A lot of those little double bump RSI tops seem to be good signals.

Well, the only thing I can suggest is "It's complicated".

Yea, it's hard to make money on long options.

Old Traders Rule - Never trade before 10:00AM. I broke that today on GDXJ and it cost me with tight stops being hit.

Imagine when we have the vaccines and all the curbs are removed. We will look at everyone with suspicion wondering if they are vaccinated. We will need to have a "V" tattooed on our palms and the new access code and greeting will be high five, show me your "V".  

GDXJ, is the low risk entry point at the previous low or are we waiting for the 200 ma?

Yes and their is news saying that their (China) vaccine is not working as well as they hoped. Hopefully it works somewhat.

Matt, New Player I noticed flips to the image of the next chart at the end of each commentary. This does not allow for time to consider the chart following the commentary.

Is anyone else having newsletter audio problems on Windows 10?

Covered calls on GDXJ are keeping me warm.

They have done their damage now they will rush home to try to save their jobs.

GLD appears to be back within the declining channel. So was this a false breakout or a precursor to a move up?

For those not using options, an example:

I did a 200 share buy/write when GDXJ was at 61.59.  I sold 2 $62 calls and my basis was $58.25. Had GDXJ been higher than 62 at expiration Friday one month later my return would have been $747 or 6%.  As it is, the price of GDXJ was 57.67 so the calls expire worthless and I am down .58 a share.  But had I not written the call, I would be down $3.92.

Now, the story is not over, but it is still better than just buying GDXJ. Granted, the options are fat on gold related items so the strategy works better than on most examples.

What the post doesn't show is that I was doing this as GDXJ moved up so I had similar positions expiring on Friday at $57, $58 and $60 which did even better. The $57 position will I will just let them take the stock and keep the premium from the option. Thus the entire strategy will create income, reduce risk and be great unless there is a dramatic downturn in the price of GDXJ.

Now I get to pick a good time to sell options again or do buy writes to replace some of the GDXJ taken away. 

GLD declining volume makes gold look still weak.  Any thoughts?

GLD is at the bottom of the triangle. Is this one of Matt's low risk entry points with tight stop?

Matt, One additional DVT system which I think would be of super interest is GDX or GLD or $GOLD, whatever.

Follow up on the laddered buy/write method

This is the incentive to sell calls a bit out of the money at the time one buys. It reduces gains but provides some coverage for losses and often just results in income if the stock does not move very far up or down.

Options Softening Downside - Further example of options downside protection in a pull back from a run up.  As time progresses to the expiration date, the premiums will decline even further. In the worst case, a large decline would reduce them to zero and the money I took in when I sold them will reduce my basis in the stock and any loss. Since several of these positions were originally written for July and rolled up, I have additional income not shown here. It is all about timing and giving up upside for easing any downside loss.  Most stocks don't move fast enough to give up much upside so the usual program is positions expiring worthless or being rolled up to the next period for, often, more income.

Good exapmple of how using covered options can be more conservative  than just buying stock.

Buy / Write - Lately I have been chasing the GDXJ with near month buy writes a bit below the price where the calls are fat and I have a point or so of upside. If the stock moves up, I add to ithe position with higher buy/writes.  As GDXJ moves up each lower position maxes out but provides downside protection as the position grows. When the expiration arrives, I roll out the calls reasonably close to the price to the next month and let the lower positions cash out.

I have considered using Matt's higher low technique as a trigger to write a higher position so that I take in money as the price moves up and gradually increase my position with as I have downside protection. I result of all this is that I end up a larger position if the price moves up than I would normally be comfortable with. If the price turns down, I can likely rewrite some of the positions and stop out some others.