Concepts
Beginner’s guide to options trading
Richard Ho
If you’ve been trading stocks, you should have a pretty good understanding of the mechanics of buying and selling. Getting started with options trading is fairly simple. Here are a few things to know to get started. Step 1: Setting up an options account with your broker The options account can be in a margin or...
Tips for Trading Your First Option
Tony Zhang
Learning how to trade options takes time and patience. Luckily, there are plenty of courses and tools to help investors through this process. Selling covered calls for income is a great way to dip your toes into the options market, before moving onto buying calls and puts. We will examine these 2 primary strategies that are...
Option Trading Mistakes to Avoid
Jason Ayres
Trading and investing for ones self is challenging at best, let alone when you are making mistakes that could have been avoided. I am of course speaking from experience as I have paid my share of tuition thanks to falling victim to a few of the following blunders. Using an all-purpose strategy Options can be used under a...
The Da Vinci Code: The hidden messages within the option chains
Richard Ho
Traders are very opinionated and have their own view on everything. This is why we have a market of buyers and sellers. Otherwise, everyone would be on the same side of the trade. This behaviour is built over time from experience and knowledge. You can do it too. For example, you are able to tell if the stock is trending up or...
Strike prices and GPS
Richard Ho
One day I was driving home after work and I received a call from an old friend, Alex. We started talking about the kids and the wife but, eventually, we ended up talking about the markets. Alex has some knowledge of options, but there was one thing that he didn’t understand. He asked me, “How do you know which strike price...
Use Bid/Ask Spreads to Measure Liquidity, Not Open Interest
Tony Zhang
One question we’re often asked about our trades is why we would present ideas that have low volume and open interest. The answer might surprise you: It’s because open interest and volume are not reliable indicators of liquidity. Option liquidity is primarily a function of the underlying stock’s liquidity. Here’s why:...
Evolution, Revolution or Convolution: The Changing Landscape of Exchange Market Structure in North America
Alan Grigoletto
Bill Gates once said, “The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency.” There is some argument as to which nation created the first exchange....
Option Myths and Misconceptions
Jason Ayres
For those readers who are just beginning their options education journey, I am sure you have been presented with many opinions from other investors and investment professionals alike, regarding the value and risk that options bring to a portfolio. Unfortunately, many myths and misconceptions have arisen due to a lack of...
Secret to Consistent Income with Options
Tony Zhang
The success to trading any strategy on stocks or options is consistency. This is true for both researching the underlying stock or ETF, and choosing the right trading strategy. Having a consistent approach such as technical or fundamental analysis leads to reliable research that doesn’t conflict. The same applies to...
Understanding Credit Spreads and How They Differ from Debit Spreads
Alan Grigoletto
In a previous posting, “Bull Call and Bear Put Spreads, Pairing Option Strategies with Forecasts” we learned how to implement a debit spread for both calls and puts. This week we will examine another form of vertical spreads: credit spreads and how they can be used. Recall that debit spreads are a limited risk transaction,...
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