When analyzing a vertical based credit spread, including iron condors and butterflies, the first question that usually comes up is where to place the short strike. In a distant second usually comes the question of where to place the long strike, that is how wide the spread will be. This leaves some analysis to be done on using more contracts … Read More
The Importance of a Well-Thought-Out Trade Plan
Have you watched “Star Trek: The Next Generation”? One of my favorite episodes is when the Enterprise gets into a battle with The Borg. The USS Enterprise is getting hammered. Fires are breaking out, sparks are flying everywhere and people are running around screaming. Then there’s the Captain Picard, sitting in the Captains chair, confidently doing the tasks that will … Read More
Unveiling the Love Story of Options Trading: Confessions of an Options Geek
We had an ice storm on the East Coast this week that knocked my Internet service off the grid and shut down electricity throughout the area, and so I wandered through the city whose infrastructure had failed me as snow and ice fell around me. From home to office to a soccer-mom-filled Starbucks, I finally made it to my daughter’s … Read More
Risk Tolerance VS Risk Capacity
To be successful at trading, long term, it’s extremely important that our risk tolerance is in line with our risk capacity. Risk “tolerance” has to do with the amount of draw down we can withstand prior to the loss psychologically effecting our trading. Risk “capacity” has to do with the amount of draw down we can withstand prior to the … Read More
Trading with Fear and Anxiety
It’s important to understand the difference between fear and anxiety when we’re trading. Legitimate fear is our friend. Legitimate fear serves a warning to tell us something’s wrong. It’s the signal to be alert , to review our positions and plans. If we find something wrong, we can fix it. If not we let go of it and move on. … Read More
How to Play Earnings with Options
Trading equities around an earnings report can be exciting, to say the least. To be successful you would need to project what the earnings results might be for a company and then you may need to determine how the markets might react to that earnings report. That is one unknown on top of another, and you basically need to be … Read More
Six Reasons Traders Fail That Most Traders Don’t Think About
1. Lack of direction. Traders often fail to establish clear goals and create plans to achieve those goals. When traders fail to develop complete business and trading plans before entering the market they are setting themselves up for failure. 2. Impatience. This occurs when traders try to accomplish too much too soon, or expect to get results far faster than is truly possible. … Read More
Free Options Webinar: Craig Hilsenrath of Optionworkbench.com: Improving Options Portfolio Returns Using Probabilities and Statistics
Tuesday January 7, 2014 at 5pm ET Each Tuesday, SMB hosts an Options Tribe meeting where veteran traders and experts in the world of options trading share live presentations. This meeting is free to the public on the first Tuesday of each month. All other meetings require an annual membership to OptionsTribe.com. To register or join, please use the invitation … Read More