Trading Update May 28th

Smart money was able to push people back into long positions today and those folks ended up watching in dismay as the whole complex trickled lower into the close of the session. S&P sold off a solid 20 handles from the high of the day, further proving this week will be difficult for directional traders. This means that you can’t hold positions for too long because the market could reverse on you at any moment sending your call/put premiums back down towards zero.

Most of the Internet High Flyers saw an increased trading range today. Priceline PCLN was up almost 20 points today and ended up almost closing flat while Netflix NFLX & LinkedIN LNKD spent most of the day in red territory.

Unfortunately, in the current market environment, the big percentage gains only come when least expected. After the gap higher this morning, could you really have guessed that Netflix would collapse like this? The puts paid out as well as they did last week and I’m sorry to say I wasn’t a part of this at all.

The $215 weekly paid out an even higher percentage and in reality the trader who decided to swing short this name from last week probably caught this move the best. The swing entry was simpler than hopping in straight off the open without any definitive sign that the follow through would really take place today. Going forward, I would expect this name to slowly move back towards $200. However, that ride is not going to be an easy one, much like the rest of the directional plays this week.

I spent the day selling puts in Apple AAPL which turned out to be a bias that I couldn’t shake until I lost enough money. Being stubborn when trading is not a good characteristic to have when deciding on exits and entries.

Stick with Lucci!