Bernanke Speaks on Capitol Hill and Precious Metals Plummet!! Gold Tanking…Options?! By: Tim Bolger

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Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is speaking on Capitol Hill at the moment…During his speech the markets have all turned into the red and Gold is plummeting over $65 an ounce(11:50 am Eastern standard time)…Wow!! It is amazing how the Fed chief can move markets and metals prices in just a few seconds while addressing Congressional leaders and the American people.  I’m a long term bull on Silver and very bullish on Goldilox…Gold was trading down as much as $80 an ounce intraday.

So what is the options play on Gold tanking today?!

Trade#1: I would consider selling the $165 April 20, 2012 Put Options on the GLD for $4.25 a contract. Remember that in order to sell these 3 contracts, we need to have $49,500 in cash reserves in our brokerage account in case we get exercised on the GLD shares at $165 a share.  I am comfortable going long the GLD at $165 and therefore I like this trade alot…By selling 3 Put Option contracts, I will collect a premium of $1,275 minus trading fees. If the GLD bounces after this major sell off today and moves higher I will not get exercised on these shares at expiration. Either way, I like this trade and selling the Put Options will help finance the worst case scenario, in which I get exercised on 3 Put Option contracts (3 x 100= 300 Gld shares at $165 a share). Attached is the April 20, 2012 Options Chains on GLD courtesy of Yahoo Finance: http://finance.yahoo.com/q/op?s=GLD&m=2012-04.

Trade#2: I would consider taking advantage of this huge sell off in Gold today and think about buying the $165 June 15, 2012 expiration GLD Call Options for $4.80 a contract. I can buy 10 Call Option contracts for $4,800 plus trading fees and that will give me long exposure to 1,000 shares of GLD at $165 a share. My $4,800 investment will be worth over $10,000 if GLD trades to $175 by the June 15, 2012 expiration.  Attached is the June 15, 2012 Options Chains on GLD courtesy of Yahoo Finance:  http://finance.yahoo.com/q/op?s=GLD&m=2012-06. Good luck to all of the Goldilox bulls and stay tuned to Optionshoney.com for more Options action!! Show me the honey!!

For more conservative investors, I would stay away from the Options on GLD and just buy the GLD at $165 or less. The GLD is a great hedge on higher inflation and a weak U.S. Dollar…The other way to get Gold exposure is by purchasing 10 ounce gold bars or the beautiful 1 ounce Gold American Eagle coins. It is really nice to own the physical and fun to hold these shiny yellow bars/coins…and yes they are worth alot of money too!! I am also a big fan of owning shares of Canadian gold miner: Barrick Gold Corporation (ABX) at $45 or less a share.