What Happens on Expiration Day when I'm holding long options?
I’ve gotten some questions recently about what happens to an open options position if we’re still in it when the contracts expire.
Caveat: I will rarely hold an options contract in ASO trades into expiration unless it’s a winning position and it's going my way. Profit targets or stop loss exits will usually get me out far in advance of expiration day.
I promise this isn’t a “Go-Have-a-Baby” post that talks about how the greatest thing a human can do is procreate.
I’ve recently come to somewhat believe that. But I won’t be that guy here.
My friend Michael Nauss (@michaelnaussCMT on Twitter) just welcomed his first child into the world – a beautiful baby boy – and I couldn’t be happier for him.
And it got me thinking about all the ways my perspectives on things have changed since becoming a father myself nearly 8 years ago.
The biggest change for me is that I’m only now beginning to fully appreciate the hard work and sacrifice my mother had to go through to raise me and my two younger siblings.
My father left our house and the divorce process began when I was about 7 years old. At that time, my mom was a stay-at-home mom with no source of income. And my dad, while well-intentioned, was pretty much a deadbeat when it came to finances. So she was basically left to fend for herself with no money and no family around to help out.
We're back with another commodity post in the Commodity Check series. Today we're highlighting a commodity that had quite a meteoric rise since November 2021. In February this year, we saw the price consolidate sideways. But guess what? We have a breakout!
Let me give you another hint. It's another Agri commodity.
Our Hall of Famers list is composed of the 150 largest US-based stocks.
These stocks range from the mega-cap growth behemoths like Apple and Microsoft – with market caps in excess of $2T – to some of the new-age large-cap disruptors such as Moderna, Square, and Snap.
It has all the big names and more.
It doesn’t include ADRs or any stock not domiciled in the US. But don’t worry; we developed a separate universe for that, which you can check out here.
The Hall of Famers is simple.
We take our list of 150 names and then apply our technical filters so the strongest stocks with the most momentum rise to the top.
Let’s dive right in and check out what these big boys are up to.
The Fed was all over the news this week, going out of its way to telegraph to the market its intention to pursue an accelerated pace of rate hikes. Fed funds futures seem to be getting the message. A month ago, futures were priced for year-end fed funds rate of 1.50 - 1.75%. That is now up to between 2.50% - 3.00%. In past accelerated tightening cycles, both stocks and commodities were strong into the initial rate hike. Their paths, however, soon diverged. Commodities remained strong and on average didn’t peak until a year and a half after rate hikes began. Stocks have tended to struggle during these tightening cycles, working sideways to lower for an extended period of time. Every cycle has its own unique characteristics, but if history is any guide it makes sense to favor commodities over stocks when the Fed is rapidly tightening monetary policy.
This week I joined Tyler Wood and David Lundgren on Fill The Gap, the official podcast of the CMT Association.
Being asked to come on to this one was a real honor for me.
Since day 1 I've been a huge fan of the Association and the members who came before me. I can tell you honestly that I don't know where I would be today if it wasn't for the CMT Association and more importantly, the community of members all over the world.
It truly has been one of the best experiences of my entire life and for that I will forever be grateful.
In this conversation talk about how I became a Technician, the first books I started reading, who my mentors were, starting a business, becoming a Wine Sommelier and the new technical tools and strategies that technicians are now able to incorporate into Crypto and other digital assets.
