Trade Update – PLTR Options
I started the day holding 4 PLTR Call options expiring January 2026 — 2 with a $155 Strike and 2 with a $180 Strike. The stock has been on fire lately, and I’ve been locking in profits in anticipation of a pullback. Despite trimming, I plan to maintain a position in this stock.
With today’s big open, I decided to sell 2 of my Calls. The question was: which ones?
The deciding factor was Delta. Two of the Calls had a Delta of 0.78, and the other two were at 0.63. Since Delta measures how much an option moves for every $1 change in the underlying stock, the higher-Delta options move more in both directions — up and down.
Expecting a near-term pullback, I chose to sell the higher-Delta ($155 strike) Calls. This way, if PLTR drops, my remaining lower-Delta ($180 strike) Calls will decline less.
Closed 2 Calls for a $3,700 Profit
7/28/25 – Bought 2 PLTR 1/16/26 $155 Calls @ $28.00
8/8/25 – Sold 2 PLTR 1/16/26 $155 Calls @ $46.50
Profit: +$3,700
This is the power of LEAPS options. My ROI with these Calls in 66% in a little over a week. In this time the stock moved $32. If I bought 200 shares of the stock I would have made $6.400. However, my ROI would have been 20%. I invested less money for a larger percentage return.
Successful trading,
Steve
The Options Coach
How does it matter if it’s a LEAP if you only held it for a week?
Hi Cody, Thank you for reading!
This is a very important question, and important to understand. When trading options it’s very important to understand and Time Decay. LEAPS option are long term options. Which means there is a lot of time before expiration. I always hope to be in an option position short term but I always buy long term options. The reason is if the stock moves down, which happens, I have plenty of time for the stock to recover (move up) before my option expires.
EXAMPLE: You buy a one month option and I buy a one year option. (same stock at $50 per share) In one week the stock moves down to $45.
You need the stock to recover back to $50, plus also move up by the amount you paid for the option, just to be even. And you want it to go even higher to make a profit. You need this to happen in the next 3 weeks. Me, I also need this recovery to happen, however, I have a year for the recovery to happen.
If the stock didn’t move down, it moved up, well, both you and I are making money. The fact that I bought a one year option gives me Time Decay protection if the stock moves down. And believe me, it happens all the time!
I hope this helps you understand why I buy longer term options, it’s for protection. If you want a longer, more detailed answer please send me an email and I will send you a full explanation.
Steve