Weekly Recap APR 27, 2025

How was your weekend? Tell me that you got outside in nature

Do you know who else loved nature? One of my all time favorite dudes::
~~Ernest Hemingway~~ Not only did he win the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954 but he won the Pulitzer in 1953 too

Hemingway served in the American Red Cross during WWI as an ambulance driver
Got hit in a mortar attack, injured, still saved some Italian soldiers, got them off of the battle field to safety, was awarded “The Medal of Valor” from the Italians for his bravery
He wrote “A Farewell to Arms” about that era
Hemingway did big game hunting in Africa, bull fighting in Spain, Boxing in America
And was once even uuummmmmmmm “Brave????? “ enough to “Swoon” the mistress of a well known mobster. That’s the one that almost got him killed
Later in life he sat down for an interview about his adventures where he was asked why he did all the stuff he did
Hemingway’s response was this:::: “You have to live it, before you can tell it”

Options are the exact same way. There is sooooo much to learn and if one was open minded enough could learn something new every single day about them
I’ve heard investors say “I don’t trade Options or I don’t trade Options often, but I know how they work” Ohhh, okay, let me know how that works out…

It’s that old saying “You don’t know, what you don’t know”
I remember the first time I was ever inside a hedge fund room while they were trading live, I learned real quick what I didn’t know… lol…..

This is a news driven market, we don’t get memos ahead of tweets
Meaning we never know what could come next

What I do know is right now it’s time to adjust our market strategy
Not every strategy works in every market….That’s one of the reasons for Options, so we can have options with our Options….
When you see this weeks Heat Maps you’ll notice a few things, this week was green, we “appear” to be stabilizing some, and a few of our “friends” are still good to go…..

Here at theoptionscoach.net 
We don’t chase stocks
We don’t go long if a stock is red
We buy at the MID price or better
We set STOPS and we HONOR them

Right now there are several names we like
$META ( ▲ 0.86% ) surprised us with our gains this week. Remember months ago when I said it’s not always the underlying but the price of the Options? META’s Options play paid off for us very well, so much so that we kept it and are looking at new plays with it here

$GOOG ( ▼ 0.22% ) yeah we love this long term chart, the Double Bottom on a 3 year chart with Weekly bars, it’s good for stocks too, not just Options plays

$AMZN ( ▼ 0.17% )  $HD ( ▲ 0.58% ) and $CAT ( ▲ 0.11% ) are all looking “perky” $SFM ( ▲ 1.5% ) is still good to go but might be looking for a pullback before our next entry. It’s been rising slow and steady for some time now


For the week
AMZN +1.32%
CAT +4.65%
COST -1.74%
GOOG +6.84%
HD +0.71%
JPM +5.00%
META +9.13% 😁 
SFM +4.92%
WMT +2.01%

We made a new friend this week $MSTR ( ▲ 3.3% )  
It reports earnings this Thursday MAY 1, 2025
This should be taken into consideration prior to entry

Here at theoptionscoach.net 
We don’t chase stocks
We don’t go long if a stock is red
We buy at the MID price or better
We set STOPS and we HONOR them

MSTR
For investors that are not wanting to “roll the dice” or pick a direction Strangles are the play if they want to play through earnings
MAY 16, 2025
Buy the 365 Put
Buy the 370 Call
$46.03 is the MID

For investors with a bullish bias that are willing to take risk but still have some downside protection ( wayyyyy more protection here than Blind Calls )
Sell 1, single, uno 367.5 Call
Buy 2 , double, dos, 370 Calls as in plural
$21.63 is the MID
If MSTR Gaps UP more than 2% in the morning this play will be void

GOOG
C’mon now, how “purteee” was that chart??? 😁 
MAY 16, 2025
Sell ONE 162.5 Call
Buy TWO 167.5 Calls
0.85 is the MID

JPM
MAY 16, 2025
Sell ONE 242.5 Call
Buy TWO 250 Calls
0.20 is the MID< that seems a little off and we plan to revisit it in the morning

$COST ( ▲ 1.35% ) is still in play, it closed slightly red on the week but we believe it could be setting up for a move north from here

There is something that I feel I need to address
The markets move, these prices are from Fridays close and sent out on Sunday night
What is shown now might not work on Wednesday at 1:32 pm, why? well again, because prices move…. Investors should remain cognizant of that

The Options Coach