SteadyOptions Trading Blog

Gamma scalping is a sophisticated options trading strategy primarily employed by institutions and hedge funds for managing portfolio risk and large positions in equities and futures. As a complex technique, it is particularly suitable for experienced traders seeking to capitalize on market movements, whether up or down, as they occur in real-time.

Let’s start with the obvious: if you can’t predict market trends, you’re playing pin the tail on the donkey with your, or worse, someone else’s investments. Reading market trends isn’t about gazing into a crystal ball; it’s about understanding economic indicators, market sentiment, and, occasionally, why everyone suddenly loves avocados.

Everyone knows the statistic - 95% of traders fail. Whether or not that's an accurate statistic, it's certainly true that few that attempt trading ever make life-changing money. Part of that is because most don't take it seriously. But what about those that do and fail?

In options trading, a long call and short put both represent a bullish market outlook. But the way these positions express that view manifests very differently, both in terms of where you want the market to go and how your P&L changes over the life of the trade.

Building wealth is a lifelong aspiration for many people, yet it’s frequently regarded as reserved for a select few. However, this perception is not entirely true, especially when it’s possible to accumulate wealth and live an abundant life.

Retirement is a time of life that many people look forward to, but it requires careful planning and preparation. One of the most important aspects of preparing for retirement is calculating your retirement needs and starting to save early. In this section, we will discuss some key points to consider when planning for your retirement.

A seagull option spread involves adding an additional short option to a vertical debit spread to reduce the net debit paid, often enabling you to enter a trade for zero cost. The name is derived from the fact that the payoff diagram has a body and two wings, imitating a seagull.

The “wheel” trade is variously described as a beginner’s strategy, a combination to exploit features of both calls and puts, and as “perfect” solution to the well-known risks of shorting calls, even when covered. The options wheel strategy is an income-generating options trading strategy that both beginners and experienced traders can leverage for profit.

Covered calls have always been a popular options strategy. Indeed for many traders, their introduction to options trading is a covered call used to augment income on an existing stock portfolio. But this strategy is more complicated, and riskier, than it looks.

Saving for retirement can be challenging. You have to start thinking about it decades in advance and dedicate significant time and energy to the optimal strategy. Just trying to wing it and seeing what happens won’t usually work. 

Learning how options work is a key skill for any trader or investor wanting to add this to their arsenal of trading weapons. It’s really not possible to trade options well without having a thorough grounding of the mechanics of what these derivatives are and how they work.

The protective put (sometimes called a married put) strategy is one of the simplest, but most, popular, ways options are used in the market. Here we look at this defensive strategy and when and how to put it in place. Options provide investors and traders with an extremely versatile tool that can be used under many different scenarios.