Last Friday, S&P 500 (SPDR S&P 500 ETF: SPY) bounced almost 2.5% to score its best one-day percentage gain since December 2011. The move helped fuel a strong weekly gain, but still wasn't enough to move stocks out of the red for the quarter.

Another week, another summit, and again a confused market. Ever since Greek financial trouble started to surface in mass media during early 2010, market movements are surrounded by speculations mainly on Euro i.e. what will happen to Euro, Greece etc. Since then, hardly a week goes by when mass media doesn't refer market rallies or pullbacks to "Euro" in one form or the other.

I think, now, governments have also become smarter and know well how to manage market participants better. If you trade full-time, you will notice many last hour rallies which are driven by "news" in some mass media, the "news" that

The Apple (AAPL) World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC) for 2012 is scheduled for Jun 11-15 in San Francisco. This is probably the most followed, most awaited developer's conference in the world and there is plenty of excitement already.

The opportunity to benefit from such an event exists not only for the developers but also for Option Traders. What? Yes, you could trade and benefit from this most awaited event. Though some gains have already been made, still there is plenty of juice.

Here is how, there are two things:

1. Most of the time, AAPL starts to go-up 8-18 days prior to conference leading into the 1st day of conference. Here are past dates for your reference to back test for determining optimum entry points.

2. Once conference starts (especially when Steve Jobs used to come on stage), AAPL starts to pullback.

Here are actual results of REAL Trades

Apple (AAPL) closed below 50dma level again. Apple has pulled back almost $53 from the high since its latest earning announcement. When a company announces earnings that almost doubled, smashing even the most bullish expectations and the stock was already selling well below the average P/E ratio of the market, how can it continue to fall day after day?

We did have a bit of luck with a speculative trade that we opened just almost at the top. But, that was then and it's over now.

(Click to enlarge)

After pulling back ~$80, there are a lot of theories supporting why AAPL has been falling. Some of those are-

1. This is profit taking as stock has almost doubled from lows since November.
2. AAPL shares are being unloaded to generate cash for Facebook (FB) IPO and once FB starts trading, money will flow back to AAPL.
3. Options are driving AAPL share

Monster Beverage Corp (MNST) recently traded in a very volatile manner. Just before lunch on April 30th, MNST spiked sharply due to an M&A rumour that The Coca-Cola Company (KO) was in talks to buy Monster. As a result MNST spiked almost +30% to $83.96 from ~ $64

Later, for several hours it then traded around $75 level before giving back all the gains when Coca-Cola denied discussions to acquire Monster Beverage. During last 10mins of trading, MNST shares dropped to close at $65. This kind of volatile, uncertain situation can be rewarding for traders who are day trading options and are equipped with proper strategies to trade such opportunities.

There are three ways to trade options on M&A plays

1. Pre- announcement (rumors)
2. During announcement (when a news surfaces in mainstream media but is not yet confirmed) and
3. When news is confirmed but M&A is not yet approved.

Apple (AAPL) is scheduled to report earnings on April 24th. I have already shared some interesting things about this quarter that you may want to read before playing Apple earnings (Please read to get on-board)

Before I begin the article, I think it is important to clarify a few things-

1. I am neither short, nor long on AAPL. As Seeking Alpha doesn't have 3rd option, I disclose what my bias is at the moment of writing article.
2. Being a full-time Option Trader, I may switch my trading direction several times during the day.
3. I usually don't buy stock unless those are bargains.
4. Majority of my capital is invested in market neutral option trading strategies. Only a small fraction is invested on directional/speculative strategies.
5. This post is only one of the 15 trading strategies (and expanding) I have for trading earnings. Depending upon time availability, I might share some more

Apple (AAPL), the biggest publicly listed company on the planet, is about to announce earnings on April 24th, after markets close. It is estimated that nearly 200+ Hedge funds have AAPL shares in their portfolio. And it is one of the most commonly talked about stocks on almost every mainstream financial meduim, website, forum, and blog.

Here are some of the interesting things you may want to know before you go for an option trading strategy.

Since the last quarter earnings announcement, AAPL stock is up roughly 40% (@$586 current market price). During this time, normally one would expect implied volatility (IV) to drop (and rise before the next earning announcement). However, AAPL's implied volatility (IV) almost doubled during this period.

Click to enlarge.

What does that mean? Let's say you purchased 5 AAPL Oct 550 calls (almost 9 months life) on Jan 26th (after earning announcement and IV

So, you missed the rally that began since March 2009?

Hewlett-Packard Company (HPQ), as of yesterday, closed at $24.31, a level last seen during March 2009, when markets were trading almost at the lowest level of the past decade. Will you buy it now?

In this post, I am going to share my value as well as technical investment take on this company. Finally, I shall also share some ideas on how options can be used to hedge and/or to lower your cost.

Value Take:

Based on my analysis using discount cash flow models, I think Hewlett Packard is undervalued. The selling pressure is driven by recent lackluster performance and uncertainty around the company's future. It is going through tough times and there is no clear direction emerging, which is further depressing stock value.

Let's dive into numbers. (Learn how to Value Stocks and for an example of