Seth Freudberg discusses the closing of a bearish butterfly.
Traders Ask: Does Every Options Strategy Work with Every Stock or Index?
One of our readers, Cecelia, sent in the following question after watching our SMB Options Trade of the Week which, covered the bearish butterfly trade that has become popular recently: “Will this trade work for indexes only? Do you recommend this for individual stocks such as AAPL?” We get this question a lot and the answer is important for many … Read More
Insights from Wharton School’s Investment Management Club
I gave a talk in Philadelphia on options strategies to the Wharton School Investment Management Club last Thursday. My daughter Halima, who is an undergraduate student at Bryn Mawr College in suburban Philadelphia, sat in on the the talk as well. In addition to wanting to be a supportive daughter, she was my intern four summers ago, backtesting options … Read More
Is it Possible to Day Trade AND Employ Non-Directional Options Spread Strategies?
On the surface, the intraday trading strategies of equities and non-directional options spread trading would seem to be mutually exclusive. Day trading depends to some extent on strong directional movement that allows the day trader to get long or short a stock at at the right time and then ride that direction until an opportune time to exit emerges. Non-directional … Read More
Can I Trade Options While Holding Down a Busy Full-Time Job? How About While I’m Asleep?
While there are common themes to every kind of trading discipline, there are of courses differences as well. Options spread trading, for example is a very different world in many respects from day trading. At SMB, our intraday equity traders tend to focus on the opening hour and the closing hour of trading, with sometimes very high speed activity and decision-making … Read More
SMB Options Trade of the Week: Heart Friendly Butterfly Sequel
Seth Freudberg discusses an option trade on the SPX.
What I love about options trading
I’m sitting here this morning in the offices of SMB capital in downtown Manhattan, making some notes in anticipation of a blitz I”ll be doing this week, recording the majority of the videotapes that will form the core of our options training program. It brought me back to my first days as an options trader and the intense excitement … Read More
SMB Options Trade of the Week – Heart Friendly Butterfly
Seth Freudberg discusses a “Heart Friendly Butterfly Trade” designed to minimize the effect of market price movements on the the PNL of an options income trade. The option is on the SPX.