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Managing Your Options Trades with FoxTrader Pro
Jordan Craw

The Option Strategy feature within FoxTrader Pro is an incredibly powerful feature which is designed to assist you to analyse and track your strategies. While the main focus may appear to be on analyzing a strategy, once you have converted a strategy to a trade and it is listed in your portfolio manager, you can continue to monitor its performance and record the trading activities associated with that strategy.
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Introducing Covered Writes
Mike Lawch

In last week’s article, we learned about "writing" or selling put options.
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The Short Put Strategy
Mike Lawch

A short put strategy offers limited profit potential and unlimited risk.
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Selling Call Options is Risky Business
Mike Lawch

Selling a call option, or "writing" an option, can be an extremely risky business.
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Assessing Risk Reward with Option Risk Graphs
Wayne North

Every astute trader and investor knows that before entering any trade, they must first assess their risk. In other words, they must ask themselves, how much can I lose if I am wrong?
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Demystifying The Put Option
Mike Lawch

Buying a put option is a welcome alternative to short selling stock.
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The Lowdown on Call Options
Mike Lawch

Call options are an attractive alternative to buying stock.
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The Option Pricing Process
Mike Lawch

Option pricing is a complex process. There are seven major components that affect the premium of an option.
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Have You Got Time On Your Side?
Wayne North

Most traders, who begin to look at the wonders of options as a trading instrument, soon learn about this astonishing phenomenon called time decay.
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Getting Started in US Options
Tom Scollon

Getting started in US options is not such a daunting task if taken one step at a time and your plan is executed with patience. For the purpose of this article I will assume that you are at least reasonably knowledgeable on options even if not greatly experienced and that you have undertaken a course in options.
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Applying Covered Call Strategies
Mike Lawch

A covered call trade combines a long stock position with the sale of call options against it.
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Option Volatility
Wayne North

Volatility to the option trader is like weather to a race car driver. Race car drivers understand how a race car handles in all weather conditions.
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Paying for your Protection
Wayne North

Uncertainty in the markets seems to be commonplace these days. Investors are not only looking to grow and get a good return on what they have, but they are also anxious to protect it as well.
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The Option is Yours
Wayne North

I was first attracted to the idea of trading options because of the leverage they offered. I heard that instead of buying the share, I could purchase an option to buy the same share for just a fraction of the cost and still make the same amount of money as if I had owned the share, significantly increasing my return.
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There Is Another Option
Wayne North

Exchange Traded Options (ETO’s) are one of the most profitable tools available to traders today. They offer traders the ability to leverage positions, manage risk and enhance returns on existing share portfolios.
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Introducing Vertical Spreads
Mike Lawch

Since all markets have the potential to fluctuate beyond their normal trend, it is essential to learn how to use strategies that limit your losses to a manageable amount. There are a variety of options strategies that can be employed to hedge risk and leverage capital. Each strategy has an optimal set of circumstances that will trigger its application in a particular market. Vertical options spreads are basic limited risk strategies and that’s why we tend to introduce them first.
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The Basic Bull Call Spread
Mike Lawch

A bull call spread is a debit spread created by purchasing a lower strike call and selling a higher strike call with the same expiration dates.
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Examining Bull Put Spreads
Mike Lawch

A bull put spread is created by purchasing a lower strike put and selling a higher strike put with the same expiration dates.
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Introducing the Bear Call Spread
Mike Lawch

A bear call spread is a credit spread created by purchasing a higher strike call and selling a lower strike call with the same expiration dates. This strategy is best implemented in a high volatility, bearish market and offers both limited profit potential and limited downside risk. Since this is a credit spread, it is best to use options with less than 30 to 45 days till expiration. A bear call spread makes the maximum profit when the short call expires worthless. Therefore, it’s best to choose a short strike price that the underlying stock has a high probability of falling below.
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Thinking Horizontally
Frederic Ruffy

Investors often experience a progression from the stock market to the world of options trading. In addition, as investors become savvier, the appeal of options increases, but the perceived complexity of these instruments diminishes. Sooner or later, traders realize that options hold various advantages over stocks—their ability to structure different types of risk-rewards, the ability to take relatively small amounts of capital to control a much large amount of capital (a.k.a. leverage), and the ability to trade for profits regardless of market direction. However, although many stock market investors begin to appreciate the flexibility and advantages of options, many also take along with them a bias regarding the stock market. Specifically, there is a tendency for traders to think in terms of market direction: i.e. will this stock or market move higher or lower? But often times, a stock or index will move sideways for a prolonged period of time. In that case, strategies that depend on direction will not yield optimal results and the better approach will require some horizontal thinking.
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Taking Advantage of Time Decay
Frederic Ruffy

Have you ever heard the expression that options are “wasting assets� Since options suffer from what is known as time decay, with each passing day, the options contract will lose value. Therefore, if a strategist buys a put or call and holds it in their account, even if the underlying stock or index makes no price movement at all, the portfolio will lose value. As a result, options strategists must carefully examine how time is effecting their options positions. This article explains how.
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Breaking Down the CBOE Put/Call Ratio
Frederic Ruffy

The CBOE put-to-call ratio is among the more widely watched barometers of market sentiment. The ratio measures the daily trading of puts verses calls on the first and largest US options exchange, Chicago Board Options Exchange [CBOE]. Using the ratio requires a bit of contrarian thinking and a general belief that the crowd (in this case, options traders) is often wrong regarding the direction of the market. In addition, in order to get the most use out of the ratio, it is sometimes helpful to break the ratio down into smaller pieces and focus in on the trading of stock, rather than index, options. Let us see how this is done.
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Flexibility: Morphing a Bull Call Spread
Andrew Neyens

Successful trading is part science and part art. If you have found a mechanical trading system that works and you are really disciplined, you can simply apply the rules and let the mathematics work. However, if you are like most of us, you will get greedy, get scared, change your mind, decide to tweak the system, etc. In addition, the market will go against even the best of trading systems. This is where most of us get into trouble. When one recognizes that a trade is not working, even following our system, we will want to repair it.
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How to Create a Butterfly Spread
Jody Osborne

The stock market has shown much volatility in the past three months, with the major market indices reaching new highs and then falling back down. The reason for this bullishness has been an improvement in economic data and much stronger earnings in the third quarter. However, expectations have become so high that it has been difficult for stocks to reach new highs despite the positive news. In fact, there is a wide range of forecasts for the stock market, with analysts expecting everything from the Dow ($INDU) to reach 11,000 - to a severe drop for the indices. However, another possibility is that the major market indices will consolidate some after such a huge run up in price this year. Thus, we have decided to look at a neutral trading strategy called a butterfly.
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Learning to do the Butterfly
Jody Osborne

We have been following a mock trade using a butterfly strategy on the Nasdaq 100 Trust (QQQ) this past month and so far it has worked out well. In fact, Wednesday’s trading left the Qs at 34.21, which is just 21-cents above our max profit point. The Naz has performed like we expected, which saw some profit taking while staying in a trading range. Remember, a butterfly is a strategy that benefits from sideways trading in the underlying security. In our case, we entered a slightly bearish butterfly, choosing to use slightly OTM strikes for the body.
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Calendar Spreads Using LEAPS, Part I
Jody Osborne

Recently I have had some requests to cover a calendar spread strategy using LEAPS. As a result, we are going to discuss this strategy and enter a mock trade. However, because this is such a long-term strategy, we will only update it when needed instead of our usual weekly instalments. Nonetheless, this strategy is a great way to make profits without needing to watch the stock market on an hourly basis.
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Calendar Spreads Using LEAPS, Part II
Jody Osborne

We’ve started a new article series based on long-term calendar spreads. Basically, we are looking at the advantages and disadvantages of using LEAPS (Long Term Equity Anticipation Securities) and selling options against these LEAPS to pay down the cost of the long-term option.
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REAL-WORLD TRADING:Calendar Spreads Using LEAPS
Jody Osborne

During the past few months, we have been tracking a long-term diagonal spread on the Nasdaq 100 Trust (QQQ). We are still following this trade, but as it is long term, we have only updated occasionally, normally right before option expiration. However, since we needed to sell a new option for December, we have updated the trade.
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Options for ABC Traders
Jordan Craw

At the Annual Trader’s Conference in 2003 we saw a great presentation from Mike Wade on trading Options with SITM Techniques.
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The Spread on Lend Lease
Jordan Craw

Following on from last week’s article, this week’s topic is spreads. I am confident in saying that the majority of option traders begin using straight long puts and calls.
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Understanding Your Trading Choices
Andrew Neyens

Some time ago, I received an e-mail from a reader complaining that he was not making huge sums of money trading options.
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Option Strategy Decisions
Jeff Neal

Beginning and intermediate traders constantly request that I describe the very basic and first step decisions that take place when selecting from the variety of options strategies available.
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Option Basics
Jordan Craw

As a rule, Australian Exchange Traded Options control 1,000 shares, while US Options control 100 Shares. An example would be $12.00 BHP Call expiring March ’04 on the ASX, which controls 1,000 Shares. If this Option is trading at $0.59 per share, then each contract will be worth $590.
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The Spread on CBA
Jordan Craw

The great thing about Options is they provide such a flexible trading tool and can be applied to effectively every market condition, except it being closed of course. Then again there is time decay! Their flexibility can be their undoing in some Trader’s eyes due to the complexity that can be involved with having so many variables to manage. The main thing is to start with the basics and build from there.
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Trading For Fence Sitters
Jordan Craw

“The market does what it does to fool the majority of people the majority of the timeâ€. No doubt this quote or concept will be familiar to many of our readers. While there will be plenty of market participants that have a clear view (right or wrong) as to where the markets as a whole are heading, some may have a foot in both the bull and bear camps currently.
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Dressing Up Your Profits With Collars
Jordan Craw

With all the talk of a potential retracement in the market, those readers with a medium term view on their trading or investments may be looking to cash in their profits.
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Imply Or Not To Imply?
Jordan Craw

You may or may not be surprised to read that the majority of players in the option game have a limited understanding of volatility and what it means to option premiums.
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Rolling In RIO
Jordan Craw

The compelling attraction of options for most traders has to be the leverage and flexibility. It is this flexibility element that I want to touch on this week. As it is theoretically impossible to develop a trading strategy that is right 100% of the time, there will be times when markets move against us.
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Mark NAB On The Calendar
Jordan Craw

You don’t have to travel far into the option world to hear statistics like “70% of all options expire worthless” bounced around. Does this mean every option that expires worthless is a losing position? Of course not! Having said that, we can use this statistic to our advantage.

Now we all know that selling uncovered options can be very dangerous, especially for beginners. The argument for using naked option strategies is that when using options close to expiry, the premium received coupled with time decay will more than cover for any large movements against the position. While this is true, it is not a trading method for the faint hearted.


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Theta – Friend Or Foe?
Jordan Craw

Speaking to quite a number of option traders every week gives a good feel for what topics are of interest or importance. One thing I notice with those new to trading options, and some not so new, is that many don’t leave enough time to expiry when opening positions.
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Which Approach Is Best?
Jordan Craw

What makes directional option trading strategies a challenging art is not only the fact that the direction of a market’s trend has to be established correctly, the best option or combination of options needs to be found based on expiry date and strike price.
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Selling Time - Covered Calls
Jordan Craw

Most of us sell time in some way, whether it be through our employment or own business. In option trading, strategies that involve profiting in part or completely from selling options are also known as selling time.
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The Collar Alternative
Jordan Craw

Last week we discussed the pros and cons of covered call writing and the best circumstances to apply the strategy. This week I want to touch more on a topic I have mentioned briefly in previous editions.
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Credit With NAB
Jordan Craw

A strategy not widely used in the Australian market is the credit spread. Credit spreads involve the sale of an option and purchase of another option of lesser value to cover it. To construct a bullish credit spread we need to sell a put and buy a put at a lower strike to cover it.
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Avoiding Early Exercise
Jordan Craw

Many option traders are involved in the market with little or no interest in exercising the options they are trading and/or buying and selling the underlying stock.
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Calling On XJO Options
Jordan Craw

The last few weeks have definitely been eventful with consecutive days of new highs on the SPI 200.
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Calling On XJO Options Part 2
Jordan Craw

Following on from last week’s article on XJO options, let’s have a look at some real trades.
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Leveraging Lihir Gold
Jordan Craw

I want to take this opportunity to illustrate the leverage that can be gained from a basic option trade. We have seen renewed excitement in the last week with another all-time high on the SPI 200.
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The Fly On CBA
Jordan Craw

It is no secret that the majority of options expire worthless and that many successful traders use this fact to their advantage in many of their trades.
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Stops On Options
Jordan Craw

Most of us will agree that having predetermined exit levels for taking profit and minimizing losses is an extremely important part of any trading system.
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The New Breed
Jordan Craw

The electronic age we live in has caused a massive increase in the ease by which the average investor can get in and out of the market. Many people these days have access to the Internet during the day at work in order to follow their local markets and at home in the evening to follow markets abroad.
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Blue Sky Collars
Jordan Craw

We have covered the idea of portfolio insurance and the pros and cons of strategies like Collars in previous articles. As a good friend recently applied a slight variation of the Collar to one of his existing share trades and in light of the current market conditions, I thought it worth re-visiting them.
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Exercise Understanding
Jordan Craw

They say repetition is the mother of skill. Well in a slightly difference vein, I want to revisit option exercise and assignment as it seems to be a topic that is often the source of many questions for those starting out in this game.
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Thinking Vertically
Jordan Craw

Many new students often ask about the effective use of trading spreads over simply buying puts or calls. The argument being, why would you ever want to limit your profit and increase my brokerage? This is a fair point.
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Balanced Market Outlook
Jordan Craw

A diversified approach is important in any investment strategy. There are varying levels of diversity from Macro to Micro levels.
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Taking Advantage of a Price Gap
Marshal de Saxe

A GAP is a term used to describe when a stock opens at a higher price than it closed. The word GAP refers to the gap that is left in the daily chart, the empty space from yesterdays close to today''s open.
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Using Multiple Indicators to Find Option Trades
Marshal de Saxe

Using multiple indicators to pick or confirm trades has been proven to be successful in uncertain markets.
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Taking Advantage Of Uncertain Times With Straddles
Marshal de Saxe

Let''s say its two weeks before the election and we''re not sure which party is going to be elected, but at the same time you''re thinking that if Mr Howard is re-elected Macquarie Bank will be very strong and break the double top that has formed.
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How To Trade Big Movements In A Stock
Marshal de Saxe

As you may know, I have written a number of articles on GAPS recently. As there are often many ways to interpret and trade the same data, so I thought it would be of value to offer a slightly different perspective.
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Volatility in Uncertain Markets
Marshal de Saxe

As uncertainty in the marketplace increases, the price for options usually increases as well.
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Ratio Calendar Spreads
Marshal de Saxe

Many would be familiar with the calendar spread – a strategy designed to profit from sideways trending and range-bound markets.
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Strangling EBAY
Guy Halpin

On the 28th of October a strangle on eBay could have been entered by purchasing a 37.50 put and 40 call for a debit of $410.
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Deere Heading Up
Guy Halpin

Quite often the simplest of technical analysis techniques are pushed to the back of our minds to make way for the more complex methods.
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OneSteel : Not So Hot
Guy Halpin

OneSteel (OST) has been one of the strong performers during the recent commodities bull run.
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ASEI – Explosive Move Pending
Guy Halpin

In Trading Tutors Newsletter #133 I wrote about an options strategy called the strangle.
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Big Blue Ready to Rise
Guy Halpin

In Trading Tutors Issue #135 I wrote about how the use of the most basic technical indicators
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Options Are Too Risky!?
Guy Halpin

Two weeks ago in the Trading Tutors Newsletter #143 I wrote an article on how to combine the use of the Fibonacci retracement tool and simple trend lines to identify bullish set-ups.
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Our Greek Friends
Guy Halpin

In options trading there are four variables, termed the ‘Greeks’. They consist of delta, gamma, theta and vega.
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The Impact of Time & Volatility
Guy Halpin

In Trading Tutors Issue #147 3 March 2006 I introduced the Greeks to you.
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Pricing Of Option Contracts
Guy Halpin

Options are one of the more complex derivatives available to traders. There are several variables that form the pricing of an option. It is important that option traders understand each of the main variables.
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Mining BHP
Guy Halpin

Traders can forecast that stocks will move up, down or sideways. By trading options, money can be made when the price of the underlying stock or asset moves in any forecast direction.
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Model And Natural Prices
Guy Halpin

TTN issue #154 I explained the various components that go into the pricing of an option using the Black-Scholes Options Pricing Model.
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No Risk Guaranteed Profits Using A Collar
Guy Halpin

The past week and a half has seen markets around the world retrace from their recent highs. Many markets, including the Australian All Ordinaries (XAO) have passed through the first level of support without hesitation. Will this retracement continue, becoming the start of a bear market?
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Kicking Goals With Call Options
Guy Halpin

There are two types of options - calls and puts. These can be bought and sold by traders. In this article I am going to go back to basics and explain how a call works using an analogy far from the financial markets.
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Microstrategy Poised To Rise
Guy Halpin

In Trading Tutors Newsletter #159 I used an analogy away from the markets to explain the concept of a call option. Based on this it is quite appropriate to write about a current long setup where trading a straight call offers an attractive ‘reward to risk’ ratio.
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Calendars - Are You Managing Your Stops?
Guy Halpin

A basic calendar spread is buying a long term option and selling a shorter term option both using the same strike prices.
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Volatility Rush/Crush –Friend or Foe?
Guy Halpin

The next two articles will focus on a very important and often misunderstood concept by the novice in the world of options trading.
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Volatility Rush/Crush –Friend or Foe? – Part 2
Guy Halpin

Part 2 of this series will focus on the converse being Volatility Crush and how this impacts an option’s premium.
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Lessons Learnt Abroad
Guy Halpin

Last week I returned from holidays where I explored Central and Eastern Europe. Whilst away I discovered two areas synonymous to trading which I will share with you.
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Reading Risk Graphs
Oscar Lee

When trading options using software, it is very important to understand the “picture†and how the risk graph was created.
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Shady Sunny
Guy Halpin

On average, September is the worst performing month of the year in the share markets. Investors and traders exposed to downside movements may want to consider taking out ‘insurance’ on their portfolio with long put options.
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Trailing Risk
Guy Halpin

Sound risk management is paramount to being a successful trader. The best way to ensure this is being practiced is through the construction of a trading plan before the trade is entered.
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What happens to an Option When a Stock is Taken Over?
Oscar Lee

Ever wondered why a stock chart suddenly jumps up and then trades sideways? Ever tried to place a sideways options strategy on this type of chart and found the trade made no money?
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Ratio Backspreads: Being Right When Wrong
Guy Halpin

How about a strategy that allows you to make money when your forecast in direction is incorrect? The ratio backspread is an options strategy that allows this to occur.
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To Hedge or Not to Hedge?
Oscar Lee

Have you ever been in the situation where you owned shares in a company and saw a nice profit turn into a loss? Have you been worried about the share market falling?
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Trading The Volatility Index
Guy Halpin

The Volatility Index (VIX) on the Chicago Board of Options Exchange (CBOE) is commonly known as the ‘fear gauge’ for the US stock market.
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Do You Have a Longer Term Sideways Outlook?
Oscar Lee

Have you ever seen a stock moving sideways for what seems like an eternity? Can you set up a long term trade that can take advantage of this type of movement?
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Synthetic Straddle
Guy Halpin

Have you ever noticed that some stocks consistently make substantial moves upon earnings announcements? If you have a stake in a company characterized by this, the earnings period can be a time of increased anxiety.
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Strangling a Stock!
Oscar Lee

I know we’ve all felt like strangling a stock at some stage, but this article is referring to the options trade! Have you ever watched a company for a period of time and noticed certain patterns repeating in behaviour?
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Choosing The Right Option
Guy Halpin

Ever gazed at an options chain and wondered, "Which one should I choose?" There are literally dozens and dozens of options available for most optionable stocks.
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Taking Stock – Your Year In Review
Oscar Lee

Starting out a new year is an opportunity to reflect on the trading year gone by. It is a time to sit back and think about what things have been working well and what things could have been done better.
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Percent to Double
Guy Halpin

The percent to double figure is very important as it informs the trader how far a stock would have to move for their option to double in value.
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Options as a Stock Substitute
Oscar Lee

It is a well known fact that options can be used to control risk and reduce the overall cost basis when compared to owning stock.
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Vertical Debit Spread
Guy Halpin

A commonly traded strategy of newbies to the options world is the vertical debit spread.
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Back To Basics!
Oscar Lee

There have been a lot of questions lately from students on how to analyse the risk of a trade.
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Margin Evolution
Guy Halpin

For US options traders 2007 is going to be a great year! Why? Recent law changes to margin by the Securities and Exchange Commission is going to revolutionize the flexibility that options offer.
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Measuring the Implied Volatility Factor
Oscar Lee

Those who are new to options trading generally find the concept of Implied Volatility (IV) a little difficult to grasp.
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Hedging Stock As An Adjustment
Oscar Lee

BHP is a stock that has had a wonderful run of late. Wouldn’t it be nice to lock in the gains of the current upward move while removing the downside risk associated with volatility?
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Insuring A Portfolio Of Shares
Guy Halpin

In last week’s TTN Oscar Lee wrote an article that explained how upside gains can be locked in through purchasing a put option.
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Understanding Our Greek Friends
Guy Halpin

In options trading there are four variables, termed the ‘Greeks’. They consist of Delta, Gamma, Theta and Vega.
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Flying With Iron Condors
Oscar Lee

The dramatic falls in the past few weeks in global stock markets has caused option implied volatility (IV) to increase.
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The Latest In News
Guy Halpin

Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp is the world’s largest media empire. The ticker symbol on both the ASX and NYSE is NWS. In this article I am going to focus on the ASX price action, provide some basic technical analysis and use options to take advantage of a move should it eventuate.
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Is The Apple Green?
Oscar Lee

Apple Inc (AAPL on the US NASDAQ) is a very popular stock with a well known brand name.
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Autodesk Analysis
Guy Halpin

Autodesk Inc. is a software development company that is listed on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol ADSK.
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Going Back to the Future
David Dixon

After presenting the first of the Safety in the Market Module – One Day Profitsource Workshops in Melbourne recently, it has become apparent that some of our SITM students incorporate other technical methods to view charts.
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The Rumour Mill
Julia Lee

The DOW had recorded its twenty-first record day for the year by Wednesday night.
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Is The Apple Still Green?
Oscar Lee

In my article titled “Is The Apple Green?” at the end of March this year, I wrote about the potential upside in Apple Inc (AAPL:NASD).
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Trading To The Plan
Guy Halpin

In the past two Trading Tactics newsletters, I have written about a strangle on News Corp (NWS on ASX) and a calendar spread on Autodesk (ADSK on NASD).
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Bluescope Steel to Double Top?
Oscar Lee

Is the resource boom over in the Australian market? The press is full of stories saying strong Chinese demand for raw materials will drive the prices of commodities up forever!
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Taking the Risk out of Calendars
Matt Baker

Let’s look at what we can do with a Calendar Spread, after expiration of the first short month, and try to eliminate as much risk as possible as the trade progresses.
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The Greeks And Their Mystery Unveiled!
Matt Baker

The Greeks – What are they? What do they mean? How do I trade with them? Have you heard instructors say they sometimes don’t even look at the risk graph, but only the Greeks?
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The Greeks & Their Mystery Unveiled! – Part 2
Matt Baker

Welcome to Part 2 of my series on the Greeks: ‘The Greeks – How will they behave throughout my trade?’
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Looking for the Heat in the Hot Sectors
Matt Baker

Trading the hot sectors can offer some of the most profitable trading opportunities out there.
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Looking for the Heat in the Hot Sectors – Part 2
Matt Baker

Let’s continue our search for a hot stock in a hot sector. Last week’s article focused on identifying a hot sector through Optionetics Platinum and ProfitSource.
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Looking for the Heat in the Hot Sectors – Part 3
Matt Baker

In the third part of this series, we will be expanding on our options trade construction in OptionGear, for our “Hot stock in a Hot sector”.
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Looking for the Heat in the Hot Sectors – Part 4
Matt Baker

In the fourth part of this series, we will be going through the actual trade on our "Hot stock in a Hot sector".
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The Greeks & Their Mystery Unveiled! – Part 3
Matt Baker

Welcome to Part 3 of my series on the Greeks. This article will focus on Vega and how this devil of a Greek behaves throughout the life of an option and as time to expiration approaches.
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The Greeks & Their Mystery Unveiled! – Part 4
Matt Baker

Welcome to Part 4 of my series on the Greeks.
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The Greeks & Their Mystery Unveiled! – Part 5
Matt Baker

Welcome to Part 5 of my series on the Greeks. This article will continue the focus on Vega and how to construct your
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The Greeks & Their Mystery Unveiled! – Part 6
Matt Baker

Welcome to Part 6 of my series on the Greeks. This article will focus on Theta and how it can be used
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You Always Have Options
Ken Paddison

For those readers who have not contemplated options I am going to write a short series of articles in the coming weeks - in small ‘bites’ at a time.
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Capturing Time with Options
Ken Paddison

In the last article we looked at a bullish option trade.
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The Greeks & Their Mystery Unveiled! – Part 7
Matt Baker

Welcome to Part 7 of my series on the Greeks. This article will focus on Theta and managing this heaven-sent Greek throughout the life of a trade.
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How to Get Monthly Income from your Shares
Ken Paddison

Ever thought about putting your shares to work?
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The Greeks & Their Mystery Unveiled! – Part 8
Matt Baker

Welcome to Part 8 of my series on the Greeks. In the previous 7 articles we covered all four Greeks in considerable detail.
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Limit Your Loss Without Selling the Shares
Ken Paddison

At time of writing we’ve just had a massive run up on the market and your share positions are probably looking a lot healthier, at least for now.
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The Butterfly Trade
Ken Paddison

The Butterfly trade is one of the most versatile strategies available.
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The Greeks and Their Mystery Unveiled – Part 9
Matt Baker

Welcome to Part 9 of my series on the Greeks.
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Using Options as a Way to Enter a Share Trade
Ken Paddison

>Most traders have heard about options, but many don’t fully appreciate the wide variety of strategies we can employ when trading options.
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Using Options to Trade Volatile Markets
Ken Paddison

Currently the Implied Volatility of options is high, making them expensive to buy.
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The Greeks And Their Mystery Unveiled! – Part 10
Matt Baker

Welcome to Part 10 of my series on the Greeks. In my last article, we dealt with the sign in front of each Greek (+ or -) changing throughout the life of the trade.
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A Golden Opportunity for Option Traders
Ken Paddison

Is this going to be another big run up in the price of Gold?
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A Butterfly for Christmas
Ken Paddison

Well, it is the silly season and that’s one of the “silly” things about options.
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The Greeks And Their Mystery Unveiled! – Part 11
Matt Baker

Welcome to Part 11 of my series on the Greeks. In last week’s article we looked at trades that began with a dominant Greek and how to manage that Greek throughout the life of the trade.
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Getting into the Christmas Spirit
Ken Paddison

Could there be a Christmas rally  this year after all?
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Starting afresh in 2009 – Is it safe to trade out there?
Matt Baker

What an amazing year we had in the markets in 2008.
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Trading with Safety Using Options
Ken Paddison

A question I’m constantly asked is, “how do you trade this type of market?” Well, if you must trade in this market then do it safely and yes that is possible.
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Is Gold Losing its Shine?
Ken Paddison

Gold has certainly had another nice little run up over the last few weeks and maybe we have to ask ourselves, did we miss an opportunity to profit from this?
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Birds, Butterflies – Anything with Wings please!
Matt Baker

I have just spent the last 2 days at the February 2009 Optionetics 2-day seminar in Sydney. Most of the room were new students and I found it really special connecting again with people who are at the start of their trading careers.
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Tips on Getting into a Trade during Volatile Markets
Ken Paddison

In the current volatile market conditions the spread on the bid/ask of options has widened to reflect the uncertainty that traders are feeling.
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Revisiting the Christmas Spirit Trade
Ken Paddison

You may remember back in December we looked at a Calendar trade on Woolworths (WOW) based on our outlook from Kevin Rudd’s bonus payment.
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Plan the trade and trade the plan!
Matt Baker

In this week’s article I would like to share with you some ways to construct a trade plan that I have found very helpful - helpful in forcing me to know exactly what I'm doing and what moves I'm going to make, when.
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The Greeks And Their Mystery Unveiled! - Part 12
Matt Baker

Welcome to Part 12 of my series on the Greeks. In this article and the one following we are going to focus again on choosing your Greeks but this time on the level of the whole portfolio, rather than just in individual trades.
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The Greeks and Their Mystery Unveiled! - Part 13
Matt Baker

Welcome to part 13 of my series on the Greeks. In last weeks article we started looking at managing the Greeks on the level of the whole portfolio, rather than just in individual trades. We will do this by assessing some trades on the SPY (S&P500), AAPL (Apple Computers) and GOOG (Google). We will use real Greek values in the study, but for simplicity will round each one to the nearest whole number.


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Using options strategies to trade sideways
Matt Baker

After most bear markets, we usually see a period of the market trending sideways. But what does ‘sideways’ really mean? A sideways market is one that goes neither strongly up nor down, but just drifts along more or less in a channel. There are however periods within the channel where the market goes up or down strongly, but when you average out the gains and losses over a period of time, perhaps a couple of months, the market hasn’t made or lost much ground.
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The Greeks & Their Mystery Unveiled! - Part 14
Matt Baker

Welcome to part 14 of my series on the Greeks. In last weeks article we constructed a sample portfolio of three trades, and looked at the overall portfolio Greeks.
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The Greeks and Their Mystery Unveiled – Part 15
Matt Baker

Welcome to part 15 of my series on the Greeks. Over  the last several months we have gone over a lot of issues on the Greeks  including their meaning, practical application, how they behave, and how to  manage them on a trade level and over a whole portfolio. Where to from here?
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Insuring Your Portfolio
Andrew Page

If the possibility of a market downturn has you worried, you might want to consider purchasing some insurance for your portfolio. Here I am referring to a process called ‘hedging’, which ensures that your downside risk is limited by purchasing a financial instrument that will offset any loss incurred in your portfolio.


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Sideways Secrets: Reflecting on my Iron Condors of 2008 – Part 1
Matt Baker

I’d like to use the opportunity to share some of the insights I gained in my Iron Condor trading on the Russell 2000 Index (RUT).
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Reflecting on my Iron Condors of 2008 – Part 2
Matt Baker

I would like to continue this month with my new series on Iron Condor (IC) trading and share some of the insights I gained in trading Iron Condors on the Russell 2000 Index (RUT).
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The Magic of Butterflies – Part 1
Matt Baker

Welcome to part 1 of a brand new series on one of my favourite strategies, the Butterfly. Last weekend we held the 2009 Expert Strategies seminar in Sydney which I attended.
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Using Options to Predict Stock Prices
John Jeffery

Everyday multitudes of traders embark upon the task of trying to predict the direction and movement of stocks.
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The Magic of Butterflies – Part 2
Matt Baker

Welcome to part 2 of a brand new series on one of my favourite strategies, the Butterfly. In this week’s article, I will be introducing the topic of ‘strike widths’.
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The Magic of Butterflies – Part 3
Matt Baker

Welcome to part 3 of a brand new series on one of my favourite strategies, the Butterfly. In last week’s article, we will be dissecting the Butterfly in greater detail, looking at what makes up its components.
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The Magic of Butterflies – Part 4
Matt Baker

Welcome to part 4 of a brand new series on one of my favourite strategies, the Butterfly. In this weeks article, we will be looking at how to deal with the Butterfly on Expiration day.
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The Magic of Butterflies – Part 5
Matt Baker

Welcome to part 5 of a new article series on one of my favourite strategies, the Butterfly.
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The Magic of Butterflies – Part 6
Matt Baker

Welcome to part 6 of a new article series on one of my favourite strategies, the Butterfly.
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Iron Condors – Taking a Bird's Eye View
Matt Baker

A true trader never stops learning and understands that market wisdom comes from many voices.
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The Magic of Butterflies – Part 7
Matt Baker

Welcome to part 7 of a new article series on one of my favourite strategies, the Butterfly.
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The Magic of Butterflies – Part 8
Matt Baker

Welcome to part 8 of a new article series on one of my favourite strategies, the Butterfly. In this week’s article, we will continue looking at the Risk Graph page in a lot more detail.
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The Magic of Butterflies – Part 9
Matt Baker

Welcome to part 9 of a new series of articles on the Butterfly. In this week’s article, we will continue looking at the Risk Graph page in a lot more detail.
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The Magic of Butterflies – Part 10
Matt Baker

Welcome to part 10 of my series of articles on the Butterfly. In this week’s article, we will continue looking at the Risk Graph page.
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The Magic of Butterflies – Part 11
Matt Baker

Welcome to Part 11 of my series of articles on the Butterfly. In this week's article, we will continue looking at the Risk Graph page. We will work with the same Butterfly we have been working with throughout the series, the Apple Computers (AAPL) Oct 09 155|175|195 Call Butterfly. At the time we constructed the trade, AAPL's price was about $173.


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The Magic of Butterflies – Part 12
Matt Baker

Welcome to Part 12 of my series of articles on the Butterfly. In this week's article, we will begin looking at different ways to search for and construct a Butterfly.
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The Magic of Butterflies – Part 13
Matt Baker

Welcome to Part 13 of my series of articles on the Butterfly. In last week’s article we began to look at some ways of searching for and constructing a standard Put Butterfly on the SPY (exchange traded fund of the S&P 500).
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The Magic of Butterflies – Part 14
Matt Baker

Welcome to Part 14 of my series of articles on the Butterfly. In last week’s article we began analyzing the results of our Put Butterfly search on the SPY (exchange traded fund of the S&P 500).
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The Curiosity of the Credit Spread
Matt Baker

Welcome to what will certainly be the first part to a series on a very mythical strategy called the Credit Spread. My intention in writing this article, unlike other article series I have written, is not to teach traders how to trade this strategy, but to merely dispel some of the myths associated with them. I have heard too many stories, myths and almost superstitions about the strategy in my time as a trader, so hopefully this will put them back into perspective.


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The Curiosity of The Credit Spread – Part 2
Matt Baker

Welcome to the second part of my series of articles on the Credit spread.
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The Magic of Butterflies – Part 15
Matt Baker

Welcome to Part 15 of my series of articles on the Butterfly. In this week’s article we are going to look at another Butterfly case study taken from LiveTrade. There are many live case studies presented each week for students to look at, study and even follow along. Each trade is presented by one of our top Optionetics instructors. The particular one below was presented by Mr. Jeff Beamer.


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The Magic of Butterflies – Part 16
Matt Baker

Welcome to Part 16 of my series of articles on the Butterfly. In this week’s article we are going to look at the Greeks of the Butterfly case study we looked at in Part 15. The case study in Part 15 was taken from LiveTrade.
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The Magic of Butterflies – Part 17
Matt Baker

Welcome to Part 17 of my series of articles on the Butterfly. In this weeks article we are going to continue looking at the Greeks of the Butterfly case study we looked at in Parts 15 and 16. The case study was taken from LiveTrade www.optionetics.com.au/livetrade7days


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The Curiosity of The Credit Spread – Part 3
Matt Baker

Welcome to the third part of my series of articles on the Credit spread. So far in this series of articles it may seem all like doom and gloom, as far as dispelling some of the myths of Credit spreads, but in this week’s article I am going to show the reasons I like them.
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