TRADING WEEK APR 24-28

If you were a trader who was in severe need of a nap then last week would have fit the bill perfectly. The intraday trading ranges were 2.87, 2.94, 2.96, 3.43 and 2.51. The hi-lo for the week was 5.55. This isn't quite going back to the 2016-2017 sub-10 VIX days but I wouldn't exactly call it the Wild, Wild West. Last week's at the money SPY straddle was a big winner if you were trading from the short side. A more conservative negative gamma strategy is going long the SPY 05May23 - 28Apr23 SPY long time value call spread for 2.20. New Home Sales and Consumer Confidence come out at 10:00am ET on the 25th. On the 27th GDP comes out at 8:30am ET. The PCE Index and the year over year PCE come twenty-four hours later. It's a big earnings week with GOOGL and GOOG coming out after the close on the 25th. GE, MCD, HAL and BA come out before the opening on the 26th, while EBAY, ROKU and MSFT come out after the close. On the 27th, MRK comes out before the opening and AMZN comes out after the close. XOM comes out before the opening on the 28th. One thing to look for is a long, at the money time value spread where the short option that expires on the 28th of April is 2 1/2 times the implied volatility of the long option that expires on the 19th of May.