Friday Update

Friday Update Hello Smart Option Sellers! Happy Friday! Vertical Spread Trader Before I jump into the regular alert, I wanted to give an update on our newest trading service - Vertical Spread Trader (VST). Many of you might recall from last summer that we started discussing this new service, as quite a few of you had asked if I'd be willing to undertake it. I gave my thoughts, discussed the strategy, and even ran a poll to see who would be interested. The response was overwhelmingly positive, and as of this past January, we launched it. So far it's been a great success! We have 10 open positions at the moment with an 11th already closed for a profit. With VST, we can broaden our horizons and choose stocks of all different prices, whereas in Smart Option Seller, we tend to stick with stocks $50 and under. By broadening the price range, we will have many more trading opportunities. I bring this all up today because VST is now in a position to go to the public, so to speak. At the moment, VST is only open to Smart Option Seller members. This has allowed me to keep the group small as we tested the waters on the service. Since all systems are now a go, I am going to open it up for public sales. Some of you may have noticed (and some have asked) why there is no sign-up page on our website. This was intentional as I didn't want the public to know we had this secondary trading service. I had also mentioned that once I did open it up, it was going to be at a higher price point than what is currently offered to Smart Option Seller members. I anticipate the new pricing will take effect on Monday April 8. Right now, it's available for $995 per year or $99 per month. The new price will be will be $1,195 per year or $119 per month. I urge anyone who has not signed up yet (or sitting on the fence) to lock in the current price now before April 8. Many of you who voted "very interested" in our poll have not come forward yet. Now's your chance. Please click here to be taken to the VST sign-up page. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to shoot me an email. Market Update The market continues to remain in its upward trajectory which as I've been saying is great for our existing put-sell positions and not so great for finding new put-sell trades. Although we did try to initiate a new trade on MU the other day, only a handful of orders went through at our price. We'll continue to work this trade and hopefully we can get filled in the coming days or weeks. As far as our open positions - they are all moving in the right direction and getting closer to profitability, even the "roll" trades of Alcoa (AA) and Big Lots (BIG). And speaking of AA & BIG, let's get to a few questions. Friday Q&A Q: I may have missed something on the rollover positions. Is it your intention that we keep these positions until they reach .05 ? Might want to cover that in your weekend letter. I closed one of the positions at 80%. A: The goal of any put-sell position we take is to have it reach the "80% Rule" threshold, at which point we will lock in profits. But once we activate the roll trade, the profit-taking thresholds change a bit. When we roll a trade, our end goal is to have a larger profit on the new position to overtake the loss on the initial position. In order to do that, we typically will need to wait until the new position has decayed a majority of its value, which may or may not match up with the 80% threshold. As of now, we are officially going to hold both the AA & BIG positions for the foreseeable future. I'd like to see if we can squeak out as much profit from them as possible, or at least make it a scratch trade. For BIG, depending on whether you bought the hedge trade and/or bought the profitable call options on the earnings announcement, your profit/loss scenario will differ from others. Once we close them out (hopefully before July), I will give the various profit/loss numbers. Q: AA & BIG were "roll trades". At what point will you recommend exits to these trades? A: Funny how these questions came to me within minutes of each other. Great minds think alike! Nothing has changed from my answer above, but the only reason why we might adjust these trades (again) is if the stock prices start dropping dramatically. But remember, these are quality stocks, so would we need to roll again, or would we be comfortable taking ownership of them at the reduced prices? We shall see... Ok, that's all for this week. I will be going on spring break with the family next week so we won't have any alerts until at least Monday April 8. We are in a good position with everything and I don't anticipate any disruptions while I'm away. Continue to hold all other open positions as-is. Contact me here with fills, comments, questions or concerns. Have a great weekend! Regards,