Pre-Earnings Trades That Produce Consistent 30% Returns
Yesterday, I hosted a webinar where I explained the Earnings360 approach to trading earnings. I also executed a live trade, to display how I harness implied volatility behavior in order to generate consistent profits from these often-chaotic events.
Watch the Earnings360 replay for FREE HERE
In the past, I’ve discussed how I apply Post Earnings Premium Crush (PEPC) to produce 80%-150% gains on earnings trades. However, while PEPC provides an edge, there’s still some risk of the stock moving more than expected, or in a different direction.
Hence, this is the reason that my Earnings360 also employs a more conservative strategy. Which delivers consistent returns over a four-day period without actually holding the position through the report. I refer to this as Pre-Earnings Premium Expansion (PEPE).
In 14-plus quarters, Earnings360 has executed 72 PEPE trades, achieving an 81% win rate — a 27% average gain!
The respective strategy leverages the implied volatility increase that precedes earnings and avoids the actual event altogether. Just as PEPC is predictable, so is the pumping up of premium leading into the event; the basis for PEPE trades.
[FREE WEBINAR] Access the Earnings360 Replay Here — Before It Is Too Late!
PEPE occurs incrementally over many days; making it more subtle than PEPC. Here, you can see Schwab’s (SCHW) implied volatility climb in the days leading up to the earnings release before reverting lower after the report.
SCHW order on Earnings360
A strategy for taking advantage of rising IV, leading into earnings is a calendar spread, where you sell an option that expires prior to earnings while simultaneously purchasing one expiring after the event. Here, you can see the SCHW order that Earnings360 placed where we sold the weekly puts and calls that precede the earnings report while buying the following week, which contains the report.
Like any calendar spread, it benefits from the accelerated decay of the nearer-dated options sold short. However, this has the added tailwind of when earnings approach the option, there will be a rise causing an increase in the spread value. To keep the position delta neutral, both the put and call calendars should be established.
These positions must be established in advance and closed before the actual earnings. The profits might not be as dramatic as catching a huge post-earnings move, but they can be substantial. More importantly, they can be consistent and have a high probability. All told over 14 quarters, Earnings360 has made 67 PEPE trades for a 27% average gain on an 82% win rate.
With weekly options, there should be a plethora of situations in the weeks ahead to leverage IV rise, leading into earnings, by using the PEPE double calendar strategy to produce consistent 30% returns — without taking the risk of holding the position through the earnings report.
[LAST CHANCE] Access the FREE Earnings360 Webinar Replay — Before It Gone!
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