Trading The OEX or SPX?

E

ess1096

I know there are a lot of ET traders trading the S&P futures, but do many traders bother trading the OEX or SPX options?
And how about the weeklys? Any use for them?
I only ask as I consider myself a student of options and wonder if there is any advantage to trading the index options instead of the SPY (ETF) options.

Would the OEX weekly be a good vehicle to use for a straddle on the FOMC week?

Thanks in advance for the help and the flames.
 
Quote from ess1096:

I know there are a lot of ET traders trading the S&P futures, but do many traders bother trading the OEX or SPX options?
And how about the weeklys? Any use for them?
I only ask as I consider myself a student of options and wonder if there is any advantage to trading the index options instead of the SPY (ETF) options.

Would the OEX weekly be a good vehicle to use for a straddle on the FOMC week?

Thanks in advance for the help and the flames.
More...

I did a paper trade on the OEX before the last FOMC meeting. I bought a 570 straddle. The index went up quite a bit and I made a nice (paper) profit selling the call. Then it tanked and I sold the put side back for almost what I paid for it. These were July expiration.

I'm thinking about doing it with real money on Monday, but with today's economic news I'll have to look at prices and volatility over the weekend. They are quite expensive.

I don't know how index options compare with S&P futures - never traded them.
 
Quote from ess1096:

I know there are a lot of ET traders trading the S&P futures, but do many traders bother trading the OEX or SPX options?
And how about the weeklys? Any use for them?
I only ask as I consider myself a student of options and wonder if there is any advantage to trading the index options instead of the SPY (ETF) options.

Would the OEX weekly be a good vehicle to use for a straddle on the FOMC week?

Thanks in advance for the help and the flames.
More...

Well, there's a tax advantage to trading index options as opposed to equity options, but this really applies only if you pay US taxes.

The size of the OEX and especially SPX makes selling far OTM premium attractive as opposed to selling the equivalent options on SPY.
 
I started utilizing weeklys about 4 weeks ago...the weeklys are interesting cuz you really toe the line between what's acceptable risk and what's not and once you're in, you pretty much ride the wave to the end. It's been okay so far, no bruises...but did have one close call 2 days ago when the S&P decided to take a little nose dive around 1:30 after 4 hours of happy happy fun fun joy joy time, at which I proceeded to start chanting optionscoach's term PDGPJEOTM...hahahaha
 
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