Understanding Option Trading

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 wheel could be defined as any of these, but a larger question should be: Is the wheel an elegant method for making profits consistently, or just a gimmick?

By Michael C. Thomsett, Friday at 08:46 PM

Most options traders see their world as a choice between calls or puts, alone or in various combinations. But there is more. With a chooser option, traders can open a position and decide later whether it will be a call or a put. This is also called an as you like it option.

By Michael C. Thomsett, January 10

Steady Options has now been trading the Leveraged Anchor strategy for two years, and, somewhat to my surprise, 2020 went even better than 2019. On the year, Leveraged Anchor was up 31.7%, while the total return of the S&P 500 was 18.4%.

By cwelsh, January 9

The “ratchet option” is so-called because as a series, each successive position activates when the previous option has expired. The trader ratchets up (or down) to the next position. Each one is set up to be as close to the money as possible. It has many names, including cliquet, moving strike, ladder, lock-in, or reset option.

By Michael C. Thomsett, January 3

Steady Momentum Put Write (SMPW) is one of the available subscription services at Steady Options. We launched the strategy in early 2019, so we now have two years of performance to evaluate on both an absolute basis and relative to the strategy’s benchmark, PUTW (WisdomTree CBOE S&P 500 PutWrite Strategy Fund). 

By Jesse, January 2

2020 marks our 9th year as a public trading service. It was an excellent year for us. We closed 130 winners out of 194 trades. Our model portfolio produced 117.1% compounded gain on the whole account based on 10% allocation per trade. We had only three losing months in 2020. 

By Kim, December 29, 2020

One of the more complex areas of options analysis involves pricing formulas. The best known among these is the Black Scholes Model (BSM). This is a widely cited method for attempting to determine what the option’s premium should be, but it is deeply flawed.

By Michael C. Thomsett, December 27, 2020

The standard call and put are well known to all option traders, but many exotic and more advanced options can also be opened. Whether a specific broker allows trading in these, and whether a trader has the necessary trading level, are questions to be addressed. This article just defines many of the exotic options that are possible.

By Michael C. Thomsett, December 18, 2020

Trading cryptocurrency has become a very popular and significant part of life. While it’s not for everyone, it’s certainly for an awful lot of people. There’s money to be made and areas to be invested in, and people will do what they can to make either a quick buck or an amazing figure.

By Kim, December 15, 2020

Options traders are rightfully concerned with the number of days to expiration of an option. At the time the position is opened, whether long or short, the issue of time decay must be at the forefront of risk evaluation. But is this performed accurately?

By Michael C. Thomsett, December 13, 2020