SteadyOptions Trading Blog

LEAPS stands for Long-Term Equity Anticipation Security. Which is just a long-dated option, typically referring to those with expirations more than a year out. There’s no technical difference between LEAPS and shorter-term options other than the expiration date. They’re traded on the same exchanges and have the same rules surrounding margin and whatnot.

It was brought to my attention that Seeking Alpha now restricts the number of articles people can read for free, so I will reprint few of the key articles I wrote for SA. This one was my fist article, written in 2011, and it gives an introduction of the earnings long straddle strategy that we have been using for the last 10 years with great success.

IV (Implied Volatility) crush happens when the implied volatility of an option takes a nosedive shortly after the conclusion of a catalyst like an earnings report or corporate action. The uncertainty around a company’s earnings report (or other significant catalyst) drives option prices up in the lead-up to the announcement, and down following the announcement, once the uncertainty is gone.

In a nutshell, a calendar options spread involves buying longer-term options and selling an equal number of shorter-term options on the same underlying stock or index, with identical strike prices. The beauty of this calendar spread strategy is its flexibility: it can be executed using either calls or puts, and the results are virtually the same if you stick to the same strike prices and expiration dates.

There are two main goals of the scanner: show you hidden opportunities and save a lot of time with automated scanning. Let’s see what the top features are and how NinjaSpread can help your trading life.

I love to trade SPX diagonals, especially when IV skew is higher than usual and I get a wider range of break evens. I know that time options spread break evens are “theoretical” because they are dependent on the IV skew of the front and back month’s IV that changes all the time.

When it comes to growing a business, there are many different options out there. For example, you could try traditional marketing methods or explore new and innovative ways of expanding your company. One such way is through investment trading.

Asset management has proven to be a fruitful career for more than a few professionals in recent decades, explaining why it’s attractive to finance professionals and students. Not only is it a financially rewarding career, but it’s one of the more interesting ones to pick.

Options are distinctly different from stocks in that they’re derivatives of another asset. The entire value of an option contract depends on factors outside of itself--it’s all based on the price of its underlying asset. Options are highly mathematical in nature, and in some ways, we can quantify the precise value of an option using a model like Black-Scholes.

Both the Iron Condor and Iron Butterfly are short-volatility option spreads. You'd use them to profit from situations where option prices imply a larger price move than your view of the market. These spreads are how traders profit from stocks that go nowhere.

Forex options are options that are tied to a currency pair. Forex options can be both call or put options. The option matures in the money if the exchange rate for the currency is above (call) or below (put) the strike price when the option matures. Forex options are usually cash-settled.

The options markets significantly changed following the pandemic. People got laid off from their jobs or sent to work from home and got bored, so they started trading options. But brand new retail traders weren't selling SPY call spreads. They were buying weekly options in high-momentum, and they were doing it in numbers enough to alter the order flow of the entire options market.