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thought I share come of the web pages I use regularly. Maybe others can do the same. Options and volatility Option Strategy finder, all sorts of combos listed/explained http://www.theoptionsguide.com/option-trading-strategies.aspx Option Strategies and their greeks explained, interactive analysis http://www.888optionsnet.com/investigator_2/wi_strategyExplorer.asp?disclaimerread=true number of tools and data around (historical) IV http://www.ivolatility.com/home.j historical IV data http://www.optionistics.com/ probability calculator (I actually use that to quickly look up HV for a name) http://www.ivolatility.com/custom/pbc/ VIX Term Structure and historical VIX data http://vixcentral.com/ Options Screener (most active, higest Ivol and other) http://www.marketwatch.com/optionscenter/screener?screen=1&displaynum=100 VIX and more (blog, very educational if you want to learn more about VIX and VIX related ETN's (VXX etc) home page http://vixandmore.blogspot.co.uk 'best of' articles http://vixandmore.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/educational http://vixandmore.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/hall%20of%20fame http://vixandmore.blogspot.co.uk/2010/12/top-posts-of-2010.html earnings data and dates earnings data (earnings dates and historical moves) http://www.optionslam.com/ earnings calendars http://www.morningstar.com/earnings/earnings-calendar.aspx Market commentary and economic calendars Market commentary and free "Flash headline" alerts and paid for (directional) trading trading alerts (trend following) - I use the former http://www.stateofthemarkets.com/ economic data calendar (U.S.) http://www.marketwatch.com/economy-politics/calendars/economic economic data calendar (U.S. and international) http://global.econoday.com/byweek.asp?cust=global-premium FED Meeting calendars, statements, and minutes (2007-2013) http://www.federalreserve.gov/monetarypolicy/fomccalendars.htm charts and stock screeners Stock screener with ability to filter for loads of different fundamentals and other criteria http://www.finviz.com/screener.ashx stock charts pages http://stockcharts.com/ http://ycharts.com - can chart economic data (like jobless claims) and things like total return prices (incl. divs) for stocks and indices Tools/ Excel Addins Hoadley options Addin/tools, great Excel AddIn (windows only) with option pricer, Strategy evaluator and much more (good set of free tool, good value 'professional version') http://www.hoadley.net/options/options.htm Excel AddIn (I think also Windows only) to import all sorts of data (live and historical) from Yahoo Finance (free, you need to join Yahoo group though) http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/smf_addin/

I found a quite nice collection of option tools if you want to price options in your own Excel spreadsheet (Windows only, no Mac) It's an Excel Addin and comes with plenty of (sample)sheets how to use the formulas in your own spread sheets and tools (spreadsheets) http://www.hoadley.n...ons/options.htm I particularly like and use the 'Option Strategy evaluation tool' (described here) which lets you price up combos and shift vol and time to expiration, lets you do probability and STDEV analysis (based on IV though) and a number of other gimmicks. Probably not for you if you are a total Excel or option newbie. But a great set of tools for the intermediate+ user. The free version has quite a few tools but for the best stuff you need to purchase the full version (132 AUD ~ 135 US$, one off fee no subscription etc. needed) I'm in no way affiliated with these guys, just like the tool. Marco.

well that tool will help you get some data from yahoo finance (even though I use another Addin for that which is free and better for the purpose of importing data from yahoo finance. Check this yahoo group: http://finance.group...group/smf_addin/) I use that tool more to price options (and option combos) and either create my own spreadsheets with the formulas from the AddIn or use some of the tools that this guy build. I suppose if can be very useful for the sort of number crunching Chris does but I haven't discovered any back testing tools as such (still looking though all the functions it has to offer) so you would still have to build your own spreadsheets. The toll i use the most is the one where you can price up an option (combo) and shift spot, vol and time to expiry to quickly answer questions like "What's this RIC worth if I hold it through earnings, stock moves x%, vol drops y points and I keep it for another week after that" or "I sold this RUT IC, what will it be worth if RUT drops x% vol rises y% and 2 weeks from now have passed" etc. download the free version it will give you a good feeling for what the tools can do and what not.

Excellent question. There is no firm answer to that question. Higher allocation is definitely not an issue for high volume stocks like SPY, AAPL, CSCO, GOOG etc. Our last few stocks had less volume and OI. I think it really depends - some stocks will be easier to trade, some will cause issues with fills. While volume and OI will give you a good indication about liquidity, sometimes even with smaller OI you will get decent fills, and vice versa. In general, I would not trade more than 10-15% of OI. I think you can do few things: 1. Trade less size for less liquid stocks. 2. Set your own entry/exit targets - this is probably the most important. 3. Trade different strikes. 4. Trade different expiration - if I trade weekly, you can go for a monthly and vice versa. 5. In general, I do not recommend to chase, but if you still see good value, sometimes it's okay to go 1-2% higher than my entry. In some cases, you can just set different targets than me and exit before my alert. Over long term, it should level out. 6. Patience is a key. Many times the price will calm down after the initial spike. It might still be slightly higher than my alert, but with some patience, you might pay only 1% more instead of 2-3%.