Trader Mike

A little while ago I was asked why I take the last two days of options expiration weeks off. I know I’ve mentioned the reasons several times and they’re scattered all over the site so I’ll list them here:

There are usually strange things that happen during expiration week. I’ve seen what appeared to be the beginning of big moves early in the week reverse on a dime later in the week due to pinning to strike prices.

Pinning doesn’t always happen, nor does it affect all stocks. But over time I’ve learned that it was pointless for me to try to trade close to expiration. I’ve also read that many other traders recommend …

Here we go gapping up again. -sigh- I certainly don’t trust this gap since this is a Fed interest rate decision day and it’s options expiration this week. Whether the pop sticks or not, I’ll be sitting on my hands until after the Fed decision. The market continues to act poorly — selling off in higher volume and rising on lower volume. I doubt that we’ll get a bottom that sticks until the buyers give up in the morning. I’m still waiting on my big hammer day. I should probably take the rest of the week off due to the likely expiration pinning, but I’ll hang around looking for a few daytrades.