One monthly report that generally moves the stock market is the NFP or Nonfarm Payroll Report that is issued the first Friday of every month. The report is issued at 8:30 am ET and 7:30 am CT, before the market opens. When the market opens, often the market will make a hard move one way and then come back the other way over the next hour or so. This can make for an interesting speculative play using options. This is not normal, non-directional income style options trading. The way to play these moves with options is to wait for the initial move to move hard in one direction and then sell option verticals above or below. Then, whenever the market moves back the other direction, you can close those option verticals that you sold profitably or continue with them if the market stabilizes. Often the market will move one way and then the other and continue to sway the rest of the day. For instance, if the market opens up, you could sell call verticals in a broad-based index like SPX. Once it is moved up about 10 to 15 minutes, watch for a market reversal in order to buy […]