Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Baidu (BIDU) Call Options +12,320.00%

This is a record for me to see:



The high was actually $11.30, which would be +22,500.00%.

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5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow! Now you can boast of your own get rich quick strategy with proof! just kidding!

crk said...

Amazing. Congratulations :-) If we can find a few such opportunities, that is good enough to retire. Do you know any method to scan for straddle options that offer potential opportunities?

The Shocked Investor said...

Thx, but, I did not own those options, that's why I said "for me to see". If I had owned them I'd be partying ;-)

There was no way to predict that would happen to Baidu as it was a response to Google's announcement, which is totally unexpected. Some say sometimes these things are done on purpose, that would be indicated by unusual otions activity on either Gooogle or Baidu. You'd think that's unlikely with Google, but I'll check.

However, this is the typical straddle play that I do with earnings, hoping for surprises. Every once in a while you get a winning play. I have had AMZN options going +10X. You can do the same with drug companies ahead of FDA approvals. Sites to use are optionslam and optionmonster which offer a number of tools.

crk said...

For the earnings play, typically how many days before the earnings do you buy the straddles?

The Shocked Investor said...

re. earnings plays: 1 to 3 days before they are released. Volatility and price tend to increase ahead of earnings (options get more expensive). If the stock does not move, both calls and puts may actually drop. Keep that in mind.

How far it is from expiry makes a big difference on the moves, i.e, risk and gain are very interrelated. It's always the same story, no pain, no gain!

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