This is a short update on my LEAPS CALL portfolio. At this time of writing (8 Oct 2022), it is down by 95.14%, which means that the unrealized loss is $326k out of the total capital of 342.6k.
This is despite me realizing 81k of losses in Aug 2022 trades, trying to salvage some capital back from those LEAPS positions that are down between 40% to 70%. I left those positions with more than 90% of losses untouched as there was nothing much to salvage from them.
My LEAPS CALL portfolio is made up of tech stocks (Alphabet, Meta) and semiconductor chip companies (AMD, Nvidia) that are severely underperforming in this bear market.
If the market continues to stay sideways or downwards, I am expecting to realize another 74k of losses when all the Jan 2023 LEAPS CALL options expire worthless. I am also preparing myself mentally to lose it all in this portfolio, if there is no rally (mid-term/ Santa Claus) by year-end or if the market continues to crash for the whole of next year. Hopefully, this does not happen and the market can recover in mid-Jan 2023 and I can still get something out of my Jan 2024 LEAPS CALL option contracts, which made up almost 41% of the current portfolio.
Right now, these LEAPS CALL options are nothing more than lottery tickets to me. There is nothing much left to salvage and the only way to still get something back is for the market to rally 20% back to the bull market, before all the tickets expire in Jan 2024.
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Hi Jason. Thanks for sharing.
You are right. The jan 23 calls are practically worthless with delta and gamma near 0. For example GOOGL 215 need to rise by 38% today just to breakeven. Time decay just for the 200 contracts is around USD30 per day. The GOOGL 225 Jan 24′ is more or less facing the same uphill statistics with a higher chance of profit compared to the Jan 23 series. 2% vs 0%.
Agree if there is a year end rally, you should look to cut loss on the Jan 24 series. Else imagine dragging this to Jan 24, not only financially draining when theta kicks in full gear, it would definitely be mentally draining too.
Hope you find better success in your spread strategies bro.
Cheers
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Hey Raymond, thanks for dropping by. Yeah, I am not pinning any hopes of Jan 23 CALLS anymore, now that it is near year-end already. There is still a chance for Jan 24 due to seasonality, especially in a mid-term year. However, the marco environment is really chaotic and inflation is not going to drop any soon. So, I better not get too optimistic to avoid any disappointment. I hope you are trading well and making good money 🙂
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Hi I finally sold all my LEAPS SPY Dec15’23 call because I think the trend will remain downwards in the coming 6-12 months as FOMC has made it very clear that interest rate will keep going up till inflation gets back to 2%. To me, it’s a crystal clear signal that stock market will have to continue making adjustment towards its valuation.
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Hey Stephen, thanks for sharing this. Hope you did not make any big loss on your LEAPS CALL. I am still hoping there could be a year-end rally, as the last chance for me to sell away all my LEAPS, so I can recoup some capital back.
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Positions were partially hedged by short selling SPY. So it’s not so bad. But I still got naked SPY puts Dec15’22 and hopefully S&P500 would have a solid rebound by end of 2022. Good luck!
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