Trading Blog

SteadyOptions trades a variety of option strategies – straddles, hedged straddles, calendars, butterflies and iron condors, volatility trades, etc..  Frequently these trades are designed to work together and complement each other, so for the last several years Steady Options has only analyzed total performance.

One of my all-time favorite investing books is Jeremy Siegel's Stocks For The Long Run, which is currently in it's 5th edition. It's a true classic that I refer back to often.  Professor Siegel lays out the compelling case for equities over extended time horizons such as 20 or 30 years.

Few days ago I came across a Seeking Alpha article called Why I Never Trade Stock Options. This is probably one of the most misleading articles I have read in years. I would like to put things in perspective and provide a rebuttal to some of the claims in the article.

The “common knowledge” about uncovered calls is that they are always high-risk. Conservative traders should avoid them. But is this always true? Risk by  most definitions is associated with specific strategies. So covered calls are low-risk and uncovered calls are high-risk. But this assumption is not always a fair one.

Perhaps the toughest part of trading options is figuring out what to do. For this we have advisors, seminars, newsletters and more. Yet, one tool that all investors need, but few utilize adequately, is data. This concept is parroted across the industry, but how does the average investor move from the desire to utilize data to the actual practice?

Many that sell equity market put options focus on the S&P 500 (SPX, XSP, SPY). Some will add small caps by selling puts on the Russell 2000 (RUT, IWM). An investor could also make their put selling strategy globally diversified by adding MSCI EAFE (EFA) and Emerging Markets (EEM).

The “random walk hypothesis” (RWH) is one idea about how stock prices behave – but only one of many. It is a theory promoted in academia and believed in my many, but not so much by traders involved with handling real money. Theories aside, is the market truly random?

I’ve now been trading options for over a decade and been associated with Steady Options for seven years – hard to believe.  Over that period, I’ve learned quite a bit about option trading; how to improve, what not to do, and generally how the option markets work. I’m still learning.

No one likes losing money, and no one likes hearing "excuses". However, in an effort to be fully transparent, solicit feedback, and to improve our own performance, we're writing this article to do a further breakdown of the losses which our model portfolio incurred in January 2019. 

Options traders constantly seek the elusive reliable reversal signal. A few unusual but strong reversals are worth looking for, and their patterns reveal likely exceptional timing for opening or closing option trades. One example of this exceptionally strong signal is the island cluster (or, island reversal).

There currently are over sixty million Americans that are active 401(k) participants, and well over 500,000 total active 401(k) plans offered by employers in the United States.  Despite these high numbers, usages could be higher, as the US Census Bureau estimates that only 41% of all employees with access to a 401(k) plan utilize it, with even less funding it fully.

I am on the hunt for a short volatility position for three main reasons. First, the market’s wild swings have, for the time being at least, diminished. Second, option activity has dried up as my options barometer continues to be stuck in the 4 – 6 range as traders are not making big bets in either direction.