Options Trade: Planet Fitness

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Time sensitive, this is not investment advice

Planet Fitness (PLNT) is a nationwide chain of health clubs that is beginning to expand internationally. It is growing like–a simile that I can’t think up at the moment–and the share price keeps going up and up. I went into detail about it in this previous blog posting that may have a negative tone because of all the effort that seemed to me to be after the fact.

Since then, there have been other tell-tale signs of the company’s ongoing success.  There are physical advertisements of it in popular locations. I have read its mention in an online journalistic column.

Aside from that, it seems some low-income persons might use the multi-club membership so that they can shower on the road. I forget where that notion came up, maybe it was on online discussion boards. But if you travel frequently and don’t stay in hotels, Planet Fitness might even be used that way.

Now, I take pride in my ability to blog as to draw attention to ways to make money from financial markets. A hypothetical person, traveling through different time zones and using a low-priced membership to get cleaned up, might replicate my own trade as to buy modern, or scientifically-formulated, drinks; athletic wear, and maybe to pay a fast food dinner bill.

It is a butterfly.  This can be a low risk / high reward trade. The catch is the reward becomes the highest when it is riskiest, around the time it would expire. My strategy is to allow ample time, but for the trade to make money while waiting. It is not going for the jackpot (if it is up $50 in net profit on $88 or so risked, I will probably cash in, rather than gamble that it finishes exactly at $72.50 near the end of the summer, in which case profit would be about [($72.50 – $67.50) * 100 – $88 = $412].

It was this, just a moment ago: Buy August $67.50 call option, sell 2 of the August $72.50 call options, Buy August $77.50 call, for a total cost of $72 before commissions.  I estimate the full transaction cost, including the commissions to buy and to sell the trade and also bookkeeping fees to keep track of it for tax purposes next year to be about $88. If the company is acquired, at let’s say $95 per share, the loss would be that $88 risked.

PLNT should report its quarterly earnings around May 7th.  I would be flabbergasted if results, meaning sales, earnings, franchisee purchase of exercise equipment, guidance for new store openings, and comp or same store sales are not all booming. This has been the situation for some time now, so I’m not as confident that the market will pay up for that success, as the stock is at least as pricey as it was at the time of my previous blog post. If the share price goes up through $76, it should not be a total loss:  the closer it gets to $72.50 over time, the higher the profit, and there are bound to be down days.

I reserve the right to revise and edit this

On 4/12/19 I made an adjustment to this trade by buying another butterfly the November 70 / 85 / 100 at a cost of $350 before commissions.  It slowly makes money as time goes buy; however, if the stock continues going up it earns a profit that way also.  Whereeas with the previous trade my bet is that there will be a day in which the stock declines toward $72.50, maybe in June, the situation is now that my account should not be at a loss through a share price of about $80.  If the stock declines, I can buy back an August $72.50 and sell and August $67.50 at a profit.

5/16/19
The stock kept going up so I closed out both trades. I sold the original butterfly at a loss with the order being filled at $58. However, the second butterfly closed at a profit, the order being filled at $438. The sum total of costs, commissions, fees and software to track it for tax purposes should be $32. The pre-tax profit arithmetic looks like: $58 – $72 + $438 – $350 – $32 = $42. A profit of $42 on $454 risked amounts to 9.25%, before tax, through about five weeks.

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