Options strategies earnings season

Options Straddles for the Earnings Season.
With earnings season just around the corner, here's a simpler options strategy – straddles - that's perfect for a company about to report.
As you are aware, that in trading there are numerous sophisticated trading strategies designed to help traders succeed regardless of whether the market moves up or down. Some of the more sophisticated strategies, such as iron condors and iron butterflies, are legendary in the world of options. They require a complex buying and selling of multiple options at various strike prices. The end result is to make sure a trader is able to profit no matter where the underlying price of the stock, currency or commodity ends up.
However, one of the least sophisticated option strategies can accomplish the same market neutral objective with a lot less hassle - and it's effective. The strategy is known as straddles.
Straddles are an options strategy with which the investor holds a position in both a call and put with the same strike price (at-the-money) and expiration date.
For example, let's say you expect a big move to occur, either up or down, based on whether the company reports a positive surprise or a negative surprise. With these strategies, you can make money in either direction without having to worry about whether you guessed correctly or not.
Example: Let's say a stock was trading at $100 a few days before their earnings announcement. So you decide to put on a straddle by buying:
• the $100 strike call.
• and the $100 strike put.
Because you only plan on being in the trade for a few days (to maybe a few weeks), you decide to get into the soon-to-expire options.
It is important to note that when you are playing one side of the market it is much more strategically sound to buy more time and get in-the-money options.
But when playing both sides of the market simultaneously for an event you expect to take place in the near immediacy, the opposite is best. This is due to the fact that at expiration, your profit is the difference between how much your options are in-the-money, minus what you paid for them. So if you don't need a lot of time, this keeps the cost down and your profit potential up.
If you paid $150 for an at-the-money call option that will expire shortly, and another $150 for an at-the-money put option that will expire shortly, your cost to put on the trade was $300 (not including transactions costs). If that stock shot up $10 as a result of a positive earnings surprise, that call option that you paid $150 for would probably now be worth $1,000. And that put option would be worth zero ($0).
Therefore, if the call, which is now $10 in-the-money, is worth $1,000; then subtract the $150 you paid, and that gives you an $850 profit on the call.
The put, on the other hand, is out-of-the-money, and is worth nothing, which means you lost $150 on the put.
Add it all together, and on a $300 investment, you just made a profit of $700. Pretty good—especially for not even knowing which way the stock would even go.
However, if you paid more for each side of the trade, those would be extra costs to overcome. But by keeping each side's cost as small as reasonably possible, that leaves more profit potential on the winning side and a smaller loss on the losing side.
Moreover, if the stock stays flat (in other words, the big move you expect doesn't materialize, thus resulting in both sides of the trade expiring worthless), your cost of the trade was kept to a minimum.
When Straddles Work Best.
The option strategy works best when there are at least one of these three criteria present:
• The market is in a sideways pattern.
• There is pending news, earnings or another announcement.
• Analysts have extensive predictions on a particular announcement.
Analysts can have tremendous impact on how the market reacts before an announcement is ever made. Prior to any earnings decision or governmental announcement analysts, do their best to predict what the exact value of the announcement will be. Analysts may make estimates weeks in advance of the actual announcement, which inadvertently forces the market to move up or down. Whether the prediction is right or wrong is secondary to how the market reacts and whether your straddle will be profitable.
After the actual numbers are released, the market has one of two ways to react: The analysts' prediction can add either to, or decrease the momentum of the actual price, once the announcement is made. In other words, it will proceed in the direction of what the analyst predicted or it will show signs of fatigue. Properly created straddle, short or long, can successfully take advantage of just this type of market scenario. The difficulty occurs in knowing when to use short or a long straddles. This can only be determined when the market will move counter to the news and when the news will simply add to the momentum of the market's direction.
The Risks of a Straddles Strategy.
The stock price must move significantly if the investor is to make a profit. As shown in the top diagram, if only a small movement in price occurs in either direction, the investor will experience a loss. As a result, this strategy can be extremely risky to perform if not handled correctly or the market becomes incredibly cantankerous. Additionally, on stocks that are expected to jump, the market tends to price options at a higher premium, which ultimately reduces the expected payoff should the stock move significantly.
So, buying straddles, by their very nature, should be looked at as a short-term trade. If the outcome of the event that prompted you to get into this strategy in the first place, which is the case at present – earnings season - now has you strongly believing that a continuation of the up-move or down-move is in order, you could then exit the straddle and move into the one-sided call or put and apply the in-the-money and more-time rules for those.
There is a constant pressure on traders to choose to buy or sell, collect premium or pay premiums, but the straddles strategy is the great equalizer. Straddles allow a trader to let the market decide where it wants to go.
The classic trading adage is "the trend is your friend".
Take advantage of one of the few times that you are allowed to be in two places at once with both a put and a call.
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Profiting With Straddles This Earnings Season - Know Your Options.
With earnings season set to officially begin next week, here's an options strategy that's perfect for a company about to report.
A straddle involves buying both a call and a put at the same strike price (at-the-money) at the same time.
With options, you buy a call if you expect the market to go up. And you buy a put if you expect the market to go down.
And earnings season is a great time to do this because very few things can send a stock soaring or plummeting like an EPS surprise.
For example: let's say a stock was trading at $100 a few days before their earnings announcement. So you decide to put on a straddle by buying:
Because you only plan on being in the trade for a few days (to maybe a few weeks), you decide to get into the soon-to-expire options.
Note: usually, I'll advocate buying more time and getting in-the-money options. And I still do -- when playing one side of the market.
But when playing both sides of the market simultaneously for an event you expect to take place in the near immediacy, the opposite is best. Why? Because at expiration, your profit is the difference between how much your options are in-the-money minus what you paid for them. So if you don't need a lot of time, this keeps the cost down and your profit potential up.
If you paid $150 for an at-the-money call option that will expire shortly and another $150 for an at-the-money put option that will expire shortly, your cost to put on the trade was $300 (not including transaction costs).
If that stock shot up $10 as a result of a positive earnings surprise, that call option that you paid $150 for would now be worth $1,000. And that put option would be worth zero ($0).
So let's do the math: if the call, which is now $10 in-the-money, is worth $1,000; then subtract the $150 you paid, and that gives you an $850 profit on the call.
The put, on the other hand, is out-of-the-money, and is worth nothing, which means you lost $150 on the put.
Add it all together, and on a $300 investment, you just made a profit of $700. Pretty good - especially for not even knowing which way the stock would go.
However, if you paid more for each side of the trade, those would be extra costs to overcome.
But by keeping each side's cost as small as reasonably possible, that leaves more profit potential on the winning side and a smaller loss on the losing side.
Moreover, if the stock stays flat (in other words, the big move you expect to see doesn't materialize, thus resulting in both sides of the trade expiring worthless), your cost of the trade was kept to a minimum.
So buying a straddle by its very nature should be looked at as a short-term trade. If the outcome of the event that prompted you to get into the straddle in the first place now has you strongly believing that a continuation of the upmove or downmove is in order, you could then exit the straddle and move into the one-sided call or put and apply the in-the-money and more-time rules for those.
Here are 5 optionable stocks due to report earnings over the next two weeks (7/8 thru 7/19) that could see some volatile price action one way or the other:
DO Diamond Offshore Drilling, Inc.
PM Philip Morris International, Inc.
Whether they report a positive or negative surprise, a big move could be seen in either direction. And the cost of these straddles are very reasonable.
You can learn more about different types of option strategies by downloading our free options booklet: 3 Smart Ways to Make Money with Options (Two of Which You Probably Never Heard About). Just click here.
Disclosure: Officers, directors and/or employees of Zacks Investment Research may own or have sold short securities and/or hold long and/or short positions in options that are mentioned in this material. An affiliated investment advisory firm may own or have sold short securities and/or hold long and/or short positions in options that are mentioned in this material.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of NASDAQ, Inc.

Options Strategies for Earnings Season.
Key Points.
Some option strategies try to take advantage of the increase in implied volatility that often occurs before an earnings announcement.
Other option strategies are designed to neutralize the effect of that increase.
We review examples of both types of strategies.
While some buy and hold investors find big market swings to be unsettling, active traders often like high volatility because it brings the potential for big increases (or big declines) in stock prices. This type of market environment is often what we see during earnings season—when a large number of publicly traded companies release their quarterly earnings reports.
For most traders seeking to profit during earnings season, there are two basic schools of thought:
Make the most of potentially higher volatility Take advantage of a price move without getting hurt by volatility.
Let's take a look at both of these strategies.
Understanding changes in implied volatility.
In every earnings season, we usually see several stocks that exceed their earnings estimates and experience a big jump in price, and several others that fall short of their estimates and sustain a big price drop.
Predicting which stocks will beat expectations and which ones will miss is tricky. In my experience, I've often seen an increase in implied volatility in many stocks as the earnings release date approaches, followed by a very sharp drop in implied volatility immediately following the release.
Below is a one-year daily price chart of stock XYZ that shows the typical effects of the four quarterly earnings reports. Note the following:
The implied volatility average calculation (yellow line) began to rise sharply just about one week before each earnings report, and then dropped off even more suddenly after the report was released (marked by red boxes in the chart below). The stock price was relatively stable before earnings, but gapped down (-0.82) on the first report (#1 in the chart below), gapped up (+1.72) on the second report (#2 in the chart below), gapped up (+1.08) on the third report (#3 in the chart below), and was down only slightly (-0.20) on the fourth report (#4 in the chart below). While the magnitude of the spikes in implied volatility varied somewhat, it was quite predictable in regard to when it began to increase and how quickly it dropped after the report. Note that the price scale on the right side of the chart below only applies to the stock price, not the implied volatility level. While actual implied volatility levels will vary from stock to stock, the example below is a typical illustration of the magnitude of volatility changes that often occur around earnings reports.
The effects of quarterly earnings reports on a stock over a one-year period.
Source: StreetSmart Edge®.
Implied volatility is usually defined as the theoretical volatility of the underlying stock that is being implied by the quoted prices of that stock's options. In other words, it's the estimated future volatility of a security's price.
As a result, buying calls (or puts) outright to take advantage of an earnings report that you believe will beat (or miss) the earnings estimates is an extremely difficult strategy to execute. This is because the drop in option value due to the decrease in volatility may wipe out most, if not all, of the increasing value related to any price change in the stock. In other words, a substantial price move in the right direction may be needed to end up with only a very small net gain overall.
Strategies that benefit from increases in implied volatility.
For stocks whose charts resemble XYZ above, there are strategies that you can use to take advantage of this fairly predictable volatility pattern while largely minimizing the effect of the earnings-related price move.
If purchased about a week before earnings announcements, long calls, long puts and strategies including both, such as long straddles and long strangles, may be sold at a profit just prior to the announcements if they gain value as the implied volatility increases, even if the underlying stock price stays relatively unchanged.
The table below shows how the prices of this stock's options would move – theoretically – as the implied volatility changes around each earnings report. It also illustrates the substantial effect volatility changes can have on option prices.
Effect of volatility changes on stock prices.
Source: Schwab Center for Financial Research.
Column B shows the prices of long at-the-money (ATM) calls and puts and the implied volatility level exactly one week before each of the four earnings reports. Column C shows those prices one day before earnings, when the implied volatility reaches its peak. In all four earnings seasons, the price of the calls and the puts increases substantially, even though the stock price is relatively stable. Column D shows what the theoretical value of those options would have been after earnings were announced, if there had been no price change in the underlying stock (in order to illustrate the magnitude of the volatility effect). Column E shows the actual prices of those options including the effect of the actual price change of the underlying stock.
In this example, if you had bought calls a week before the price gapped up on earnings, you would have been profitable by 0.96 (1.71-0.75) on the second earnings report and by 0.65 (1.15-0.50) on the third earnings report.
If you had purchased puts a week before the price gapped down on earnings, you would have been profitable by 0.33 (0.95-0.62) on the first earnings report, but you would have lost 0.03 (0.44-0.47) on the fourth earnings report.
Note that it's possible to make a profit on long options purchased before an earnings report, as long as you are correct about the direction and you purchase them before the volatility spike occurs.
However, notice that for the second earnings report, if you had bought calls only one day before earnings they would have cost you 1.80 per contract, and although the stock price increased by 1.72 when earnings were announced, those calls would have declined in value to 1.71 as volatility dropped.
Likewise for the third earnings report, when the calls fell from 1.30 just before earnings to 1.15 after earnings.
On the put side you would not have fared any better, as prices dropped from 0.98 to 0.95 after the first earnings report and from 1.00 to 0.44 after the fourth earnings report.
In all four cases, the volatility decline completely wiped out the benefit of the price move on the underlying stock, even when you picked the correct direction.
If you had bought the long straddle (calls and puts) prior to the table's four earnings reports, you would have been profitable by 0.20 (1.75-1.55) on the second earnings report and only 0.02 (1.21-1.19) on the third earnings report. As the numbers show, you would have sustained small losses after the first and fourth earnings reports, of -0.21 and -0.25, respectively.
Again, these results were due to the large volatility drop canceling out most or all of the effect of the stock price move.
While this is just one example, the best performing strategy was purchasing calls, puts, or both (long straddle) about one week before earnings, and then closing out those positions about one day before earnings, as the spike in volatility caused all of the options to gain value, despite the relative stability of the stock price.
More importantly, because the positions were closed out before the earnings reports, picking the direction of the stock after the earnings reports, was not a relevant factor. (Keep in mind, if there had been a sharp price move in either direction during the week before the earnings report, it could have wiped out any benefit from the volatility increase).
Strategies that benefit from decreases in implied volatility.
As discussed, long options tend to gain value as volatility increases, and tend to lose value as volatility decreases. Therefore, long calls, long puts, and long straddles will generally benefit from the increase in implied volatility that usually occurs just before an earnings report.
In contrast, short (naked) calls, short (naked or cash secured) puts, short straddles and strangles, if sold just before earnings, can sometimes be bought back at a profit just after earnings, if they lose enough value as the implied volatility decreases, regardless of whether the underlying stock price changes or not.
The key to profiting from these strategies is for the stock to remain relatively stable or at least stable enough so that the stock price change doesn't completely cancel out the benefit of the decrease in volatility.
One way to estimate how much a stock price might change when earnings are announced is to forecast the (implied) move mathematically.
As previously mentioned, implied volatility is the estimated volatility of a stock's price that is being implied by the options on that stock. As stock prices are usually forecasted using a normal distribution (or bell) curve, an option with an implied volatility of 30% is implying that the underlying stock will trade within a price range 30% higher to 30% lower about 68% of the time (one standard deviation) over a period of one year.
The formula for this calculation is:
(Stock price) x (IV) x square root of time in years.
From this, you can determine how much the stock is expected to move during the life of an option contract. Manipulating the formula somewhat yields the following:
(Stock price) x (IV) x square root of # days until the option expires.
Square root of # days in a year.
Because option prices tend to get more expensive as an earnings announcement approaches, a slight calculation variation can be used to forecast how much the stock is expected to move when the earnings come out. This formula is often called the "implied move." For a stock due to announce earnings right after market close, the formula would be:
(Stock price) x (Implied volatility)
Square root of # days in a year.
Referring to the above table, because XYZ was trading at approximately $17.75 per share prior to the first earnings report and the implied volatility of the front month ATM options was 72% just before earnings, the calculation below implies a 0.67 move in either direction. In other words, there is about a 68% chance that XYZ will increase in price up to $18.42 or drop in price down to $17.08 when the earnings are announced.
If we use this formula for the other three earnings reports above we get the following results:
As you can see, some of these forecasts were relatively close to the actual move and others were quite different. Therefore, you may want to use a combination of this formula and simply view previous earnings reports on a chart to see whether the stock has a history of exceeding or falling short, and if so, by how much. But remember, past performance is no guarantee of future results.
Often a key determinant in whether a stock will increase or decrease in price after earnings are announced is how closely the results align with the consensus of analysts' expectations. Since this "surprise anticipation" is a measurable factor, another source for forecasting whether a stock will exceed or fall short of the earnings forecast is to use Schwab Equity Ratings.
Credit spreads.
OOTM (out-of-the-money) vertical credit spreads also usually benefit from implied volatility decreases, because while they involve both long and short options, the goal of a vertical credit spread is to receive the credit up front and hope that both options expire worthless. A sharp decrease in implied volatility, such as ones usually occurring right after an earnings announcement, will often cause both legs to drop in price and become virtually worthless, unless there is a substantial price move in the stock that is large enough to completely offset the effect of the volatility drop.
These strategies are most effective when you have a directional bias and you are trying to reduce the risks associated with the sale of uncovered (naked) options. For example:
If you believe the earnings report will exceed estimates, consider an OOTM credit put spread (a bullish strategy). If you believe the earnings report will fall short of estimates, consider an OOTM credit call spread (a bearish strategy).
Consider the following credit put spread example using a fictitious stock ZYX, currently trading around $51.00, if there is no price change in the stock ZYX after an earnings announcement, but implied volatility drops 30%, pricing would be as follows:
Buy 1 Jun 21, 2014 45 P $1.55 Implied volatility = 60%
Sell 1 Jun 21, 2014 50 P $3.10 Implied volatility = 54%
Net credit = 1.55.
Implied volatility decreases by 30%
Sell 1 Jun 21, 2014 45 P $.30 Implied volatility = 30%
Buy 1 Jun 21, 2014 50 P $1.30 Implied volatility = 24%
As you can see, the net profit would be 0.55 (1.55 – 1.00) strictly due to the reduction in volatility.
Strategies that benefit from implied volatility increases.
OOTM vertical debit spreads usually benefit from increases in implied volatility because while they involve both long and short options, the goal of a vertical debit spread is to pay a small debit up front and hope that both options expire ITM. A sharp increase in implied volatility (unless accompanied by a large price move), such as those usually occurring right before an earnings announcement, will often cause both legs to increase in price. The higher value long option will typically gain value faster than the short option.
Like credit spreads, these strategies are most effective when you have a directional bias and you are trying to reduce the cost associated with the purchase of long options. If you believe the stock price will trend higher before the earnings report, consider an OOTM debit call spread (a bullish strategy). If you believe the stock price will trend lower before the earnings report, consider an OOTM debit put spread (a bearish strategy).
Strategies that mostly neutralize changes in implied volatility.
As we've just seen, changes in volatility can often cancel out price changes or provide profitable opportunities even when there's no price change. But suppose you want to try to profit from an anticipated stock price change and avoid the complications created by the volatility component? Consider ATM vertical call spreads and ATM vertical put spreads.
Vertical spreads that are considered ATM usually have one leg just slightly ITM and one leg just slightly OTM. In most cases, the implied volatility of the long leg and short leg will be very similar, so any changes in volatility after the position is established will have very little impact on the net value of the spread, because they will largely cancel each other out. However, ATM options typically carry the largest time values (relative to ITM or OOTM options) so they are also quite sensitive to price changes.
What to keep in mind.
While implied volatility spikes before earnings announcements will generally cause calls and puts to increase in value, those increases could be partially or completely offset by large price moves in the underlying stock. Similarly, while implied volatility declines after earnings announcements will generally cause calls and puts to decrease sharply in value, those decreases could be partially or completely offset by large price moves in the underlying stock. While it is beyond the scope of this article, other strategies that may benefit from an increase in implied volatility include: ITM vertical credit spreads, short butterflies, short condors, ratio call back spreads and ratio put back spreads. Likewise, strategies that may benefit from a decrease in implied volatility include: ITM (in-the-money) vertical debit spreads, long butterflies, long condors, ratio call spreads and ratio put spreads.
I hope this enhanced your understanding of options strategies to consider during earnings season. I welcome your feedback—clicking on the thumbs up or thumbs down icons at the bottom of the page will allow you to contribute your thoughts. (If you are logged into Schwab, you can include comments in the Editor’s Feedback box.)
Next Steps.
To put these strategies to work in your portfolio:
• Call Schwab anytime at 877-338-0192.
• Talk to a Schwab Financial Consultant at your local branch.
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The Best Option Strategy for Earnings Season Profits.
Earlier this week, I told you that traders are always looking to “be on the right side of the trade.”
To an options trader, this means you want to be long calls on a stock that is going up in price or long puts when a stock is going down in price.
That’s often easier said than done – take earnings season. Options premiums can fluctuate significantly going into an earnings announcement… and things can really get wild when the announcement is made and the stock price moves on the news.
The challenge, of course, is figuring out how to end up on the right side of the trade.
If the company’s report comes in and is favorable, the stock will usually gap up and open higher than it closed the day before. If you had long call options, then you were on the right side of the trade.
If earnings come in below expectations, the stock will usually gap down and open lower than the previous day’s close. In this case, long put options would put you on the right side of the trade.
That said, it can be quite difficult to judge which way a stock will move on an earnings announcement (these gaps can be pretty significant – ask anyone who has seen what The Priceline Group Inc. (NASDAQ:PCLN) or Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) has done the day after their earnings announcements. While good news usually brings a pop and bad news usually signals a decline in the price of the underlying, that’s not always the case in today’s markets.
But what if I told you that can trade during earnings season without having to guess which way a stock will move?
There’s one strategy that can help you profit no matter what happens during earnings season.
Let me show you…
Challenge #1: Calls or Puts?
Here are four scenarios that can – and do – play out following an earnings announcements:
The company beat earnings expectations, but lowered their forecast for sales/earnings in the upcoming quarters, and instead of gapping up, the stock instead gaps down and or continues to decline in price. The company missed earnings expectations, but they reported higher than expected growth in upcoming quarters and the stock gaps up and/or continues to trade higher. The company beat earnings from last quarter, but not by this quarters “expected” amount. The beat looks like they are doing better than last quarter, but since it wasn’t ‘good enough’ the stock trades down. The company missed earnings from last quarter, but didn’t miss by as much as this quarters “expected” amount. They still have negative earnings, but they are deemed to be doing better than expected by not losing as much, so things are deemed moving in the right direction and the stock trades higher.
All of these scenarios – where good news is seen as bad and bad news is seen as good – can make trading options – buying the “right” options – a frustrating experience for traders.
The best way to avoid the frustration of guessing which way a stock is going to move on an earnings announcement is to employ one of my favorite strategies: the straddle.
With a straddle you do not have the pressure of having to pick which option you have to buy in order to make money.
If you buy calls only, the stock has to go higher; if you buy puts only the stock has to go lower. But a straddle allows traders to potentially benefit whether the stock goes higher or lower.
A straddle allows you to take a number of variables out of the equation, questions like: will the company beat, miss, raise guidance, announce a stock buyback program, forecast better or worse results in ensuing quarters… the list goes on.
Any of those can happen – and with a straddle, you don’t care because you are now in position to potentially benefit.
A straddle is an option trade position where you buy-to-open BOTH a call and a put option on the same stock with the same strike price and the same month’s expiration. You are incurring more cost by buying both options, so you need the underlying to make a significant move. And by significant I mean the underlying should have the possibility to a big enough price move to cover the cost of the trade.
For more on this great non-directional trading strategy, click here.
Challenge #2: When to Close Down Your Straddle.
Once you’ve decided to use the straddle, the question becomes: do you close out your trade prior to the earnings announcement or hold it until after the announcement?
Before we get to that, let me briefly discuss the concern about Implied Volatility (IV) around earnings.
IV tends to increase going into an earnings report as the speculation of what the report will mean to the stock price going forward increases.
Buyers of options, even the straddle trader, have to be careful and know they are buying higher IV in their options prices during the period before an earnings announcement. It becomes a situation where one is likely to be buying at a high IV to sell at an even higher IV.
Take a look at the image below, which depicts what can happen to IV going into earnings:
The below image shows a spike in IV in the options of a company coming up on their earnings:
The risk in buying ahead of the earnings announcement is the fact the IV is likely to be higher. Once the announcement is made and the news is out, there is no more speculation, and IV heads lower.
Implied volatility comes out of the options pricing, and despite what happens with the price of the stock, “IV crush” can affect the option value negatively. This shows what happens to IV when people “buy the rumor, sell the news.”
Closing before the announcement – The biggest consideration in closing down your straddle before an earnings announcement is that you risk the stock actually gapping or moving enough on good or bad news, and you miss out on those profits if you would have if you held over the announcement.
That is the risk of opportunity lost.
Closing the day after the announcement – This becomes a situation where you may have profit in the trade as the stock has run up and implied volatility is increasing, which pumps up the premium, increasing the call option side of the straddle.
The risk here is that, following the announcement, any of the four scenarios I mentioned earlier can happen – and wreak havoc on your options. The stock might gap in the opposite direction, bringing the options value back to where you started.
Even though a breakeven situation is better than a loss, having the stock come back to where it was when you put on the trade is frustrating.
In addition to the depreciation in implied volatility, a loss of time value may adversely affect the option if the intrinsic value isn’t offsetting that and maintaining or gaining profitability.
The primary thing that can hurt you in a straddle position is if the stock trades sideways or doesn’t move enough to cover the cost of the trade.
When the stock is not gaining any more intrinsic value, the other conditions just mentioned – “IV crush” and Theta or Time decay – can kill the value on that option.
Know Your History.
If you’re trading options during earnings season, it’s best to know the historical price moves of the underlying before and after earnings announcements.
With my proprietary tools, I can show you the historical behavior of stocks around earnings announcements, including how IV impacts a stock’s price in both the run up to the announcement and the aftermath.
This is how I pinpoint stocks with the chance to make the biggest price moves (in either direction), and how I know when to close down my straddles.
The following screenshot shows the price % move after the earnings on a list of stocks:
Click to View This next list shows the best price % move prior to earnings:
Click to View Finally, you can even analyze what IV does prior to and after the earnings announcement. The image below shows you what happens to IV after the earnings announcement:
Click to View Knowing how the underlying stock has behaved during past earnings announcements can give you a better chance at profitably closing out your straddle.
Here’s Your Trading Lesson Summary: Using the Straddle to Trade Earnings.
The best way to trade options during earnings season is to use my favorite non-directional trading strategy: the straddle. The straddle allows you to profit whether the stock moves up or down on the announcement, so long as it moves enough to cover the cost of the trade. Some considerations:
Once you don’t have to guess the direction of the price move of the underlying, the question becomes: do you close down your straddle before or after the earnings announcement? There are risks to closing out early (missing profits from the announcement itself) or holding your trade too long (IV crush or time decay bringing down the price of your options). The best thing to do is know your history – research how the underlying stock has behaved during past earnings announcements, and trade accordingly.
2 Responses to “The Best Option Strategy for Earnings Season Profits”
I’ve read your lessons enough to understand how and why IV Crush happens. However, you’ve never suggested any strategy to profit from it. How can a trader capture profit from IV rushing out of the premium without subjecting ones self to unlimited risk?
the other straddle play i like is buy a few more options on the way u think it will go , letting the other side of the straddle to just prevent a loss on the whole straddle.