Blue Horseshoe Stocks: UVXY, VXX Options & More

No Rate Hike – SPY & VXX Options Ideas

Another eagerly-anticipated FOMC meeting came and went without an interest rate hike by the Fed yesterday, and as a result we observed a dramatic rise in volatility for the markets. We expect that turbulent activity to carry over into today, and with the added caveat of it being expiration day for weekly contracts, it could give rise to some serious options-trading opportunities.

Currently we’re seeing the VXX and UVXY gapping up in the premarket this morning. We will be on the lookout for a potential bounce in the markets followed by a fade to the downside. It would be at that point we’d look to get positioned in some Weekly VXX and UVXY Calls, specifically VXX $22.50-25.50 Calls, and the UVXY $48-52.50 Calls. Alternatively, we could take advantage of the same sort of scenario with SPY Weekly $197.50-194.50 Puts.

Part of the beauty of trading options is, if by chance the markets undergo a more sustained rebound and operate contrary to our initial gut instinct, we can simply flip those ideas to the other side of the fence (Puts where we mentioned Calls, and vice-versa) while striking in the same target ranges.


Great Rock Development Co. GROC

We also want to make mention of a stock we tagged for observation in Wednesday’s report which has made a nice intraweek move. GROC traded at a low of .0055 that morning, and followed up with a couple of solid sessions.

Yesterday. the stock managed to close at .0085, which represents a 55% session-over-session increase, and it occurred on slightly more than 3.5X the average monthly trading volume.


Global Digital Solutions, Inc. GDSI

GDSI is another subpenny play that caught our eye yesterday as it rebounded off of a new 52-week low. This stock has been steadily trending down for a protracted period, and is just about reaching the point where a more significant recovery could be in the cards.

It’s self-evident on the chart below, which shows that GDSI is heavily oversold at the present time. Add in a recent bullish cross on the MACD, and this is one we’ll want to monitor more closely in coming sessions. We’ll look for it to continue to register higher highs and higher lows off of that bottom.


Extended Watchlist:
MDBX, RDSH, GLD, CHLO

Blue Horseshoe Stocks: SPY Options Recap & More

SPY Options Update

We were so spot-on with our options alert on the SPY in yesterday’s premarket report, that we feel it necessary to quote our alert verbatim. We stated: “With another reversal appearing likely with this morning’s gap-up in the markets, we’ll want to swing our attention in the opposite direction. The SPY generally trades inversely to the UXVY, thus we’ll be monitoring SPY Weekly $195-197 Calls in the event of a continued uptrend signal.” 

We certainly hope a good number of our readers were able to catch that, as every single one of the contract sets in our targeted range could have facilitated sizable gains on the session. Here’s a breakdown of the possibilities:

$195 Calls  – Daily Range: 2.05-3.50 – Max Gain: 71%
$195.50 Calls  – Daily Range: 1.75-3.15 – Max Gain: 80%
$196 Calls  – Daily Range: 1.48-2.80 – Max Gain: 89%
$196.50 Calls  – Daily Range: 1.25-2.45 – Max Gain: 96%
$197 Calls  – Daily Range: 1.01-2.15 – Max Gain: 113%

In order to take advantage of the SPY moving forward, we’ll need to see a continued boost in stocks. In that event, we may look to roll our strike prices closer to the money, namely the Weekly $198-200.50 Calls.


Apple to Announce iPhone 6S Plus – Options Idea

With Apple officially announcing the release of the iPhone 7 today, which is slated to go on sale at the end of next week, we’re going to want to stay ready for the possibility of an options play to one side or the other. We’ll need to guage public reaction to the new phone; an underwhelming product could result in a PPS decline for AAPL, in which case we’d be monitoring Weekly $112-50-114.50 Puts. In the event of a mainly positive reaction, of course, we’d flip that idea to the Call-side in the same strike price range.


Akebia Therapeutics, Inc. AKBA

AKBA is undergoing a mega gap-up in premarket trading today, largely due to yesterday’s after-hours report of positive Phase II study results. We’ll look to possibly take advantage of the situation; with such a rapid move up, it leaves AKBA open to a dip-and-rip pattern on the chart when sellers come out of the woodwork to take profits off of the table.

We’ve pointed out the previous swing highs as levels at which AKBA will need to maintain support on the dip, in order for us to remain interested:

Akebia Announces Positive Top-Line Results from its Phase 2 Study of Vadadustat in Dialysis Patients with Anemia Related to Chronic Kidney Disease (Tue, Sep 8)


Extended Watchlist:
UAPC, CCTC, TPIV, ASTI

Blue Horseshoe Stocks: UVXY Recap, Options Review & More

Options Updates

ProShares Ultra VIX Short-Term Futures (UVXY) – 

In Friday’s premarket report, we essentially served up our readers an absolute gem of an options idea on a silver platter, when we identified the high potential of some prime intraday flip opportunities.

We posited that the overall markets would see a pullback, and offered our take on a good way to leverage that eventuality for quick-strike gains in weekly UVXY contracts. The markets were indeed hammered back for most of the session, and as a result, our assumptions paid off in spades.

Our specified target range included UVXY Weekly $73-78 Calls, and every last set of contracts provided us with the chance to bank multi-bag gains. Check it out:

$73 Calls  – Daily Range: 2.17-8.10 – Max Gain: 273%
$74 Calls  – Daily Range: 1.47-7.20 – Max Gain: 390%
$75 Calls  – Daily Range: 1.17-6.40 – Max Gain: 447%
$76 Calls  – Daily Range: 1.10-4.53 – Max Gain: 312%
$77 Calls  – Daily Range: 77-4.34 – Max Gain: 464%
$78 Calls  – Daily Range: .57-3.68 – Max Gain: 545%

Updated Idea:

With another reversal appearing likely with this morning’s gap-up in the markets, we’ll want to swing our attention in the opposite direction. The SPY generally trades inversely to the UXVY, thus we’ll be monitoring SPY Weekly $195-197 Calls in the event of a continued uptrend signal.

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Longer-Term Ideas – Update

For each of the past two Thursdays, we’ve mentioned our interest in a set of longer-term options ideas for a number of tech stocks, namely the 9/18-10/02  FB, GPRO, GMCR, AAPL, NFLX, and TSLA Calls.

With between 1.5-3.5 weeks until expiration on the contracts contained in that range, we’ve seen some nice moves already, and we want to continue to keep an eye on this whole group. With the volatile flux we’ve observed in recent market activity, further opportunities could certainly present themselves in coming sessions.



PharmaRoth Labs, Inc. ROTH

We noticed some exciting news hitting the wires this morning for ROTH, and the PPS is currently down to a relative bottom, so we’re going to tab this subpenny play for extended observation.