The Option Alpha Podcast

Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show74Most newbie option investors start trading with small brokerage accounts. Whether by choice or necessity, the average investor opens up their account with approx $10,000 according to most brokers. And while this isn't a small amount of money by any means, it does limit your ability to trade more aggressive options strategies like straddles and strangles.In today's podcast, I want to help you understand how you can still trade these more aggressive and profitable options strategies (synthetically with small tweaks) even if you've got a small account or are trading in and IRA. Specifically, I'll answer a bunch of common questions I get from new PRO members including; What if I can't trade straddles and strangles? How do I adjust the trading alerts to fit my portfolio? Should I scale position sizes down or up (# contracts)? What about spread width - go wider or more narrow? What if the commissions are eating too much into the profit after closing at 50%?Sure, it might take a little more time to grow and mature an account but don't jump ahead or try to "game" the system. Eventually, the math and probabilities always play out the way they should, and you've got to learn how to build profitable strategies today if you plan on still being around in five or ten years from now.

Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show73What does great pricing look like when trading short strangles? Is it collecting a certain raw dollar amount? Or a certain percentage of the stock price? Without a doubt, these are tough questions to answer for newbie options traders and hard to answer without some context. And while comparing pricing on different risk defined option trades, like credit spreads and iron condors, is pretty straight-forward and easy, it can become difficult to recognize great pricing with undefined risk option strategies like short strangles.In today's podcast, I examined eight different short strangles across a mix of ETFs and individual stocks. I recorded everything from the current stock price and implied volatility ranking to the premium collected and the margin required for each one lot strangle. My goal? Discover which option trades had the best pricing on a relative basis given that every short strangle we analyzed had the same 70% probability of success.

Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show72You've entered a new option trade with a high probability of success - but you also know that a 70% chance of success doesn't mean it's a sure thing. As soon as your order fills the stock starts to move against your position - just your luck right? And each subsequent day the stock continues to trend closer and closer to your strike prices, threatening your position. At this point, you're starting to get pretty emotional about the whole thing and don't know what to do or how to adjust it. When do you pull the trigger and make an adjustment? Do you do it now or is it too soon? If you wait, what if you miss an opportunity? How much time is left until expiration? Are you taking in enough of a credit to reduce the overall risk? Is it worth it to even adjust at all right now? Believe me; I get it, and I know that these are just some of the questions circling in your head when presented with this situation. That's why in today's podcast episode I'm going to take you through three specific triggers you can implement right now to help you start making smarter, more unemotional option trade adjustments when a stock starts moving against you. You'll also hear why I favor trigger #1 over the others as it's a more mechanical and systematic.

 Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show71For years now I've talked about the concept of exiting option trades early and taking money off the table as a way to both improve your win rates and increase overall profitability. Still, I'll often get emails and questions about the legitimacy of exiting trades early vs. letting profitable trades go all the way to expiration and "milking it for all its worth" as some members have put it. Honestly, I can't blame anyone for questioning it because on paper it sounds crazy. Close a trade early for half the potential profit, and you'll make more money - who would believe that right? Today, we'll present another case study that proves why the two biggest misconceptions about exiting trades early are completely wrong. Not only will you see why taking profits before expiration increases your win rate but you'll also hear how it helps reduce the magnitude of drawdowns and increase your average profit per trade. Once you see the results of these four backtested short strangles in TLT, a major bond ETF, I'm confident you'll quickly change your opinion and start implementing some of the automatic profit targets we suggest in your own portfolio.

Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show70We’ve reached yet another options expiration week, which can sometimes cause many traders to freak out as they worry about positions that are still lingering in their portfolio. And with the deadline for expiration quickly approaching it's no wonder why many people are incorrectly managing trades with the fears of assignment knocking on their doorstep. Either rushing to close position that shouldn't be closed or waiting too long to act and putting them at risk of a massive "gamma move" in the underlying option's price.Typically by the time we reach expiration week we've closed positions that hit our profit target and adjusted positions that have gone against us. But as we near the third Friday of every month, we have to come face to face with the realization that some trades just haven't worked out as we might have hoped. In today's episode, I want to help you create a checklist for deciding which positions to close or roll during options expiration week. In particular, I want to walk you through my thought process on which trades I focus on closing first and how I ultimately decide if a position should be rolled to the next expiration month.

Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show69 Regardless of your current account size or trading experience level, you should be putting some serious thought into how you plan on scaling your options strategy over the next few years. Especially if you’re looking to generate a consistent monthly income from options trading, you probably realize that having $10,000 in your account won’t be enough to generate profits to replace your current job or salary - or if this was a shock to you, sorry for the reality check but it’s true. Still, you need to plan ahead for the changes that will accompany having more cash. In today’s show I’ll walk through the 3 biggest tips I have for anyone who’s looking to grow their 6-figure account. As with any regular business, the products and strategy for trading are going to change and shift as you grow. The core principles remain the same (i.e. selling options, taking advantage of high volatility, etc.) but the way you could about capturing profits and utilizing capital will need to be tweaked so that you’re always trading options as efficiently as possible.

Former floor trader and hedge fund manager Mark Sebastian discusses trading volatility with the VIX index. Topics include the history of the VIX, pricing, VIX futures term structure, and simple strategies for trading volatility with higher success probabilities. Mark shares insights on back spread and hedging strategies, trading VIX options, and finding and trading companies around earnings.

Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show67In most investing or online trading circles, it's common place to hear people tout the need for "stop loss" orders to theoretically protect your portfolio. And while there is no doubt that stop loss orders help mitigate large drawdowns from time to time, the question I never see asked is, "What am I giving up by implementing a stop-loss order as part of my trading system?" You see, all too often traders and financial educators are quick to harp on the "need" or "requirement" for having continuous and always present stop loss orders in place. Still, we all accept this golden rule as an undeniable investing truth, because, well, it's always been something you're told to use. Today, I'll challenge this long-standing requirement for stop loss orders when trading option strangles. Until now, nobody has built a system to backtest this variable on the scale and scope that we have here at Option Alpha. Sure, you've likely seen one-off backtesting research segments elsewhere, but nothing as specific and targetted as what we've created.In today's show, you'll discover how one simple tweak to the way you trade options generates average annual returns that are 87% higher, win rates that are 2X higher, all while making fewer trades and spending less on commission costs. Sounds pretty far-fetched, doesn't it? Well, it's not, it's just a small sample of the backtesting results we've been compiling over the last year that can help you make smarter, more profitable trades starting today.

Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show66Paper trading has its place in the investing world, but it likely isn't as useful as many brokers and financial gurus make it out to be. In fact, I'd even argue that if you are currently paper trading you're probably not using the virtual platforms to get the optimal experience out of them. Now, I won't deny that paper trading does have some benefits in helping traders learn the mechanics, but the drawbacks, in my opinion, outweigh the perceived usefulness.In today's newest podcast episode, I'll walk you through all the major pitfalls new investors make when trying to paper trade stocks and options. And if you're still adamant about paper trading, that's fine too because I'll help you get 10x more results from your paper trading activities by accelerating your learning curve with a few simple tweaks.  Ultimately, at some point, you've got to make the jump into real money trading and the sooner you do the better off you'll be. There's no substitute for real-world, real-money experience in this business.

Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show65If you're even remotely interested in personal finance or wealth building, you've likely heard of Todd Tresidder from Financial Mentor. If you haven't yet, well, then we've got a special treat for you today as Todd joins the Option Alpha podcast in this exclusive interview. Naturally, he's got an incredible resume having spent much of his time in the Hedge Fund space before retiring at age 35, but it's the actionable and real-world investing experience that backs up all the accolades he receives. In today's show, Todd and I dive deep into traditional equity portfolio allocations, inherent flaws with buy and hold logic, bond market bubbles, statistical and mathematical risk management systems for investing, and the importance of compound growth rates. And while Todd covers each area with such a simplistic and rationale approach, don't be fooled by the power behind the system and thought process. These principles are critical to your financial success moving forward.