SteadyOptions Trading Blog

Amazon reported earnings after the close today, and the company missed expectations on profits. It happened only once since 2014. Is it just a bump in the road? Or a sign of upcoming pullback? Should you buy the pullback? Or should you take your money and run?

Traders are human and when they undertake anything new, they come to the table with certain preconceived notions or habits, or mindsets. It pays to take advantage of your education and experiences and apply appropriate lessons to any new challenge, including becoming a successful trader.

There are 5 stages every trader will go through over the years. You can’t skip one and knowing which one you are in and being totally honest with yourself is essential. Excellent post from our friends at Tradeciety. Which stage are you at right now? Try to answer this question as best and honest as you can. 

Reading as much as we can about trading always helps us to improve and become better traders. I'm pleased to share some of the best trading articles, podcasts and videos from some of my favorite traders, bloggers and educators. If you came across an interesting article please share it in the comments section.

Have you ever traded earnings? Did you buy puts, got the direction right but still lost money? How is it possible? If the stock declined, surely the puts would get a significant bump up in price, right? Wrong! This is where Volatility collapse comes into the play and hurts your position.

The US is currently stuck in a low interest environment, with rates at historic lows.  Portions of ECB countries even have "negative" interest rates.  The theory behind this is that it promotes spending over savings and spending should be beneficial to the economy by driving money back into the economy.

I've encountered a group of questions and comments from traders that tells me that traders have a certain way of viewing the world.  These each represent part of the Trader's Mindset.  Today I'll tackle one of those questions: How much can I expect to earn when using options?

Reading as much as we can about trading always helps us to improve and become better traders. I'm pleased to share some of the best trading articles, podcasts and videos from some of my favorite traders, bloggers and educators. If you came across an interesting article please share it in the comments section.

Many options "gurus" want you to believe that 80% of Options Expire Worthless. They use it as a reason why you should be a seller of options, and buy their trading system that has "90% success ratio". This is why you need to pay thousands to learn how to write options instead of buying options. But what is the reality?

Can equity market experts, whether self-proclaimed or endorsed by others (such as publications), reliably provide stock market timing guidance? Do some experts clearly show better market timing intuition than others? My guess is that if anyone could really predict what the markets will do next, he would be retired by now and not brag about it on Twitter.

Bernie Schaeffer, from Schaeffer's Investment Research, long-time options analyst and trader offers his comments on why an investor should be trading options in today's market. After reading the piece (quoted below), I tried to communicate with him via his website. I wrote that I was going to offer contrary opinions and asked if he wanted to discuss the issues.  I received no response.

Here’s one of the most perplexing risk evaluations I ever heard (read) from a seller of naked options: "I was never in any danger. The stock was always higher than the strike price of the puts I am short." This person was convinced that the only time risk must be considered occurs when short options move into the money.