Good afternoon, this is James Cordier of OptionSellers.com with a market update for July 2nd. Well, with the first half of 2018 now in the books we start looking forward to the 3rd and 4th quarter of what has been a very loud economic market. Talks of tariffs in China and interest rates, inflation finally beginning; however, many commodity prices basically in a sideways trading fashion. Who in the world would think that the gold market would make a very strong move earlier this year with North Korea and the United States trying to draw battle lines. Interest rates negative in Europe and, of course, what’s always going on in China and now tariffs. We took a speculative move thinking that commodities, especially precious metals, would probably start languishing and going into a sideways fashion. So far this year, that’s exactly what has happened. Silver has traded in approximately a $1 trading range, gold has traded in approximately $80-$85 trading range for the first 6 months of the year. To watch some of the business shows, you would think that those had made large moves, but actually that’s just a lot of noise and a lot of headlines, which, of course, plays into our hands. A lot of discussion about China, interest rates, and inflation cause a lot of investors to buy options and, if we’re following along correctly, quite often the fundamentals don’t justify a big move, and then you sell calls much above the market and puts much below the market, and certainly that has worked out quite well so far in 2018. The new market that is now possibly heading into a consolidated type would be crude oil. The crude oil market has had dramatic moves over the last 24 months. Right now, we feel that that could be turning into a sideways market, as well. Both Russia and Saudi Arabia recently have discussed and arranged to increase production somewhat going forward. Clearly oil, which has increased now some $10-$15 a barrel over the last 6 months, is probably going to start pinching some of the economies around the world. If you were to look at Germany, for instance, they have some of the most negative business ideas right now going forward. We still have negative rates in Europe and, of course, China this past week entered what’s called the bear market where their stock market is down over 20% from its high. High energy prices during times of weaker economies around the world is probably not going to sit very well. Russia, Saudi Arabia, some of the largest oil producers, they know that and they don’t need to be greedy right now. They have produced oil for $35-$40 a barrel and trying to push it above $80 and turn some economies into recessions. That certainly is not their idea. We think that oil is probably going to start settling into a $10 trading range, Brent probably in the 70’s, and WTI in the 60’s. We think that putting a $50 strangle around crude oil right now is an excellent idea, similar to what we did in the precious metals earlier this year. We think both of those positions are going to continue to bear fruit in the last half of 2018. We will just have to wait and see. Anyone wanting more information from OptionSellers.com can visit our website. If you’re not already a client of ours and wish to become one, you can contact Rosemary at our headquarters in Tampa, Florida about possibly becoming one. As always, it’s a pleasure chatting with you and looking forward to doing so again in 2 weeks. Thank you.

OptionSellers.com

Latest Oil Volatility Presents New Opportunities for Writing Calls AND Puts

TD Ameritrade: Cordier Gives New Oil Price Forecast James Cordier Ben: Welcome back to Futures with Ben Lichtenstein. Traders, with OPEC’s recent decision to increase production, crude has been the focus for many. To help us take a look at the recent price activity in the energy markets and the impact from the recent OPEC decision, traders, we’ve got James Cordier, the President and Founder of OptionSellers.com, joining us this morning. James, welcome to Futures with Ben Lichtenstein. Crude rallied on the news but no follow through. Does this point to the decision having already been priced into the market? For the most part, was this move expected? James: Ben, it’s really interesting, the movement in crude oil after the announcement. I think what OPEC and, of course, plus Russia was trying to do was give a soft landing. I think they’re very familiar with the fact that oil prices can’t continue to escalate as many U.S. economies, as well as in China and Europe, are slowing. We have PMI in Russia and both China not doing so well. Of course, we have China down 25% from their recent high and a soft landing is very important. Needless to say, having the market just fall out of bed is now what they wanted either, so we had a very quick $8 decline in prices. We’ve now rallied back about half of that and it’s possible that we’ll fall into a nice equilibrium here with plenty of supply but not too much to cause prices to go higher. Ben: Yeah, it looks like we have a bit of a range forming up above 64 and below 73. James, I’m wondering, how much of a boost in production is to slow the pace at which they’ve been reducing inventories, and how much is to combat the reductions in production that we’re seeing related to sanctions and issues in Venezuela, because the $1 million increase in production isn’t going to be enough to balance off both. James: It’s really not. You can add Libya to that last, as well. The fact that we had over compliance coming into this meeting allows both Russia and Saudi Arabia to actually pump more than what the report came out here 3 days ago. The fact that we’re talking only 600,000 additional barrels, that is not going to be enough, you’re correct, to take care of what’s coming offline in both Iran, Venezuela, and in Libya; however, there is a lot of fudge room right now available. The fact that both Russia and Saudi Arabia now have the green light to pump more oil, I think we’re going to see in the 3rd and 4th quarter probably closer to an additional 1 million or 1.1 million barrels. The 600,000 that was announced is not enough to slow down this market. Ben: Yeah, it seems to be the case. We’ve been hearing a little bit about distribution issues as far as the WTI production as it nears that 11 million barrels per day level. Is some of the narrowing that we’ve been seeing in the Brent/WTI spread related to the bottleneck that we’re seeing in distribution? James: That’s exactly right. What’s going on right now in the United States is we do have a great deal of new supply coming on, but there is a bottleneck and it is allowing the Brent/WTI to narrow. I think we’ve seen that just recently and we’ll probably see it narrow another dollar or two in the next upcoming weeks. Ben: James, talk to us a little bit about what’s going on here as far as what you’ve been seeing and hearing regarding Canadian oil sands and the outage. Is this impacting the spread or impacting price at all? James: Not as of yet, but it’s very interesting, the price of oil coming up and then the Canadian dollar coming down recently is a really interesting conundrum there. What’s going on in the Canadian oil sands will come out to play in the next several weeks. There hasn’t really been a big market moving affect there yet, but that will be coming up if it doesn’t get straightened out soon, I think. Ben: James, I’m curious because everyone’s joking about OPEC plus one right now, meaning that Russia seems to be more and more influential and I’m curious if you could talk to us about the role that Russia had in the recent OPEC decision. Is Russia’s involvement a good thing for the stability of energy markets? James: You know, with Russia, Ben, being the 2nd largest producer now in the world, they have to be in just about every conversation. The compliance between OPEC and Russia right now has just been fantastic. I think it’s almost like the most incredible central bank right now in reference to oil. The Saudi and Russian compliance right now it looks excellent. We think that Vladimir Putin’s going to be in office for probably over the next 10 years, so he doesn’t have to be a short-term thinker. He can think long-term, find out the exact price that the global economy can withstand without throwing it into a recession, and that team right now has been excellent. I think Russia would be really happy with a $75 Brent price going forward and I think that’s the equilibrium we’re going to see. I could see a $10 trading range for oil the next 6-12 months and WTI in the mid 60’s and I think everybody would be happy with that. Ben: Yeah, except for those traders that are looking for a high volatile market but, James, let’s talk a little bit about the dollar correlation to the crude because we’ve been watching the crude come off. The dollar, for the most part, has been hanging out around that 95 level. I’m curious, what are you seeing in terms of that inverse correlation breaking down a little bit recently but I’m wondering if, now that we have the OPEC news, if that correlation is going to start to come back into play a bit? James: Ben, the interesting part is the U.S. dollar and the strength of it over the last several weeks. Clearly we’ve come off just a little bit recently but we have negative rates continuing throughout Europe, we have one or two more hikes coming in the United States over the next 3-6 months. The dollar is going to continue to be underpinned and that is going to probably help keep a cap on oil prices, as well. Of course, oil being priced in U.S. dollars, a firm dollar, I think, through the rest of 2018, will help also balance what I think is a balanced market right now. Ben: All right, well that’s definitely giving us a little something to watch here today. James, I appreciate you coming on the show and joining us on Futures with Ben Lichtenstein. Traders, that’s James Cordier, the President and Founder of OptionSellers.com.

OptionSellers.com Cordier Gives TD Ameritrade NEW Oil Price Forecast

Fast Cash From Selling Options in Overbought or Oversold Markets

Good afternoon. This is James Cordier of OptionSellers.com with a market update for June 1st. Well, lo and behold, CNBC, Bloomberg TV, and Fox Business are, once again, talking about Greek bonds, Italian bonds, and Spanish debt. Once again, Europe is smack dab in the middle of the radar screen. It’s so interesting that after practically 10 years of quantitative easing through the Euro zone, their economies still are struggling to get their heads above water. Some nations still have negative interest rates. Here we are, looking at some of the German economic numbers, consumer confidence is falling dramatically, PMIs throughout all the nations in Europe are doing basically a swan dive at a time where you would think of 8 or 9 years of quantitative easing they would really be forging ahead. It doesn’t seem to be the case. That could be the reason we’ve had $80 crude oil and, of course, all of Europe needs to import energy from other nations. $80 oil, of course, is quite a tax on the consumer and, of course, industries as well. What is this doing? This is probably slowing the global economy both here in the United States as well as in Asia. It’s just the first glimpses of it. It doesn’t appear to be a slowdown here yet, though we do seem to be in a bit of a stall speed in the U.S. and some of the foreign nations. Of course, interest rates in the United States are ticking up, approximately every 3 months. Whether they raise rates this year 3 or 4 times doesn’t really matter that much. It is underpinning the U.S. dollar and what that’s doing for us is providing a very stable commodities market. As clients, you all know we have many positions on. Where we’re actually predicting stable market prices. Identifying fairly value markets in gold, silver, crude oil, coffee, soybeans can be a great mainstay for option selling. Of course, as you know, we have $800-$900 strangles around gold. Gold over the last 6 months has barely budged. The silver market so far this year has been lopped into a $1 an ounce trading range. We have approximately an $18 strangle around that market. We really do like the idea of a strong U.S. dollar throughout the rest of the year, and that’s creating very stable commodity prices which, I think, is going to be very fruitful going into the 3rd and 4th quarter of this year. One market that’s finally coming around is the coffee market. We do have a trucker strike in Brazil and that is keeping some of the coffee off of the market. Of course, investors and speculators are racing in to buy coffee. We love the idea of selling coffee calls above $2 for later this year and early 2019 expiration. We think that’s going to be a great idea and we expect coffee prices to be half of the strikes that we’re selling right now. Our old friend coffee is becoming what I think is going to be a very good opportunity going forward. We’ll just have to wait and see. Anyone wanting more information from OptionSellers.com can visit our website. If you’re not already a client of ours and wish to become one, you can contact our headquarters in Tampa, Florida about possibly becoming one. As always, it’s a pleasure chatting with you and looking forward to doing so again in 2 weeks. Thank you.

Coffee Market Back in Play for Option Writers

Ben Lichtenstein: We’ve got a real treat here for you this morning, traders. We’ve got the founder and head trader of OptionSellers.com. Traders, we’ve got James Cordier with us this morning. James, welcome to Futures with Lichtenstein & Hincks. It’s a pleasure to have you on the show. I want to dive right into it. When we’re talking futures versus options I kind of think of it as futures for me are kind of easy versus options. It’s sort of like driving a VW versus flying a Cessna. Talk to us about some of the benefits of trading options and why they’re appealing to you, considering what we’re seeing here in the energy markets as of recent. James: You know, I think that’s a great question. So often, people talk about options and they kind of go like this. I understand they are puts and calls, but I think the gentleman you had on just a moment ago is just a great example as to why selling options can be a good idea for mainstream investors. The gentleman prior to me was talking about trading in currencies and he talked about close stops and you’ve got to watch your lows and watch your highs, and you need to have a close stop on all of your positions. Shorting options and selling premium is just the opposite of this. If you want to take a long-term fundamental view on gold, as you’d just been describing, or crude oil, this is the way to do it because perfect timing, I’ve been in this business for almost 30 years, I don’t know anyone who knows how to do that… not on a consistent basis; however, we’re looking at energy prices right now. The crude oil market is extremely frothy, especially with slowing global growth. Europe right now is probably what brings us to mind right now, as far as the oil price, might be at a reflection point. With PMIs going south, with consumer confidence in Germany, I was just in both Italy and Germany this past week and, while pizza sales were really good, and I can attest to that, the rest of the economies are not doing so well. $80 and $82 oil Brent is going to probably be very detrimental to European economies. We’re looking at a possible reflection point right now in crude oil. Instead of trying to pick the exact copy, because of course no one else is of course able to do that, we’re going to start looking at selling a call premium on crude oil. We’re going to go out 3 months, 6 months, 9 months, sell the $90 calls and the $95 calls and that way we don’t need perfect timing, but we simply need to be right the market eventually. A lot of the fundamentals we’re seeing in oil going forward into the 3rd and 4th quarter lead us to believe that we’re going to be right on this. Kevin Hincks: Good morning, James. Thanks for coming on the show. It’s always a pleasure for me to talk about options when I’m on this show. I spent most of my career doing that. So, you are talking about the 90 calls above the market, right? Selling something very safely above the market here, about $18-$19. You also talk about selling the 45 put so you’re creating a short option strangle, right? Where you basically want a range-bound trade in between your strikes. Now, the question that option traders have is, “Do you think, based on the risk that you’re assuming, now you’ve given yourself a nice wide in between the navigational beacons, I call it, of your short strikes. Are you getting paid enough for the risk that you’re putting on?” James: That is such a great question. So many of your investors, I’m sure, are familiar with selling options on stocks. I hear about this all the time. When we have a new investor they’ll say, “James, I was introduced to short options through my stock broker. We started writing covered calls and then I got a little creative and started selling options on stocks. I hear that you’re selling options 2%, 3%, 5% out-of-the-money.” In commodities, crude oil, gold, coffee, we’re selling options 50-60% out-of-the-money in some cases. When we’re identifying a strangle, the window is just absolutely enormous. The crude oil market, based on fundamentals right now, is not going to fall into the 40’s. We have, of course, Brent around 80 right now, WTI right around 70-71, but it’s not going to go above 90 and that is just a fantastic window for the market to stay in. Identifying fairly priced commodities is probably the most wonderful thing that we do for our clients. Often, an expert comes on and he talks about, “Well, the coal market’s about to go to the moon” or “Soybeans are going to go to zero.” As we all know, quite often that’s not the case. Finding a window that a market is going to stay inside is just a fabulous way to create a strong performance at the end of the year. We’re collecting $600-$700 for the $90 calls. We’re collecting $600-$700 for the 45 puts. Basically, selling a strangle, as you know, is one position babysits the other while you wait. So many investors want to get paid right now and when they’re talking about selling options on commodities they need to get in “right now”. We don’t do that. We want to sell options much further out in price and much further out in time than most people, but we get paid to do it. Ben Lichtenstein: Yeah, James, I know that you think that 85 is a bit of a tipping point, and possibly that tipping point that would bring Europe back into a recession. Talk to us and tell us a little bit more about why you think that. James: What’s interesting is all you have to do is look at the Euro, and you look at banking stocks in Italy and Germany right now. That tells us that the European Union cannot withstand $80 oil. OPEC right now has to have another discussion. 2 years ago, they discussed cutting production. That has worked tremendously. They need to not be too greedy right now. $80 oil, everyone is making a ton of money producing oil here in the United States and everywhere else. Pushing Europe into a possible recession could absolutely kill the golden goose, if you will. Other producing nations produce oil for $35-$40 a barrel. It’s trading at $80. The last thing they need is a recession in Europe because you know what’s going to happen after we start talking about Greek bonds and Italian bonds? Then the stock market starts to dive and $80 oil prices will be history if that happens. Kevin Hincks: Hey James, as you know, when it comes to the oil markets that there’s a mid-June OPEC meeting coming up where they’re going to re-look at or re-investigate the production cuts. Here’s my question for you: Is the most important person coming to the June OPEC meeting a non-OPEC member, being Russia? I think that they’re chomping at the bit to up their production and get back in this game, back to their old levels. Are they the most important player in this mid-June OPEC meeting? James: Yes, they are. Saudi Arabia and Russia have been just great partners recently. Saudi Arabia’s probably the smartest OPEC nation in the room and they are going to be siding along with Russia. We’re looking at the spigots opening up. They have to. They are very extremely great traders and they understand that throwing a slow-down in global economy is the last thing that they need right now. I think they would be very happy with a $72-$74 Brent price. I think producing more oil, especially in Russia, is going to help that happen. We do see, at least by the 3rd quarter, production cuts going away and oil prices probably settling down $5-$7 from where it is right now, at least. Ben Lichtenstein: All right. Lastly, James, I’m curious your thoughts on Shale production because everybody’s dialed in on the increased production up about 10 million barrels per day as we’re nearing 11 million barrels per day, but, you know, not everybody’s focused on the fact that without this added production levels that we probably see crude oil at a lot higher prices. A lot of people are saying, “Why hasn’t this increased production, keep the price of crude down?” Is it your thought or opinion that without all of this added supply that we’d be up and through this at $75 level right now in the WTI. Is that production what’s actually holding us down a bit? James: What’s holding us down right now is the production. If 11 million barrels a day were being produced in a country that is a third world nation and doesn’t have a huge population of drivers and such, that would make a big difference, but, you know, we are using basically all the oil we need. What really changed the market recently is the fact that the U.S. is now exporting oil and that has really made it more of a global market. The fact that we see such a discount to WTI versus Brent tells us that oil production in the United States is around 11, adding up to 12, and, at that point, $80 oil for Brent and $70 for WTI is not going to last very long. We really see Brent down, like I was saying, $5-$10 this year. What’s going on in the United States right now will keep oil prices from doing the super-spike and I think we’re at a reflection point pretty soon. Ben Lichtenstein: Yeah, we’re watching that spread closely, too, right around 7 ½ right now. Traders, that’s James Cordier joining us this morning and he’s the President and Founder of OptionSellers.com. He’s also the author of The Complete Guide to Option Selling. James, it’s always a pleasure to have you on the show. Really good insightful thoughts there in terms of options and the energy markets.

TD Ameritrade Interviews OptionSellers.com's James Cordier on Selling Options

How to Cash In on The Commodities Bull Market

Good afternoon. This is James Cordier of OptionSellers.com with a market update for May 5th. Well, we are starting to receive some very interesting economic data just recently. Not so much here in the United States, but definitely in the EU. Both German and Great Britain numbers recently are really showing some signs of slowing. It’s very interesting that with quantitative easing still in place throughout the European Union we have slowing already in some of the main economies, namely Germany. Here in the United States we still do have a fairly robust recovery developing. While there are some economic numbers here showing that it’s not taking off to a great extent, it’s still on firm footing. This has created a much stronger U.S. Dollar just recently. Which has brought a lot of commodity prices back into check. Earlier this year, we were having fears of the U.S. Dollar falling in value and investors rushing into precious metals, gold, silver, platinum, and the like, and as the U.S. Dollar now becomes “King Dollar” once again gold prices and silver prices have backed off markedly. What’s so interesting is if quantitative easing is still in place throughout the European Union, how is that area slowing already? That certainly is a big point for us looking forward to help decide economic growth. Globally, in China of course we have tariff talk, not that tariffs are going to necessarily take place to a great extent but, what that often does is it creates anxiety amongst major players and I think that’s what’s going on in Europe right now. We do see decent demand for commodities going forward. The energy patch continues to be relatively strong but we do see that plateauing as well later in the summer. June, July, and August is often the high for demand in energy across the United States and we see that possibly slowing this big rally that we’ve seen in crude oil recently. We love the idea of putting a very large strangle around crude oil prices. We have a nearly fifty dollar strangle around that market. We think that’s going to be an excellent opportunity going forward and we have sales in precious metals some fifty, sixty, and seventy percent above current prices. With a strong dollar, we think that’s going to be an excellent way to go into the last half of 2018. We will just have to wait and see. We really like the way portfolios are positioned right now. We did a lot of rebalancing over the first quarter and a half and we think that we’re going to be bearing fruit here going forward over the next six months. Anyone wanting more information from OptionSellers.com can visit our website. If you’re not already a customer of ours and would like to become one, you can certainly visit our website or contact Rosemary about possibly becoming a client if you wish. As always, it’s a pleasure chatting with you and looking forward to doing so again in two weeks. Thank you.

Will Dollar Slide Continue to Fuel Commodities?

Turning A Losing Option Sale Into A Winner

Good afternoon. This is James Cordier of OptionSellers.com with a market update for April 20th. Well, a lot in the news lately concerning tariffs and a possible trade war with the likes of China, of all countries, the second largest economy in the world. The Trump administration, I think, is basically playing a game of chicken and getting them to lower tariffs in their country and getting more of a fair trade platform. I think everyone is pretty much in favor of that. We’ve had a lot of questions recently… What would a trade tariff mean to some of the positions that we hold in commodities? Wouldn’t that be bearish for commodity prices? Good question. Over the last several weeks, there has been a lot of discussion about it and, primarily, soybeans are one of the target commodities that a lot of people are discussing. A tariff against soybeans and putting a premium on them would probably be negative to prices here in the United States and probably neutral to bullish in countries like Argentina and Brazil. Our commodities that we trade here, of course, are on U.S. exchanges. We are actually positioned for soybeans to fall later on this year, so a tariff against soybeans would actually probably help our position there, so we’re certainly not too overly concerned about that, but we do watch and wonder what implications might mean to the different commodities and we’re certainly abreast of that. Quite often, a lot of investors look around the country for different aspects of what can move the markets. Interestingly, right now is the incredible snow and rain in the northern parts of the United States right now. Generally speaking, that will be bullish for large prospect for corn and soybean harvests later this year. So, as we are hoping for a very large crop in soybeans, some October-November of this year, and lower prices, which would actually profit our accounts, our hats are off to those of you in the northern United States bearing the cold and the wind and the rain and the snow. That is helping all of our accounts later on this year. So, for those of us around the world and in the southern half of the United States, our hats are off to you. Thank you very much. We do anticipate that actually helping our accounts later on this year. That should be a nice addition to the strangles that we’ve applied recently in silver, some $13-$14 around the price of silver, practically 100% of the underlining price. In crude oil, we’re looking at strangles of $52 and $53 wide on barrels that are now worth $60. Basically, we’ve been reloading accounts after a really nice 2017. We’ve spent the last 90 days positioning in markets like that with what we think are going to be great opportunities that will certainly be bearing fruit later this year. We’ll just have to wait and see. Anyone wanting more information from OptionSellers.com can visit our website. If you’re not already a client and wish to become one, you can certainly contact Rosemary at our headquarters in Tampa, Florida about possibly becoming one. As always, it’s a pleasure chatting with you and look forward to doing so again in 2 weeks. Thank you.

Profiting From China Soybean Tariffs?

Good afternoon. This is James Cordier of OptionSellers.com with a market update for March 30th. Well, when everyone first opened their account and we had a new account call, the two of us, three things were always discussed, and that is fundamental analysis that we do at our company. We are trying to analyze and discover commodities that are underpriced. Of course, in that case, what we would do is sell put premium. In cases of finding commodities that are overpriced, we are going to sell call premium, but the most important discovery of all is identifying markets that are fairly valued. That is truly our favorite positioning for adding premium and return to your account. Two weeks ago, we spoke about Goldilocks environment in commodity option selling and let me describe a little bit more what that is because we have identified and now have extremely high premium in three or four of those markets. Gold, for instance, we have a situation in gold that it will probably be well supported because of financial activity around the world. We have very good buying of several commodities both in Europe and in Asia and a strong economy here in the United States. That will likely keep gold supported. At the same time, of course, when gold made its big run to nearly 2,000 several years ago, that was based on the idea of quantitative easing creating a great deal of inflation. What we have right now is quantitative tightening. We have a very strong global economy, which should keep gold prices supported and we have quantitative tightening right now for interest rates and money around the world, which should definitely keep a cap on any large rally on gold. Imagine, if you will, in 2018 a $100 trading range for the gold market. That is what we see. We are also now looking at gold strangles that are $800 wide. There you are. Silver in 2018 having a $1.50-$2.00 trading range for the entire year and a $15 strangle around that market. Exactly. Crude oil. Fundamentals now are extremely supported because the United States is now exporting oil. At the same time, we’ll be producing 11-12 million barrels. That is also identifying a fairly valued market because the United States can now be the largest producer and, by quite some large number of barrels, oil should not run up to the 70’s or 80’s this year, we don’t think. At the same time, the fact that the United States is now exporting oil, we don’t have the bottleneck happening in the Houston area, which used to bring oil prices down. We see oil in approximately a $10 trading range throughout the rest of 2018. We have just identified a $50 strangle around crude oil. So, when we talk about identifying fairly valued markets, that’s what we’re referring to, and that, I think, is going to offer great premium collection in 2018 and should be a very good return at the end of this year. We’ll just have to wait and see. Anyone wanting more information from OptionSellers.com can visit our website. If you’re not already a client of ours and wish to become one, you can contact Rosemary at our headquarters in Tampa, FL about possibly becoming one. As always, it’s a pleasure chatting with you and looking forward to doing so again in two weeks. Thank you.

Mile Wide Strangles For The Risk Averse Option Seller

Take Big April Option Premiums From These Two Commodities

Good afternoon, this is James Cordier of OptionSellers.com with a market update for March 16. Well, in reading the Wall Street Journal this past week, and maybe some of you have read the same article that I was reading, it was talking about the end of Goldilocks. They were referring to interest rates creeping up towards 3% on the 10 year. Basically, they’re forcing investors and money managers to consider some fixed income. Goldilocks, of course, was interest rates at basically 0. They’re only real investment idea was to go along with the stock market. And, of course, US stocks and stocks abroad have done extremely well over the last several years. And now, with the idea of fixed income becoming parts of certain portfolios, the stock market, while it still may climb in the coming year or two, will likely have to do it on its own accord – not just basically a free ride, which in case it probably has had them in the last year or two. Going forward, commodity option buyers love uncertainty. In our thoughts going forward, we do have a Goldilocks environment going forward for us. A vibrant US economy, a vibrant Asian economy, and of course the European economies are doing extremely well just recently. Along with rising interest rates, certainly not a rapid pace of raises, but probably a quarter here and a quarter there, that is Goldilocks for what we do here at OptionSellers.com. A lot of option buyers love uncertainty. We see certainty ahead in many fronts. We thank 2018 for some of that reason. It’s going to be quite good. We do have seasonal trades coming up in the next 30 to 60 days, one being soybeans. We love the idea of being short that market going forward. We are going to have an abundance of soybeans this fall, and we think using strength in that market over the next 4 to 8 weeks is going to be an excellent idea. We think that’s going to definitely help pads accounts in 2018. Anyone wanting more information about OptionSellers.com, can visit our website. If you’re not already a client of ours and would like to become one, you can contact Rosemary at our head quarters in Tampa, FL about possibly becoming one. As always, it’s a pleasure chatting with you, and I look forward to doing so again in 2 weeks. Thank you.

A "Goldilocks" Landscape For Option Sellers?

Good afternoon. This is James Cordier of OptionSellers.com with a market update for March 2nd. For those viewers today who have read The Complete Guide To Option Selling, possibly Chapter 10, which describes the credit spread, our favorite form of positioning accounts in short options and commodities, we describe it as the Maserati of all option positioning. Basically, the credit spread allows you to add premium to the account and have a safety measure of having one long position versus possibly three or four short sales. Basically, what the long position does is it babysits the position until later on the market decays. We normally buy back the position and then we offset our one long position getting some of the premium that we purchased it for back and put into the account. Basically, what this does is it smooths out the equity curve in times of high volatility. The high volatility sometimes scares people but what that does is it allows us to sell options much further out in time and much further out in price than we would normally be able to do. 2017 we did extremely well during the low volatility times but we were selling strikes quite close, and in 2018 and 2019 it looks like we’ll be able to sell options even further out of the money and with all the luxury of having a long position on to protect it. We started doing that this past week in gold, and silver, and crude oil, and we’re now looking to position the exact same way utilizing the rally that’s going on in the wheat market right now – something we really feel is going to be an attractive position later this year. We think that the credit spread is going to offer great returns in 2018. We’ll just have to wait and see. As always, it’s a pleasure chatting with you and looking forward to doing so again in two weeks. Thank you.

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