The Day Ahead: IWM, QQQ, TQQQ, GDXJ, FXI, EWZIt's Friday and a Triple Witching to boot!
Well, IV isn't great here pretty much across the board for us premium sellers. Nevertheless, if you must play (and some of us gotta), here's what's shakin' ... .
Broad Market
QQQ, .8 IVR, 17.8% 30-day IV, with the shortest duration in which the <16 delta is paying greater than 1% of the strike price: December 29th.
IWM, .7 IVR, 16.8% 30-day, with the shortest duration in which the <16 delta is paying greater than 1% of the strike price: December 29th.
SPY, .9 IVR, 12.9% 30-day, with the shortest duration in which the <16 delta is paying greater than 1%: (Ugh), March (there is no February monthly yet).
Exchange-Traded Funds
Ideally, you want to hit these when IVR >50 and IV is >35%, but IVR is at rock bottom, with most skimming the very low end of their 52-week ranges. Sometimes, you just have to settle for what the market gives you.
TQQQ, 8.5 IVR; 52.6% 30-day.
GDXJ, .6 IVR; 31.6% 30-day.
FXI, 7.9 IVR; 29.4% 30-day.
EWZ, 2.8 IVR; 26.7% 30-day.
Fortunately, all of these are <$45/share, so you will be small in terms of buying power effect with the natural exception of the leveraged TQQQ, which your broker may require be cash secured on margin (which naturally makes it less sexy in that environment from an ROC %-age perspective).
Stay small and don't get all of your powder wet.