SteadyOptions Trading Blog

For my first guest post on SteadyOptions, I poured through many potential topics before coming up with this article.  It was exciting, as the community is active and advanced – we could cover anything.  Ultimately, instead of a typical educational post, how about we tackle a slightly different topic? 

"If your trading system is so good, why to sell it for few hundred bucks? Why not to keep it to yourself and earn a zillion dollars?" This is a question I'm frequently asked, from skeptics, but not only. After all, it makes perfect sense, isn't it? If you can make triple digit returns every year, why share the secret?

Have you ever wondered what sets the best options traders apart from the amateurs? Why is it that certain traders can consistently outperform no matter what the market cycle? Below is a list of the Top 10 Traits Of Successful Option Traders. 

Bitcoin is a new currency that was created in 2009 by an unknown person using the alias Satoshi Nakamoto. Bitcoin is a digital currency, created and held electronically. In 2017 Bitcoin has hurtled past $20,000 per coin from less than $1,000 per coin. All in the span of one year. Is it the greatest bubble of all times? 

Delta (positive or negative) tells us which way we want the underlying to go to make money. Delta applies to single positions but also to the whole portfolio. When Managing our portfolio from a macro perspective, Delta is probably our main risk exposure. It is important to manage the portfolio delta to limit directional risk.

Is time in trading important? If it matters, then why nobody talks about it? What are the most important elements of trading? Capital, Trading System, Money Management, Black Swans, Luck? If you imagine trading on an XY axes, what would be your “X” and what would be your “Y”?

Time to address the hardest questions face to face. After years of frustration actively trading stocks, Mark started to suffer from erectile dysfunction. Frustration and stress were the size of Mount Everest, and as we all know, hot girls don't stick around for consistently losing traders.

Stock replacement is an investment strategy that attempts to replicate the returns of a certain asset or group of assets by using a combination of different derivatives rather than buying the individual shares in the market.

As of right now, with all the focus on Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) earnings, due out on 2-1-2018 after the market closes, and its new set of iPhones, in particular the iPhone X, you can find quite convincing research pieces for a bullish thesis (an earnings beat) and equally convincing pieces on a bearish thesis (an earnings miss). 

How much capital do you need to start trading options? This is a question I get asked a lot (along with “are 5%-10% per month returns realistic…). When starting out in options trading, it is definitely advisable to keep risk small and not start trading a large account straight away.

2017 shattered many records, but not the ones most folks think of. The records left shattered in many pieces in 2017 were all risk-related. Specifically, 2017 was the year that risk forgot.   Metaphorically, this was the year in which a drunk driver wearing a blindfold could drive across town...and not hit anyone or anything along the way.

“The right trading behaviors start as rules and evolve into habits.” – Brett Steenbarger Across sports, business, and entertainers the top performers are not the ones that have to think through their every action. The top performers have trained themselves to react at the right time and do the right thing in each situation.