On Friday we followed Options Tribe member Craig Wasserman’s thought processes and analysis as expiration Friday proceeded. Craig had been watching AAPL and had become convinced that it was going to pin to 320. He reached this conclusion around 12:30 PM EDT. Craig entered an AAPL 320 iron butterfly trade shortly after making his call on the pinning strike of … Read More
Expiration Friday Pinning Trades in GOOG and AAPL
The great thing about options is that they can be played in so many different interesting and creative ways. A case in point: There is a cult of options traders who focus on the last two days of the monthly options expiration cycle. These traders focus, separately, on expiration Thursday trades and expiration Friday “pinning” trades. The premise for each … Read More
Smart Thinking About Capital Levels and Simulation
One of the great things about our growing Options Tribe community is the number of experienced spread traders that are actively participating and communicating their thinking to us. This free exchange of ideas is what the Tribe is all about: the more that people share their perspectives and approaches, the stronger we all become as traders. Recently, I received an email … Read More
Directional Indicators That are Not TOO Wrong
One of the great things about options trading is that you can make a directional bet, be wrong, and still make excellent money on a trade. As many of my closest relatives are fond to point out how wrong I am on so many life issues, it is a comfort to know that there is a way to trade options … Read More
Maximizing Profits: Legging Out of a Winning Options Spread
Nothing is more frustrating to an options spread trader than working a trade for 30-60 days, using all of your skills and knowledge to initiate, adjust and improvise to position the trade for a nice win and then, on the day you have decided to exit and pocket that profit, you run into execution problems. There is nothing quite like … Read More
Take your gifts when you get them
For butterfly traders like myself, there are scenarios that occur where a trade can appreciate very quickly. This can happen for several reasons. One of the very common causes of this phenomenon is when the trade is initiated in a high volatility environment and then the volatility is removed from the market rapidly. In other cases the market simply channels for the … Read More
What is your “bread and butter” options trade?
Yesterday we held our second Options Tribe webinar on the subject of an SPX butterfly trade that I was involved in developing. This trade has become my “bread and butter” trade –the approach that I am comfortable trading under almost all market conditions and which provides a stable pattern of returns. Almost every great options trader that I know has his … Read More
Expiration Week Pinning Trades
Here’s an e-mail I received from a good friend of mine and former mentoring student Options Tribe Member Craig. Craig is a fine option s trader and specializes in “expiration week trades”. These are highly specialized trades that Craig makes almost every month during options expiration week. Each expiration week , I ask Craig what he’s up to this month. … Read More