I've had lots of luck in trading options for high-priced stocks like Enphase (enph) and Netflix (nflx) but much less luck when it comes to low-priced stocks.
Today, I own $3 calls for Agenus (agen) for Jan 20, 2023. The stock price is currently up 24 cents (8.2%) and the option went from out of the money to in the money at $3.17. Now, I would think that should be great for my options. But, the option is only up 4 cents or 8%. This is one of the most popular options for AGEN with good volume. For a high-priced stock that went ITM and up 8%, I would expect the option to increase by 3-5 times as much as the stock price, so 24%-40%. The intrisic value on the 6 calls (so 600 shares) I own since time of purchase should be up by $300 as the price has gone up 50 cents. But, the option is only up $40.
So, what are the factors at play here? It seems in this case, I would have been better off just trading the stock directly instead of messing with options as I'm not getting the multiples that makes options appealing. But how can I know that for future reference? What numbers should I be looking at to calculate the expected multiple?
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