We have discussed the definition of two options trading income strategies before: the short vertical spread and the iron condor. In this article we would like to introduce you to another options strategy called the “calendar spread” which is also known as the “time spread”. Like the short vertical spread, when employing the calendar spread strategy, we are selling one … Read More
Spread Trading: Three Timeless Lessons You Need to Know (Including When to Close a Debit Spread)
In this second article about debit and credit spreads we will discuss when you might want to use a debit spread over a credit spread or vice versa. To review, we previously discussed the fact that there really isn’t a meaningful economic difference between a credit and debit spread on different sides at the same strikes. It just comes down … Read More
Try Not To Do The Heavy Lifting in Trading
What I mean by this title is that once buyers (or sellers) have become committed to a move in a stock, there tends to be a general “bandwagon effect” as more and more people believe in a general change in trend, either to the long or short side. Let the big guys with much more money than you and me … Read More
Ask The Trading Doc: How Do I Take On More Risk?
Hi, Mike. Thank you very much for writing The Playbook. I thoroughly enjoyed it and my own playbook is coming together nicely. I’m curious if you have any thoughts on what a trader can do to shift their psychological skew from Afraid to Lose to Afraid of Missing Out? Is it just a matter of screen time and repeatedly/mechanically taking the A+ … Read More
The Trading Technology You Must Have
Mike, I’m in the first day of the equities foundation course and I have a quick question: What trading software is currently being used for intraday? Is this something that I get access to through SMB? Thank you! @mikebellafiore We use proprietary trading software Gr8 trade. It is only available to our in-house traders on our prop desk in NYC. … Read More
From The PlayBook: Trade a Bigger Account
This latest excerpt from The PlayBook comes from Chapter 9: “Iceman: No Guts, No Glory”: — So let’s say that now you can risk 30 percent of your intraday stop loss and hold for the real move. Next you want to get even bigger. At this point, most incorrectly focus on adding share size. So if 5,000 was your biggest position, you … Read More
Is Options Trading “Better” Than Stock Trading? Discover the Critical Differences
How does option trading differ from stock trading? This is a great question to ponder as you start to look at the options world. There are many differences due to the makeup of options and there are similarities as well. So let’s take a look at the similarities first. When you buy a stock you want to sell it at … Read More
Credit Spread or Debit Spread: Which Options Trading Strategy is Best for You?
Is there a difference between a credit spread and a debit spread? Of course you might answer that you receive a credit for the credit spread and pay a debit for the debit spread, right? Well, you might come to find out that it is never as simple as one might think with options trading. Let’s take a look at … Read More