Advanced Earnings Option Trade in Alibaba
Alibaba: Advanced Earnings Option Trade
Date Published: 2017-07-03Preface
There is an advanced option trade in Alibaba Group Holding Limited (NYSE:BABA) before earnings that takes no stock direction risk, no earnings risk, and reduces even the volatility risk.
The strategy has won for two-straight years without a loss and has 1,337% annualized returns.
This is it -- this is how people profit from the option market. Identifying strategies that don't rely on a bull or bear market.
TRADE TIMING
This is for the advanced option trader, just note that this has a few steps to it. First we start with the timing:
We want to look at a very short window, specifically opening a trade six-days before an earnings announcement and closing it the day before. Here it is plainly:
So, to be clear -- this trade does not take on the risk of earnings, it closes before earnings.
TRADE SET-UP
With the timing set, we now construct the trade in with these rules:
* Buy the at-the-money straddle with a 30-day expiration (or closest to it)
* Sell an at-the-money straddle with a 7-day expiration (or closest to it)
* Both of these straddles have expirations after earnings.
Here's how this looks, plainly:
And here is the reasoning behind the trade, before we get to the results:
TRADE REASONING AND RESULTS
The idea is to own the straddle with a longer expiration and sell the straddle with the closer expiration to benefit from the time decay in the shorter-term options. It's a fine cut to make this work, but this trade does not take earnings risk, does not take stock direction risk and takes very little volatility risk.
Now, here are the results of this trade in Alibaba Group Holding Limited over the last two-years:
| BABA: Long & Short Straddle | |||
| % Wins: | 100% | ||
| Wins: 7 | Losses: 0 | ||
| % Return: | 153.9% | ||
While the set-up took a while to describe, the results are easy. We see a 153.9% return over the last two-years, which was 7 earnings cycles. This option trade won 7 times and lost 0 times.
Even further, each period of this trade is just six-days, so that 153.9% return is actually just 7 weeks of trading, and if we annualize that, it makes for a 1,337% return.
WHAT HAPPENED
Betting on a bull market to continue or relying on picking the right time to change sentiment can be very tricky. But the most advanced option trades side step those potential pitfalls by arranging an option trade that doesn't take any stock direction risk, earnings risk and even limited volatility risk.
To see how to do this for any stock we welcome you to watch this quick demonstration video:
Tap Here to See the Tools at Work
Thanks for reading.
Risk Disclosure
You should read the Characteristics and Risks of Standardized Options.
Past performance is not an indication of future results.
Trading futures and options involves the risk of loss. Please consider carefully whether futures or options are appropriate to your financial situation. Only risk capital should be used when trading futures or options. Investors could lose more than their initial investment.
Past results are not necessarily indicative of future results. The risk of loss in trading can be substantial, carefully consider the inherent risks of such an investment in light of your financial condition.