Trade: Buying the NRG Sep 22 Straddle for $.95
Risk: $95 per 1 lot
Reward: Unlimited
Notes: Paper bought 4892 NRG Sep 22 Puts for $.40 OPENING position
UPDATE 9.16.2012 With time decay is against me, these Straddles are worth $.70, but time is working against me.
UPDATE 9.21.2012 I sold all my Puts out at $.65 and and Calls expired worthless, so the Straddle was sold for $.65. Moving to the next trade.
Some of the announcements from today include iPad sales of 84 million units and the iPad accounts for 91% of web traffic. The phone has a thinner, lighter and bigger glass screen and aluminum case. Apple gave developers an early peek at the specs in order to have apps available for the new dimensions. The new iPhone is both HSPA+ and LTE compatible on a single chip and single radio. It has a new A6 processor with double the speed of CPU and graphics. The 5 is an overall upgrade from the iPhone 4.
AT&T Inc. (T) move up one dollar early in the morning most likely on news from Apple (AAPL) releasing its new iPhone 5. The stock is now up only $0.15. The carriers will have to pay a high premium to get the iPhone 5, contributing as much as $400 per customer for a two year contract.
The DOW is up 26 points today, 0.19%, to 13,347; The NASDAQ up 10 points, 0.34%, to 3,115 and the S&P is up 4 points, 0.31%, to 1,438. The DOW started higher today and peaked early in the morning at 13,374 and then hit a low around 11:00 am of 13,318. It is hard to tell what is moving the market today as both positive and negative news has come out of the media today.
Gold futures are flat, silver and crude futures are down less than half of a point but platinum futures jumped up 41.90 points today, a 2.61% gain. Corn futures are down -9 points, a 1.16% drop. Corn peaked around 830 in the middle of August and has since been down, currently sitting at 768.60.
Imports and Export prices came out today. Import prices are down on the year by more than 2%. Jobless claims and Producer Price Index tomorrow at 8:30 am EST.
Alex Kalish has a masters in economics from Suffolk University.
Questions, comments and suggestions welcome: alexk@keeneonthemarket.com
Topic: 4 Ways to Play Any Stock: A Market Makers Trading Plan
Today at 3:00pm CST
Speaker: Andrew Keene, 11 year Option Market Maker & Floor Trader
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Free Contest! – Guess the closing print of Apple (AAPL)
Closest Guess Wins a Free Ipod Shuffle!
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Zuckerberg called the stock performance these past few months “disappointing”, and admitted that the drop in the stock price didn’t particularly help employee morale at the company. He did note, however, that morale wasn’t as bad as people might think, and that Facebook takes huge steps to reward its employees. Interestingly, Zuckerberg also said he enjoys being an underdog in the eyes of Wall Street, and stated, “The first half of the year was a little bit slow on products, but the next nine months I think there will be a lot of exciting stuff.”
Shares of Facebook were up 3.5% in after-hours trading following the speech. He looked comfortable as he answered questions, and for the first time he came out and said that Facebook does care about its shareholders. The highlight of his speech was his steadfast focus on the mobile space. He said the word mobile 34 times in a 32 minute speech. Zuckerberg said he expects advertising revenue to regain momentum, and that he ultimately expects mobile ads to generate higher revenue than desktop ads. As Facebook traffic occurs more and more on mobile devices, generating revenue in the mobile space will be key to progressing the stock price.
Finally, Zuckerberg pointed out that Facebook was not interested in building a smartphone, which has been a recurring rumor over the last year.
In his eyes, the future of the company remains bright, and time will tell if he can answer his skeptics and reverse the downtrend in the stock price.
Brandon Kieltyka is currently an undergraduate studying Finance at Daytona State College.
Twitter: @kieltyka05
Metals are also gaining some ground this morning. Gold futures are up 10.00 points, (0.58%) to 1744.90, and Platinum futures are up 36.00 points, 2.24%, to 1643.00. Brent crude oil for October delivery is at its highest close since August 16th on speculation of a euro zone bailout.
The MBA Purchases Applications, a Mortgage Banker’s Association compilation of various mortgage loan indexes, was released today. The report is released weekly on Wednesdays, and provides a gauge of the demand and momentum for housing. Actual growth rates in the composite index was 11.1%, a change from -2.5%, an 8% change in the purchasing index and a 12% change in the refinance index.
The Home Depot, Inc. (HD | 56.72 [-0.58]) was down a half of a dollar yesterday, but rose in after hours trading a tenth of a dollar. The stock could gain on news from the Mortgage Banker’s Association. The stock is chasing it’s all-time high that hasn’t been since 1999, around 65$. The stock is currently sitting at its 52-week high with the low of 31.03 not seen since last September.
Lowe’s Companies, Inc. (LOW | 28.60 [-.09]) stock was down a tenth of a dollar yesterday, and rose by a nickel in after hours trading. LOW is also peaking towards its highest price ever before the financial crisis around $35. The stock is also bearings it’s 52 week high of 32.29, the lowest 52 week price at 18.53 also not seen since last September. LOW has not steadily risen as HD, but saw a dip in the summer months of 2012.
Apple, Inc. (AAPL) and Facebook (FB) are both up in after hours trading, AAPL releasing its new phone today and Facebook’s CEO, Zuckerberg, reassuring investors that Facebook will continue to dominate social media through mobile devices.
Alex Kalish has a masters degree in economics from Suffolk University.
Suggestions and comments welcome: alexk@keeneonthemarket.com
