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You also have to consider what products you trade (index options, equities) and how you trade them (entering an order as a spread or as an individual order). Many firms (unlike TOS) will pass on exchange fees. So if you are trading SPX options or VIX options, add another .60 per contract to...

The volatility of the VIX options decreased. So even though the VIX moved down, it wasn't enough to offset the decrease in vol.

The risk is their algorithm decides your SPX options positions should be liquidated and they do it for you at the market.

If you had the reverse on overnight, you would be up about $500 on each 1 to 1 spread. Vix future up about 3 and ES down about 50. This is a great way to play vol and the 1 to 1 ratio seems to work best for me. You can always tweek it a bit if you are bullish or bearish.

So now is the time I would be looking to do this spread. I would short 1 vix future and short 1 ES future. Vix really pumped here. Currently Vix future is 19 and the ES is 2089.

Wow, guess it was a buy

The weekly at the money Spx straddle (expiring tomorrow afternoon) went out at 40.5 bid. They are essentially pricing in a 40.5 move in the SPX tomorrow. Don't remember seeing a straddle that high with one day left in some time. Buy it or sell it? (I did neither)

fyi, the cboe provides quotes with a small delay for free if you want any other quotes. http://www.cboe.com/delayedquote/quotetable.aspx

The problem with this idea is the futures spread. When the VIX gets lower than historical norms, the back month futures tend to trade at a premium to the front month. So say the cash VIX is currently 11 and stays that way for awhile. The front month future may be trading at 13. You buy it...

Just to add a bit more color to the story (actually never knew the first part), computers weren't actually allowed in the pit. Timber Hill's agreement with the exchange allowed them to put them in their booths next to the pit. Visible to the their traders in the pit was a computer screen with...

Yes the good ole days! The way we would do it is look for a stock that had a high open interest in relatively deep in the money calls and a good dividend. This would happen if the stock had run up recently. So say IBM ran from 60 to 90 and there was high open interest in the 60 and 65 calls...

Here's the theory behind this trade. Say your broker gives you no interest on a credit balance in your account, but charges you 5% on a debit balance. Say you have $100,000 in your account and buy $400,000 worth of stock with some options in relatively hedged position. Your risk is limited...

I think he meant that that both "sides" had the same delta and theta. Long put, long stock has the same greeks as long same strike call. And long call and short stock has the same greeks as long the same strike put.

You need to think where the PUT is trading vs the dividend. Remember you are synthetically long a call when you are long stock and long the put. So you will have an identical position (of being long your call) if you buy the put and exercise your call (you will now be long stock and long the...

The key here in weather to exercise your calls is where the Oct 21 46 puts are trading. If you exercised your 46 calls, you are essentially selling the puts for the dividend of .22 (less the extra cost of carry of the stock vs the calls you had, which would be negligible in this case.) The...

Commissions should be a part of what to look for, but it really depends on what and how your are trading. For instance Think or Swim has an "all in" price. If you are trading SPX or VIX options you will pay exchange fees of around .62 for each additional contract, but not at TOS. How important...

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I think the resolution is key here. Check out this monitor, Dell Ultrasharp 34" 3440x1440 resolution. Currently on sale at Walmart for $679 ($899 at Dell). Nice thing about buying at Walmart, its an easy return if your not happy. Also check this out, www.inputdirector.com. This will allow...

I had a limited amount of time today, will be going back tomorrow, so wasn't rally able to explore too much. I really liked Blue Trading Systems, an option trading system. More than I need currently. Also spent some time talking to WEX and TD Ameritrade, both of which I currently use. Also...

For any of you that are in the Chicago area, the FIA, futures and options conference is going on today and tomorrow at the Hilton on Michigan Av. Really interesting, just came from it. Lots of different trading systems, computers, brokers, etc., etc., etc. Well worth going, no matter what...