Options Education - Got a Website / Book / PDF You Like? Post It Up

Calendar Spread
What is a Calendar Spread - Search - https://duckduckgo.com/?q=What+is+a+Calendar+Spread
In a calendar spread, the vols of front month and back month change differently. Tools like TOS show a Vega figure for a calendar spread. Does anyone know what it is with respect to? Front month vol, back month vol, or something else?
This will be focused on the 1:1 long calendar with a front month (30 days) and a back month (60 days) spread however, this applies to short calendars and of different maturities. Also note I am using calendars as a stand alone strategy in these examples and not a way to hedge although they can be great ways to hedge a portfolio.
 
Verticals are still one of my favorite spreads and its great for beginners, once you get verticals down you can move on to more advanced strategies.
long call vertical spread -
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=long+call+vertical+spread&t=h_&ia=web

options long call spread.jpg
 
1-To buy a call you don't own it's "Buy to Open". Enter a limit order at the price you're willing to pay.
2-When you want to take profit it's "Sell to Close". Enter a limit order.
3-The price of the stock doesn't have to reach the strike price of the option to make a profit. If you bought the 11 strike on a 10 stock and the stock rose to 10.50 your option price might rise from .20 to .35 so you can "Sell to Close" your call for a .15 profit. ($15 minus $1.30 commission = $13.70 profit) If there's not much time left before expiration though, the value of the option will usually decline a bit every day if the stock isn't rising fast enough.
4-If you don't want to monitor the stock price, you can set a GTC (good-till-cancel) order to sell the option at a limit price. Set the price according to the option price & not the stock price.
5-Don't worry about what someone on the opposite side of your trade is doing. If you bought the option, it's your choice when to sell. If you sold a covered call then the buyer of the call can purchase the stock from you at the price you agreed to sell (strike price).
6-If you hold an option to expiration that's ITM (in-the-money), your broker will either exercise the option by purchasing the stock for you or sell the option if you don't have enough money to buy the stock. You can specify what you want your broker to do with the option at expiration.
7-If you sell a 5 call and the stock is at 8 at expiration, you don't have to do anything as your position will be sold. If you don't want to sell your stock, you can buy back the call you sold.
8-ENSC ... Don't try to trade options on a stock that has no "open interest" or the spread is a mile wide. If the spread isn't so wide, you can place a limit order to sell at the midpoint of the bid-ask. If it doesn't get filled, move it a bit closer to the bid price until you get filled. Compare options bid-ask on other more popular stocks to the ENSC quotes below. You'll see a big difference in the bid-ask and "open interest".

View attachment 275457
9-Options basics video (
)
gfopt.jpg


"I would suggest you read George Fontanills, The Options Course book. It should answer your questions as well as other questions that may come up for you. You got the basic idea of how to buy and sell an option. Better to read the book though." smallfill
 
Well, I just finished reading this book from front to back tonight. I'm not a short-term trader, but took a look into this for EDUCATIONAL reasons. The first few chapters I guess were ok. Then the rest of the book turned more into.... this is how you do a Butterfly, and this is how we make an Iron-Condor...

images.jpeg
 
View attachment 275459

"I would suggest you read George Fontanills, The Options Course book

I saw his books today and now have the two of them in my huge library here. Of course, if it turns out I don't like them I know who to blame, haha.

No worries for a while, I have half a dozen financial books to get through and return to the local library this week alone. :thumbsup:
 
I saw his books today and now have the two of them in my huge library here. Of course, if it turns out I don't like them I know who to blame, haha.

No worries for a while, I have half a dozen financial books to get through and return to the local library this week alone. :thumbsup:
Post up a Website / Book / PDF when you have one that is especially good.
 
Weekly options trading signals - https://duckduckgo.com/?q=weekly+options+trading+signals&t=h_&ia=web

"I love short-dated options ... The goal here is to post occasionally and answer any questions you guys have." Dustin
https://www.elitetrader.com/et/threads/trading-as-an-art-form.360259/

Weekly Options - Special Considerations
https://www.investopedia.com/articles/optioninvestor/11/intro-weekly-options.asp

Cboe Plans to List SPX Tuesday, Thursday-Expiring Weeklys Options
https://ir.cboe.com/news-and-events...spx-tuesday-thursday-expiring-weeklys-options

- Weeklys with expirations on every trading day of the week
- New listings planned for second or third quarter 2022, subject to regulatory review

Cboe currently offers
SPX Weeklys with three different expirations a week:
Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

The new SPX Tuesday and Thursday-expiring Weeklys
will generally have the same characteristics as existing SPX Weeklys options,
- with the exception of their listing and expiration dates.

Weekly Options - Special Considerations
https://www.investopedia.com/articles/optioninvestor/11/intro-weekly-options.asp

Example of Weekly Options
Indexes with weeklys available include:
CBOE Dow Jones Industrial Average Index (DJX)
S&P 500 Index (SPX)

Popular exchange-traded funds (ETFs) for which weeklys are available include:
SPDR Gold Trust ETF (GLD)
iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Index ETF(EEM)
iShares Russell 2000 Index Fund (IWM)
PowerShares QQQ (QQQQ)
SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY)
Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLF)
 
I'm currently reading George Kleinman's

Trading Commodities & Financial Futures


I'm around page 90 or so, and love this book, not just because it is hard-cover, but the paper is that kind of super nice glossy, but doesn't smudge. Haw!

While most of it is based on futures (which I am trying to master myself in), he does go over futures-options as well, etc.

I do like the way the author (who was a real floor-trader) has numerous side-stories of real-events he keeps bringing up so far.

9780131476547.OL.0.m.jpg
 
Back
Top