Sang Lucci Discusses Options Strategy

Anand Sanghvi runs things his own way inside of his New York City apartment. Better known as Sang Lucci, the options trader spoke with Benzinga's pre-market internet broadcast on Tuesday morning.

"If you're not expecting something, it happens so quickly you can't react until it's a little too late," Lucci said.

Lucci began trading in 2006 at PTG Capital and by 2009 had started his own team. He focuses on large-cap names that have volume on the options, mentioning the likes of Facebook (NASDAQ: FB), Twitter (NYSE: TWTR) and Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), among others.

"Every time you get a new issue, you gotta figure out the tape, how it moves," he said. Speaking about Twitter, Lucci said Monday was a horrible day for the young stock. "Options had little volume. We were seeing 100 million trades that first day and barely seeing seven million now.

Related: Twitter Options Prognosis: #Uneventful

"Volume is not even close to Facebook, which I was surprised about."

Lucci is an aggressive trader, and understands how the market-maker can read those who trade similarly. He agreed that sometimes you have to throw in fake bids (feelers) just to see how they move around and to see where you can get a better fill.

"Market-makers are very hip to a lot of aggressive trading that I do. I have to jump on different routes, hit different exchanges, and even mess with their algorithm."

Lucci spoke about his moves with some of the major banks over the last week. He went basket-long on J.P. Morgan (NYSE: JPM), Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS), Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) and the others last week when the market broke out. But because he was so heavy into the position, his bids on the exit disappeared everywhere on the options when Carl Icahn's comments came out. After being up $800,000 during the day, he finished around $450,000.

"Every bank puts in absurd moves higher. Once I see that kind of action, lets do it."

He also discussed the Sang Lucci Scholarship, which is given out about once every quarter. "It's a way to get all the education, plugged into the Sang Lucci world, without paying for anything."

The winner can use all Sang Lucci products (course guides, consultations, chat room, etc.) for free on a 13-day "boot camp." Applicants are to answer a few questions in 500 words or less and, perhaps more importantly, they are to also create their own meme to attach with the application.