Does anyone here know how to trade cheap options?

[George 3]

Hi

I'm looking into options strategies (swing trading) that can help identify cheaply priced options that have a big upside potential.

Does anyone know how to do this?

How to find these options and how to identify if they are cheap or not?

 

Thanks in advance

[Rob C 824]

On 12/23/2020 at 9:48 PM, George said:

Hi

I'm looking into options strategies (swing trading) that can help identify cheaply priced options that have a big upside potential.

Does anyone know how to do this?

How to find these options and how to identify if they are cheap or not?

 

Thanks in advance

This is almost the identical post I just wrote for a different BBT member, but the questions are closely related.

Sorry for the delay in responding, but I am just getting back into reading the forum again. Hopefully you will still read this.

When I started with a small account I only used vertical spreads. It was perfect for a small account since you get quite a bit if leverage with a built in max loss. Since you are only paying for the spread not the option they are dirt cheap and easily affordable for a small account. I recently bought GDX for about $40 a contract (40 cents per share) with a long call vertical spread with a 6 week expiration. 

I have an account with Tastyworks , I really like their platform. I also like their TastyTrades channel.

[Bailey Nevener 83]

On 6/24/2021 at 8:11 PM, Rob C said:

This is almost the identical post I just wrote for a different BBT member, but the questions are closely related.

Sorry for the delay in responding, but I am just getting back into reading the forum again. Hopefully you will still read this.

When I started with a small account I only used vertical spreads. It was perfect for a small account since you get quite a bit if leverage with a built in max loss. Since you are only paying for the spread not the option they are dirt cheap and easily affordable for a small account. I recently bought GDX for about $40 a contract (40 cents per share) with a long call vertical spread with a 6 week expiration. 

I have an account with Tastyworks , I really like their platform. I also like their TastyTrades channel.

TastyTrade is legit and Tastyworks is also amazing.  They make the whole option process so simple.

With theta being a factor in spreads, it really makes swing trading much more controllable.

 

As for the OP, I'm assuming they are talking about Long OTM Call options.

 

If you for some reason come across a stock that is slowly trending down,

and for some reason you know that it is about to have a major bounce, then you can get OTM call options for extremely dirt cheap.

Make sure that the expiration date is 56 days out or more otherwise you may not see an increase in the price of the OTM Call option even if there is a major bounce.

Also make sure it is 56 days out or more because the theta really starts to work against you any sooner than that, so there is significantly less love in being wrong on the timing of the bounce.

It is a good idea to have a delta of .15 or higher because of the aforementioned lack of responsiveness to price movement if it is too unlikely to hit the strike price.

IMO it is probably better to get an OTM call option that has a very good chance of being in the money at the top of whatever bounce you are expecting, so that you can hold onto it if the trade continues to work.

If you don't do that then the theta and implied volatility will swiftly chop your profit and your head off in the middle of the trade.

 

Also trade management for Long OTM options (with a relatively close expiration): 

profit NOW is way better than profit later.

 

Unless you are in the money:

then profit now is still better than profit later.

 

If you think you'll make an extra 15% if you hold on, just get out.

If you think you'll make an extra 100% if you hold on, then consider holding it very strongly, and then sell half.

 

Also anyone that says you can't make money consistently from long call options (including Tom Sosnoff) is almost always talking about at expiration.  Duh.

It is true that it is difficult to make money with OTM call options because there are lots of factors and you need to be right basically immediately.

However, not for one second, does that mean you can't do it consistently.  It just means you have to do it with these things in mind.

 

I'm not an expert, but I did make 25k in two weeks from 3k with OTM options once.  LOL.

Edited August 7, 2021 by Bailey Nevener

[Rob C 824]

13 hours ago, Bailey Nevener said:

TastyTrade is legit and Tastyworks is also amazing.  They make the whole option process so simple.

With theta being a factor in spreads, it really makes swing trading much more controllable.

 

As for the OP, I'm assuming they are talking about Long OTM Call options.

 

If you for some reason come across a stock that is slowly trending down,

and for some reason you know that it is about to have a major bounce, then you can get OTM call options for extremely dirt cheap.

Make sure that the expiration date is 56 days out or more otherwise you may not see an increase in the price of the OTM Call option even if there is a major bounce.

Also make sure it is 56 days out or more because the theta really starts to work against you any sooner than that, so there is significantly less love in being wrong on the timing of the bounce.

It is a good idea to have a delta of .15 or higher because of the aforementioned lack of responsiveness to price movement if it is too unlikely to hit the strike price.

 

Tastytrades also mentions for traders who really like to trade stocks but want more leverage or for beginner option traders that don't understand the greeks fully is a long call vertical spread with long/short calls set in a way that the theta is zero at the start. And the reward risk is set to what you prefer with the max loss equal to your R. Don't expect 2-1, its not easy to find but I find 1.5 to 1 commonly. This essentially sets the delta the way you want. The expiration should be 42-56 days and you must act on day 21 (21 days to expiration) to close or roll options, thus mostly removing the gamma. 

So the greeks are mostly taken care of now you just have a trade very much like a stock trade but with more leverage. I still use this method for stocks I want to hold through earnings.