The first step [for the pros only]

Quote from babutime:

I was on campus and checked bloomberg for option skew analysis. I like how it allows you to compare past vs present skew shapes.

But bloomberg is so massive in terms of its usage i found it rather difficult to analyze multiple securities at once from some kind of watchlist- I admit I'm new to it so I probably haven't figured it out.

ThinkOrSwim has a decent skew analyzer. So does IB but IB's skew analyzer shows a weird inverted concave shaped skew curve sometimes so I tend not to rely on it too much.

What do you guys think of live vol pro? Those guys seem to have quite the operation going on with some pretty neat looking skew analyzer.

I've been using Livevolpro for over a year. its very good for analyzing skew amongst other things. yet you need to have been trading a while before it becomes practical for you to use- its $100@month. if someone is new to trading and is barely scraping by, they're not going to have the money for it
 
Quote from babutime:

How do you find the stocks that you are going to be likely to trade given condtion 1, condition 2, etc?

From the front page of the business section - I start with stocks/commods who's tickers are in heavy rotation in journalist land.
 
Quote from babutime:



What is it that the first thing pros here do before they make any risk management decisions, before any greek tweaking, etc. Before any of that stuff, what do you do?

How do you find the stocks that you are going to be likely to trade...

What first steps do you take towards screening stocks/ ETFs/ futures/ etc that form the basis of your view on the direction the market in that specific instrument takes?



I have been only mildly successful as I have only done long calls and puts, ...But I cannot seem to capture big movers!

So what is it?? A humble request from an eager undergrad who will be handing out resumes soon.

Note*: This request is for those who have been trading successfully for more than two years. I'm sure all of us have certain set-ups and I don't mean any disrespect to anyone. Its just that guys like atticus, maveric and others seem to know what the heck is going on.


Thank you!
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Mainly;
carefully consider the difference between stocks, derivatives,cash/commodities;
to make a long story short.

Trend study/Big Trend -study[the book named that also] for years ;
helps a bunch also.:cool:
 
Quote from babutime:

How do you test whether or not a market is about to reverse?

(without technical analysis)

And if you don't, then perhaps the strategy is to be gamma neutral (or some other hedged strategy...) ?

That was the gist of it...

Look into variance ratios. A more "academic" way to check for mean reversion/trend in data. Although the math behind it reminds be much of the math behind RSI/stochastic etc...
 
Quote from babutime:

How do you test whether or not a market is about to reverse?

(without technical analysis)

And if you don't, then perhaps the strategy is to be gamma neutral (or some other hedged strategy...) ?

That was the gist of it...
It is not possible to know if a market temporally or spatially will reverse, although all markets change directions. At some point.

Can you be more specific with your question about hedging gamma? A question such as, "Are you guys gamma neutral?" is not answerable, other than with an unhelpful, "no."
 
Quote from sonoma:

It is not possible to know if a market temporally or spatially will reverse, although all markets change directions. At some point.

Can you be more specific with your question about hedging gamma? A question such as, "Are you guys gamma neutral?" is not answerable, other than with an unhelpful, "no."

I asked if gamma neutral or other strategy is taken (with regards to predicting a regime change) . It wasn't simply if you are gamma neutral. I also did say I didn't even know if the question I was asking was the right question.

So I guess if people don't test for a change in market direction then the whole answer to my question is a no.

haha

Id like to hear from other traders too...
 
Predicting a change in direction of the market, an individual equity or vol has caused more losses than any another strategy. IMO, go with the trend, when it ends, take a small loss and hop on the other direction.
 
Quote from babutime:

I asked if gamma neutral or other strategy is taken (with regards to predicting a regime change) . It wasn't simply if you are gamma neutral. I also did say I didn't even know if the question I was asking was the right question.

So I guess if people don't test for a change in market direction then the whole answer to my question is a no.

haha

Id like to hear from other traders too...
Ahh, then no. I don't neutralize gamma, or any other greek for that matter, based on my impression of whether the market will turn. I adjust those based on the degree of risk imposed by a move in the market adverse to my position. Sometimes I lean intentionally, but more often my positions simply migrate with time and trades. Maybe others are more discretionary with regards to predicted direction, but I've not looked at trading in that fashion.

If you wanted to explore whether you could determine a reversal, why not use a form of "messy data" analysis? Although this is a significant endeavor even for a statistician, the basic elements are to find examples of reversals you'd like to capture and then explore the circumstances that led up to the reversal. Of course, this only generates a hypothesis, it does not test the hypothesis. Next, take out-of-sample periods of your static data set and see if your model is predictive within some arbitrary boundary conditions. You must be brutally rigorous during out-of-sample testing because if not, you'll waste valuable effort. Finally, test your model in real-time. That this last step will be profitable is not a given, even if you have a model that consistently performs well in your data set. So trade small initially. Size comes later. Issues like liquidity, transaction costs and slippage are difficult to model and are often the difference between success and failure. This last point is one of those inconvenient truths about trading.
 
Quote from babutime:

I just had a thought. I keep hearing buzz about market going into a short term correction. I mean I think it's safe to say its only a matter of when and not if.

The market is long overdue for a correction but that in no way means one is imminent. Could be sooner, could be later.

How would one test for this quantitatively? And no, the "stochastics" plot ( which has nothing to do with stochastics or stochastics calculus laughably ) and the "RSI" or any of that stuff is not what I'm looking for. If anything a simple MACD is useful but even that used to be the domain of hedge funds and now that everyone uses it its no longer that relevant.

MACD is as useful today as it was then. All of these indicators are glances in the rear view mirror telling you where you've been and your position in relation to your look back. None predict anything.
 
Quote from spindr0:
The market is long overdue for a correction but that in no way means one is imminent. Could be sooner, could be later.
Quote from spindr0:
MACD is as useful today as it was then. All of these indicators are glances in the rear view mirror telling you where you've been and your position in relation to your look back. None predict anything.


Without "glancing in the rear view mirror" why do you say "the market is long overdue for a correction" ? That's a very tough question to answer. :)
 
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