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By Dan Darrow

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September 14, 2022

Intraday Update: MRNA, ULTA, ORCL

Following yesterday's huge move lower, QQQ and SPY are up modestly early today, leading to a small recovery on many names. Similar to yesterday, we will be patient with managing trades, though there are a couple of early updates:

  • There is chatter this morning that MRNA may be close to signing an agreement to supply vaccines to China, and it is giving the stock a boost early. While there is no confirmation of the headline, it may change the near-term setup on the stock, so we will hold off initiating the Oct21 put spread for now. If it drops back to the ~130 level and there is a denial of the headline, we can circle back around to the stock for a bearish strategy.
  • ULTA slid during the last 15 minutes of the session yesterday to hit the tightened 430 stop level, and even with the small bounce this morning, the bullish pattern has changed. The stock has lost the 8day ema, and it does not make sense to stick with the Oct21 $450 - $455 call spread roll up now that momentum is breaking. The trade will be closed early, and we can watch for a new setup.
  • ORCL closed red yesterday but didn't move enough to warrant managing the strangle. Today is a different story. ORCL has slid sharply out of the gate, and the nearly 4% early drop has sent the Sep23 $74 - $69 put spread portion of the strangle solidly into the money. With the stock hitting the 100day sma quickly, the plan will be to scale back risk a bit on the position by closing the current put spread and rolling down to a Sep23 $72 -$69 put spread. We will continue to manage this position closely over the next couple of sessions. The bull spread will remain open for now.

Open Positions

* The following Open Positions pertain to the Options In Play trade ideas from this and previous editions. Disclosure of the Trader Co-Author’s actual portfolio holdings, as of the date of each publication, is made below under "Trader Author Portfolio Holdings.".

Trader Author Portfolio Holdings

**As of the date and time of publication

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