selling Mar 30 calls without buying back the Feb 30. Essentially, rolling out a month and then shorting the near month option. If you look at the transaction as two parts, the first part is smart (another 1.05 a share of time premium) and the second part is a little dumb (0.05 on a bet that BBBY won't rally this afternoon above 30). I would be ok if it did because I have naked puts for the May and Aug expirations so I have enough delta that I would be net long this position no matter what (for reasonable rallies).

I closed some Feb 7.5 puts on SIRF for a small 20% gain (Added delta to SIRF and WB amid market freefall). I am leaving the Mar 7.5 position on for now. I am currently in the black on that position due to reduction in implied volatility. There is a lot more calls than puts at the Feb 7.5 strike. I think this is contributing selling pressure to keep the price below the 7.5 strike (SIRF touched 7.5 a few days ago). So there is a chance that after the expiration, the stock could drift higher once the selling pressure is removed. So I am going to spin the wheel on the Mar 7.5. I will probably try to close it when the time premium goes down some more.

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