Strategies

• GOOG Earnings Trade Analysis
  stevenplace, October 19th, 2009 at 8:20 pm, Comments: 0

  After some “issues” selling vol in ADBE, RIMM, and ORCL… GOOG paid very well. Also, the stock is very fun to trade around earnings as it’s generally close to options expiration.
  After a strong run in price prior to earnings, I expected a tighter range than what the options were pricing in. So that meant selling [...]

• The Story Behind Spec Options Activity
  stevenplace, September 21st, 2009 at 12:11 pm, Comments: 0

  I’ve been seeing some sentimental indicators related to the options market come across my reader and I thought I would make a few comments.
  The latest indicator comes from SentimentTrader, via ZeroHedge and a couple others.

  The chart below shows a Speculative Options Activity index.  This is simply the number of opening options transactions that are bullish [...]

• How to Trade UNG Safely with Options
  stevenplace, September 16th, 2009 at 10:20 am, Comments: 0

  I’ve seen plenty of traders out there try to “nail the bottom” as it were on natural gas, through swing trading UNG. This was a tough trade, due to the countertrend nature of both the commodity and etf– and there were a lot of larger players in the Long Oil short Natty trade.

  So last week [...]

• Trading Gold Volatility
  stevenplace, September 8th, 2009 at 11:49 am, Comments: 0

  Back at the end of August, I mentioned 2 Volatility Trackers to be watching. We focus so much on the VIX, but we also need to be following OVX and GVZ.
  Well based on the GLD price action and the vol outlook given by GVZ, I thought it was a good time to buy some volatility [...]

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  IWO Video: How to Watch the Options Board and Trade With the Whales
  stevenplace, August 4th, 2009 at 5:10 pm, Comments: 0

  Click through the post to get better video resolution

• The Statistics of Getting Shaken Out
  stevenplace, July 20th, 2009 at 10:24 am, Comments: 0

  I’ve seen it (and experienced it) too much for my taste. You’ve got a position, it’s going well, then it reverses and you’re in a drawdown– and for the sake of “risk management” you exit the position before your predetermined stop loss only to see it reverse again. This is one of the most frustrating [...]

• A Look Into GOOG Earnings
  stevenplace, July 16th, 2009 at 12:09 pm, Comments: 0

  Every so often, GOOG will come out with earnings the day before options expiration. This is a very unique opportunity in the market in which wild swings happen overnight and people use options to try and take advantage of the situation.
  When options are traded, there is a certain uncertainty on where price will be tomorrow– [...]

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  Midday Update for Jul 16th
  stevenplace, July 16th, 2009 at 11:53 am, Comments: 0

• How To Trade Options in a Small Account
  stevenplace, July 14th, 2009 at 9:17 am, Comments: 0

  Since I’m always looking for ways for IWO to improve, I took a survey a couple weeks ago asking visitors to my site what they’d like in an options trading service. One of the questions asked was what size model portfolio would you like to see, and then I split up the answers into various levels. [...]

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  IWO Premium Weekly Report, July 12th
  stevenplace, July 12th, 2009 at 5:53 pm, Comments: 0