Search results

I would say that selling a calendar (short the back month) is the most obvious in a case like this. IV will probably drop after the news and a big move would squeeze out the time-value too. The frontmonth is the hedge. BTW, doing this in two direction, as sort a diagonal butterfly, is not...

Arb, great to hear that you decided to put your deep understanding of the matter on paper. I was always glad to see you back on the board when I (or you) had been away for a while; afraid that all that knowledge had become unavailable. No need to say that I'd like to be on your 50-long...

Just a reminder, the OP was looking for 'reminiscences' type of books, and then about options. As for factual books about options I'd concur with Natenberg, Cottle and Baird. A total n00b would also need some primer; I hesitate to recommend McMillan; although it is very complete, it has some...

Hi Arb, is this just a disclaimer :) or are you saying it is bad practice to short combo's? I've been reading your writings for several years now, much of it had to do with selling straddles. Or are you just saying that you must be aware of the near equivalent risk as in being long the...

Not stops on the options. Stops on the underlying contract. Ursa..

Stops on the underlyer? Ursa..

So you don't care about what kind of tool, as long as it is free or cheap? Are you dutch? Ursa..

I agree, its psychological. But BT is about as close as it comes to reality; I even once cursed the 'marketmaker' for running my stops, until I realized that I was on the sim :). Maybe we should ask Hoi for a feature to switch between sim and live at random during the day, without the trader...

How sure are you? If you're 100% sure buy far-month calls now and sell them on 85, then buy puts. Or sell near-month puts and buyback at 85 then sell near-month calls. If less sure, hedge them by buying cheaper puts/calls as well (backspreads) Ursa..

Yes I agree OptionVue is expensive and from the website I get the impression of a big, bloaty application that's not very flexible. Also it has it's own datafeed and that only supports US options. When you start out you'll have to experiment a lot. Your best bet is to use Excell. You will be...

I don't mean that the answer is obvious, but the question is. You might assume that at least 90% of all traders have been looking for a charting program at some point so a little searching on this and other forums would be better. I did not get the impression that you did any homework. Because...

Yes, I agree, it seems to become something akin to OpenSource, mainly in the fact that it will be so adaptable and interchangeable, thus also enforcing some standard that is verifiable for others and becomes 'public property'. I think you are on the right track here and I aplaud you for it...

Thanks, will do, Ursa..

Yes, bingo! Good title too "ATS Papertrader. And good business model; could become standard fare for newb IB-ers, like Quotetracker is. Ursa..

My 2 cents would be that although paper-trading is a good starting point, it fails to hammer home the very essentials of options and why they are so dangerous. You can papertrade all you want, there will always happen something unexpected with options which stayed below your attention-level when...

Instead of asking obvious quesions just read the existing reviews and posts about this subject (there are plenty) and then install Quotetracker. It's free with ads, but fgs. pay the man some, he has certainly deserved it. Ursa..

Frost, I admire your guts to start a project like this which will be very big an complicated. From a business-plan point of view you'll might have to look at the position your project will take amongst the alternatives. Who are the target audience and why would they go for your solution...

Exactly, the factor of a target/stop of 5 does not mean the target will be hit only 20% of the time. That would be too easy. That would mean that a target of +1 tick would be hit 10 times more often than a target at +10 ticks. This is not true. Both chances depend on the probability...

Important stuff, much more so than many realize. I like the tape idea. Thanks 40yo Ursa..

I agree. All the bells and whistles should be extra front-end tools, just like the ones we use now from 3rd party supply. Even the order grid could be skipped because many use an external trader anyway. Ursa..