Pfizer Inc. (PFE): Book A 120% Gain With This Pharma Stock’s Rebound

Momentum is an important attribute when picking stocks to trade, and the strength of the price movement is something you want to embrace, not fight against.

One of the strongest market sectors this year has been pharmaceuticals. The SPDR S&P Pharmaceuticals (ETF) (NYSE:XPH) has gained more than 30% year to date, double the gains of the S&P 500.

Not all pharma stocks have fared so well, though. Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) is only up 11% year to date, lagging behind the broader market and sharply behind its peers.

On the chart below, we can see that the January breakout above $27 held on the June and July pullbacks, forming a key support level. The $4 range between the $27 breakout level and the $31 yearly highs targets a breakout move to $35.

The $35 target is about 22% higher than current prices, but traders who use a capital-preserving stock-substitution strategy could more than double their money on a move to that level.

One major advantage of using long call options rather than buying a stock outright is putting up much less capital to control 100 shares — that’s the power of leverage. But with all of the potential strike and expiration combinations, choosing an option can be a daunting task.

Simply put, you want to buy a high-probability option that has enough time to be right, so there are two rules traders should follow:

Rule One: Choose an option with a delta of 70 or above.
An option’s strike price is the level at which the options buyer has the right to purchase the underlying stock or ETF without any obligation to do so. (In reality, you rarely convert the option into shares, but rather simply sell back the option you bought to exit the trade for a gain or loss.)

It is important to buy options that pay off from a modest price move in the underlying stock or ETF (exchange-traded fund) rather than those that only make money on the infrequent price explosion. In-the-money options are more expensive, but they’re worth it, as your chances of success are mathematically superior to buying cheap, out-of-the-money options that rarely pay off.

An option’s delta approximates the odds that the option will be in the money at expiration. It is a measurement of how well an option follows the movement in the underlying security. You can find an option’s delta using an options calculator, such as the one offered by the CBOE.