Ultimate Options Trading Strategies

Diversifying your portfolio is important for all investors, and currency investments are a great way to do that. However, there are a lot of misconceptions and common mistakes that first time currency investors make, and this leads to big losses.

By Kim, Friday at 03:55 PM

In my early option trading days, I favored selling iron condors over selling strangles. I thought that selling a strangle was too risky because the potential loss was “undefined”. I thought this made sense because this is what I’d hear from other people that were more experienced than I was.

By Jesse, May 31

The good news is that if trading is your passion, then it’s possible to become a successful day trader and work from home. However, it’s not as easy as setting up shop and jumping online. There are specific steps and processes you need to have in place if you’re going to be able to make a living for yourself and have a bright career and future.

By Kim, May 28

These days, everyone claims to be an ‘expert’ on absolutely everything. Apparently, it only takes having a Twitter account to be a seasoned expert on any given subject; all in all, the Internet is full of nonsense. It’s becoming harder and harder to find legitimate answers amongst the quagmire of false information online.

By Kim, May 27

Our first advice to new traders is: "Learn First, Trade Later". The markets will always be there, but if you start trading without proper fundamentals, your capital will be gone very fast. The barrier to enter trading is so low today, commissions are near zero, and the whole trading game looks very promising.

By Kim, May 19

Dividend payments, like oatmeal, may be smooth or lumpy. Smooth dividends are predictable, usually once per quarter. It is easy for options traders to believe these dividends are guaranteed, because they usually continue uninterrupted quarter after quarter. This also makes it easy to predict total return over a longer time span.

By Michael C. Thomsett, May 16

On April 18^th I wrote part I of this article, Coming to Peace With Market Volatility. I showed how the US equity market risk premium, defined as the annual average return of the Total Market minus the return of one-month US Treasury Bills, was a large 8.37% per year from 1950-2019. That’s the good news.

By Jesse, May 15

The ratio calendar spread is well-known to some, but for others the risk/reward aspects are not well understood. One way to cover a short position is to own 100 shares of the underlying stock. Another, more creative way is to sell a shorter-term expiration position and buy a longer-term position.

By Michael C. Thomsett, May 2

"Who you gonna believe, me or your lying eyes?" Our members and readers know that buying pre earnings straddles has been one of our favorite strategies that produced consistent gains in the last 8 years with very low risk. Yet there is a significant number of studies showing that this strategy has a negative expectation. 

By Kim, April 25

Using the most popular S&P 500 ETF (SPY) to represent the US stock market, this article will look at different ways to manage equity market risk using historical ETF and options data from ORATS Wheel since 2007. We will analyze the following unhedged, hedged and allocation choices:

By Jesse, April 24