r/options • u/astromouse2024 • 2d ago

This coming week

What are everybody’s thoughts on this coming week? Cpi comes out this week which could make things really interesting. The question is if cpi is more or less of a concern compared to what just happened this past week. Looking at options chains for a lot of major stocks it seems that things are still very crazy, with calls and puts still expensive. I’ve been playing around with amzn options switching back and forth between calls and puts and both have become super expensive. What are everybody’s thoughts?

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u/thrawness 1d ago

Sell any rally.

No one is stepping in next week to buy in size and push the market significantly higher. Large funds that were long the market were forced to liquidate on Friday. You don’t get moves like that—especially into the close—unless positions had to be closed. Clearing firms don’t care what price they get; the priority is to reduce exposure. The damage is done.

Any rally we see this coming week will likely be driven by put covering, not fresh buying. As traders close their long puts, dealers will unwind their hedges (short futures), mechanically pushing the market up. This is not a real buying opportunity—it's a reflexive move.

This dynamic may last until April OpEx. After that, we can reassess and start looking at potential long setups.

My current way to navigate through the coming week:

  • Load up on SPY iron condors across all monthly expirations until July. - I am almost maxed out here
  • Buy put spreads on ANY rally.
  • Short select Chinese equities.
  • Long static delta in tech (offloaded at the end of the day to lock in intraday gains).

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u/PhantomChihuahua 1d ago

My portfolio is nearly 100% long tech stocks and I’m in the red on all of my positions. Do you have any suggestions? Buy SQQQ maybe? Thanks in advance.

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u/thrawness 1d ago

Short static delta is the preferred approach.
Depending on your position size and portfolio structure, you can use instruments like NQ, MNQ, QQQ, or SQQQ. The most efficient and direct method, however, is short futures.

If you prefer to use options for protection, consider buying put spreads. To reduce your exposure to vega—since you’re buying volatility at historically elevated levels—structure the spread with the long leg deep ITM (for more intrinsic value and less sensitivity to IV crush), and the short leg OTM. A good metric to look at would be a Theta positive long put spread.

This way, you gain directional downside protection while minimizing the cost and volatility sensitivity of the hedge.