Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility
andy-crowder-cropped

Andy Crowder

Chief Analyst, Cabot Options Institute

Andy Crowder is a professional options trader, researcher and Chief Analyst of Cabot Options Institute. Formerly with Oppenheimer & Co. in New York, Andy has leveraged his investment experience to develop his statistically based options trading strategy which applies probability theory to option valuations in order to execute risk-controlled trades. This proprietary strategy has been refined through two decades of research and real-world experience and has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Seeking Alpha, and numerous other financial publications. Andy has helped thousands of option traders learn and implement his meticulous rules-driven options trading strategies through highly attended conferences, one-on-one coaching, webinars, and his work as a financial columnist. He currently resides in Bolton Valley, Vermont and when he’s not trading, teaching and writing about options, he enjoys spending time with his wife and two daughters, backcountry skiing, biking, running and enjoying all things outdoors.

From this author
We allowed our BITO calls to expire worthless last week. As a result, we locked in a return of 3.4%. Now it’s time to sell more call premium against our BITO shares. We have managed to reap a total return of just over 105% since introducing Income Trader 16 months ago.
Our BITO calls expired worthless and as a result, we were able to bring in roughly 3.5% on the trade. I will be selling more calls early this week.


Otherwise, all continues to be well as we head towards the October 20, 2023, expiration cycle. There isn’t much to do other than allow time decay to work its magic as we head closer and closer to the end of the October 20, 2023, expiration cycle. If our positions act accordingly, we have the opportunity to buy back our positions early, lock in profits, and bring in 5% to 10% worth of call premium over the next week or two.
As I stated last week, volatility has once again made an appearance. However, as we have all seen over the past few months, sightings have been rare and, more annoyingly, fleeting. If volatility and in turn IV ranks are able to stay at current levels or potentially rise a little, we should begin to see opportunities pick up. As always, my goal is to have three to five open trades at any given time. With IV ranks low across the board the past few months, we’ve remained patient and kept our powder dry. But all of that is quickly changing, at least for the moment. If volatility continues to trade around these levels expect to see a few additional trades. As it stands, we have two open trades, one of which we opened late last week and thankfully, both trades look good at the moment.
I’m going to keep it short today, with just a quick update.


The earnings calendar is somewhat bare as we finally reach the end of the earnings doldrums. Next week, however, earnings season finally returns with several of the big banks due to report, including Citigroup (C), JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Wells Fargo (WFC) and several others. I expect to be a part of one, if not two, of those earnings announcements. Of course, I will go over a preliminary, detailed look at a trade or two in next week’s issue. However, until then, we should expect to stay on the sidelines as there just aren’t any opportunities that meet our strict criteria.
With November expiration only 49 days away, and with implied volatility kicking up over the past week, at least a little, I want to sell some premium. So, I’m going to start with another bear call spread in SPY and add some additional positions over the coming week.
We allowed our calls to expire worthless last week, thereby reaping the entire call premium. As a result, it’s time to start selling more call premium.
Volatility has, once again, made an appearance. However, as we have all seen over the past few months, sightings have been rare and, more annoyingly, fleeting. If volatility and in turn IV ranks are able to stay at current levels or potentially rise a little, we should begin to see opportunities pick up. I’ll continue to remain cautiously optimistic and patient until then.
All is well as we head towards the October 20, 2023, expiration cycle. Our BITO position is due to expire at the end of the week, and if all goes well, I intend to buy back our BITO calls, lock in profits and immediately sell more call premium. Otherwise, there isn’t much to do other than allow time decay to work its magic as we head closer and closer to the end of the October 20, 2023, expiration cycle. If our positions act accordingly, we have the opportunity to bring in 5% to 10% worth of call premium over the next 26 days.
Earnings are due to officially begin in just over two weeks with the big banks reporting. Until then, the market gods offer up the liveliest week of the earnings doldrums with several potential opportunities, most notably in COST (COST), Micron (MU) and Nike (NKE). I’ll take a closer look at a potential Costco trade In this week’s Trade Ideas section.
We have a few positions with calls due to expire tomorrow, so let’s get ahead of it and buy back our short calls and immediately sell more calls to collect another round of premium.
We allowed our TXN calls to expire worthless last week to lock in a full profit on our premium sold. Now, with expiration behind us, it’s time to start selling more premium in TXN.
As part of the Income Wheel approach, we allowed our Wells Fargo (WFC) puts to expire in the money at expiration last week. As a result, we were issued shares at our chosen put strike of 45. So far, we’ve managed to lock in 18% worth of premium in WFC.
We locked in another profitable trade last week, our October 20, 2023, SPY iron condor for a 10.4% gain. We were in the trade for 27 days. As it stands, our overall return is 156.4%, with an average hold time of 21 days. My hope is to extend those gains this week as I intend on locking in, if all goes well, a similar return in our IWM iron condor. Moreover, I intend on adding at least one to two additional trades this week.
We locked in some nice gains prior to expiration last week which brought our total return to 102.2%.

We also allowed our WFC short puts to carry through expiration and since the underlying price of WFC was below our short put strike we were assigned shares of WFC. As a result, we plan on selling calls against our newly acquired shares as we enter the covered call portion of the income wheel strategy in WFC.
The earnings doldrums are upon us, but we still have one potential opportunity this week, most notably a chance for a trade in FedEx (FDX). The company is due to announce after the closing bell Wednesday, so if I do send a trade alert, expect to see the alert around 2 p.m. ET that day.
DKNG continues to trend higher, so we are going to buy back our September puts, lock in profits and immediately sell more puts for the October expiration cycle.
Cabot Options Institute Quant Trader is focused exclusively on creating consistent returns using high-probability options strategies including bear call spreads, bull put spreads, iron condors and more. Whether you have questions about the strategies, or even about setting up your account, or how to make your own trades, Andy will answer all of your questions
The Yale Endowment portfolio continues to shine, outperforming our benchmarks with portfolio gains currently reaching close to 15% since we initiated the portfolio back in mid-June of last year.
Cabot Options Institute Income Trader is focused exclusively on the creating consistent income through a variety of options selling strategies. Whether you have questions about selling puts, covered strangles, jade lizards or our income wheel approach, Andy is more than happy to help you steepen your learning curve in this live event.
I’ve decided to lock in profits on my October 20, 2023, SPY iron condor. With 37 days left until our iron condor is due to expire, I want to eliminate all risk and simply lock in some profits. This brings our total returns in Quant Trader to just under 160% since introducing the service 16 months ago.