Option Volatility And Earnings Report For February 17 - 21

Earnings season is starting to slow down now, but we still have some important companies reporting this week. These include Walmart (WMT), Alibaba (BABA), Baidu (BIDU), Carvana (CVNA), Occidental Petroleum (OXY) and Arista Networks (ANET).

Before a company reports earnings, implied volatility is usually high because the market is unsure about the outcome of the report. Speculators and hedgers create huge demand for the company’s options which increases the implied volatility, and therefore, the price of options.

After the earnings announcement, implied volatility usually drops back down to normal levels. 

Let’s take a look at the expected range for these stocks. To calculate the expected range, look up the option chain and add together the price of the at-the-money put option and the at-the-money call option. Use the first expiry date after the earnings date. While this approach is not as accurate as a detailed calculation, it does serve as a reasonably accurate estimate.

Monday

President’s Day holiday

BHP – 3.6%

Tuesday

BIDU – 7.8%

OXY – 4.9%

ANET – 11.1%

MDT – 3.7%

DVN – 5.5%

Wednesday

CVNA – 14.1%

TOST – 13.6%

Thursday

BABA – 8.9%

RIVN – 14.0%

WMT – 5.2%

NU – 7.3%

CCJ – 7.3%

NEM – 7.0%

XYZ – 9.2%

SO – 2.7%

Friday

AKAM – 10.7%

BKNG – 6.4%

MELI – 8.2%

Option traders can use these expected moves to structure trades. Bearish traders can look at selling bear call spreads outside the expected range.

Bullish traders can sell bull put spreads outside the expected range, or look at naked puts for those with a higher risk tolerance. 

Neutral traders can look at iron condors. When trading iron condors over earnings, it is best to keep the short strikes outside the expected range. 

When trading options over earnings, it is best to stick to risk defined strategies and keep position size small. If the stock makes a larger than expected move and the trade suffers a full loss, it should not have more than a 1-3% effect on your portfolio.

Stocks With High Implied Volatility

We can use Barchart’s Stock Screener to find other stocks with high implied volatility.

Let’s run the stock screener with the following filters:

• Total call volume: Greater than 10,000
• Market Cap: Greater than 40 billion
• IV Percentile: Greater than 70%

This screener produces the following results sorted by IV Percentile. 

You can refer to this article for details of how to find option trades for this earnings season. 

Last Week’s Earnings Moves

ALAB -10.9% vs 18.4% expected

MCD +4.8% vs 3.7% expected

ON -8.2% vs 9.7% expected

SHOP +3.1% vs 13.6% expected

SMCI +2.8% vs 19.9% expected

ET -0.8% vs 3.1% expected

KO +4.7% vs 2.9% expected

DASH +0.2% vs 10.0% expected

HUM -3.6% vs 8.6% expected

GILD +7.5% vs 4.4% expected

MAR -5.4% vs 4.3% expected

Z -9.4% vs 10.4% expected

HOOD +14.1% vs 12.4% expected

CVS +15.0% vs 7.7 expected

GOLD +6.4% vs 5.3% expected

RDDT -5.3% vs 16.5% expected

KHC -3.3% vs 4.4% expected

CSCO +2.1% vs 5.3% expected

APP +24.0% vs 19.1% expected

VRT -9.7% vs 11.5% expected

TTD -33.0% vs 12.1% expected

COIN -8.0% vs 10.2% expected

DKNG +15.2% vs 9.7% expected

PANW +2.6% vs 8.2% expected

ROKU +14.1% vs 14.4% expected

ABNB +14.5% vs 9.0% expected

TWLO -15.0% vs 9.7% expected

MRNA +3.4% vs 11.1% expected

Overall, there were 16 out of 28 that stayed within the expected range.

Unusual Options Activity

CVNA, HIMS, SNAP, WYNN, MSTR, COIN and MSFT all experienced unusual options activity last week.

Other stocks with unusual options activity are shown below:

Please remember that options are risky, and investors can lose 100% of their investment. This article is for education purposes only and not a trade recommendation. Remember to always do your own due diligence and consult your financial advisor before making any investment decisions.