Trade Alert: Taking profits on our puts, buying some cheaper puts too

After a brief morning respite, the stock markets are falling again this afternoon and I’m going to make a few moves that will lock in some profits on our existing put hedges and roll our puts down a bit to balance the portfolio out a little.

In other words, I’m going to sell most of my remaining QQQ puts and SPY puts to lock in the profits on these hedges a bit more with them near the lowest levels they’ve been at in months.

I’m going to put in a few bids to nibble a few more QQQ and SPY puts with lower strike prices than the ones I’m selling, which requires less capital but will keep me with about the same amount of hedge exposure here.

So after these trades I’ll have sold all or almost all of the QQQ puts with the $175 strike prices that expire in December and January as they are now a full $10 in the money. I’m going to simultaneously, slowly, start nibbling on some QQQ puts that have strike prices around $160 or so that expire out in January.

I’m also going to have sold almost all or almost all of my SPY with the $280 strike prices that expire in December as they are now more than $15 in the money. I’m going to simultaneously, slowly, start nibbling on some SPY puts that have strike prices around $260 or so that expire out in January.

As for actually buying — I’m sifting through the wreckage and warming up to some names. AMZN looks oversold here and might be a good place to start a toehold position if you don’t own any. I’ve got a few calls and more homework to do on WDC, SNAP and some of our other names that have come down. Stay tuned for that.

More later.