Is there a method to determine the probability of an options trade? One of the terrific characteristics of trading options versus trading stocks is that there are methods of calculating probability of profit before you initiate the trade. The features of time decay, strike price and option volatility are unique to options trading strategies and apply whether you are buying … Read More
Options Trading Basics: Calculating Return on Investment
One of the questions often asked about investing in options is “How much can I earn”? Questions like this show how easy it is to fool someone if they really don’t understand how to measure trade results from one trade to the next. To put it bluntly most options trading books don’t tell the whole story. One marketing approach actually … Read More
What is the Best Market to Start With?
As a beginning trader, is there a market that is best to start with? @mikebellafiore I was asked this question during a recent Webinar “Trading Fundamentals: Things Great Traders Do and Never Do”. In a perfect world I like the idea of new traders trying all products and multiple time frames before choosing one. I am not sure this is realistic … Read More
Is This Trader Overtrading?
Q: Mike – so since scalping is dead, can you explain how Shark has hundreds of trades a day? (What I saw in the Playbook from his results on SMB ChopTracker)? Is it basically he takes a low risk entry and then is just adding and subtracting to his position with the ebbs and flows of the tape? Just curious so I … Read More
My Thought Process: $FB
Before I start to break down each StockTweet I want to share some background information for this trade. FB reported a huge fundamental shift in their most recent earnings report on July 24th. FB’s mobile revenue as a percentage of its total revenue doubled. This was a game changing piece of information as the largest impediment to FB’s stock performance … Read More
Can You Overthink While Trading?
The cycles of trading. Do we get worse sometimes if we overthink and get too caught up in things? @mikebellafiore I was asked this question during a recent Webinar “Trading Fundamentals: Things Great Traders Do and Never Do”. Gr8 question! Yes, traders can over-think. I sat in our conference room yesterday with one of our brightest traders who has been … Read More
$CREE Went Down & $NTAP Went Up
Following their respective earnings releases $CREE and $NTAP both gapped lower. Yet during our morning meeting I discussed trading $CREE on the short side and $NTAP on the long side. What was different about their price action that caused me to focus on a particular bias? If you look at the longer term charts below they seem fairly similar yet … Read More
Avoiding Common Mistakes in Trading Weekly Options
Options with weekly expirations offer a huge improvement to the learning process for new option traders. You can increase your screen time very rapidly and see how just seven days’ difference might change how two positions react to a move in the markets. When weekly options were first introduced they quickly became a favorite vehicle to trade for many options … Read More