CHRISTMAS PROMOTION
LTOptions at a 33% discount during the Year End Holidays.
Tell me More

BookingAlpha Option Trading Advisory

Sunday, September 30, 2012

Weekend Portfolio Analysis (09-30-2012)

The SP500 started the week at 1459.76 and closed at 1440.67 on Friday. A loss of -1.31% for the week. That's pretty much in line with my expectations on last weekend portfolio analysis of a move smaller than 2%. We were reminded how weak current conditions are with a terrible 1.3% GDP vs 1.7% expected and an awful Chicago PMI of 49.7 vs 52.8. The markets, however, didn't tank.

Monday, September 24, 2012

October $SPY Bear Call Spread closed

Demo-Trading:
BUY TO CLOSE 17 October SPY 149 CALL @0.38
SELL TO CLOSE 17 October SPY 151 CALL @0.14

Debit: 0.24 

Saturday, September 22, 2012

Friday, September 21, 2012

A study on the commissions schemas offered by the most popular Canadian online discount Bokers

For  options traders, specially those who trade multi-legged positions (spreads, condors, butterflies etc), commissions are one important consideration when choosing a broker. With the increase of online retail trading in the last few years, commissions have decreased a lot, specially in the US, with its huge population, high levels of trading activity and obviously a wide selection of brokers competing.

In today's post I want to analyze the commissions schemas of brokers who operate in Canada. I will only look at commissions applied to options trading activity and how they affect traders on this side of the border. This is not a post to discuss who has the best trading platform, or the best customer service. It is just a starting point to quickly rule out some brokers, if you are an options trader who focuses on multi-legged positions or monthly income trades (Credit spreads, Iron Condors, Calendars, Diagonals, Butterflies etc)

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

OptionsTradingIQ promotion

Hey Folks just a quick note. My good friend and better blogger and trader OptionsTradingIQ, who has been a contributor to this blog in the past in the past, has this little nice promotion that you can take advantage of right now.
Go to OptionsTradingIQ's promotion now, and enjoy!

Saturday, September 15, 2012

Weekend Portfolio Analysis (09-15-2012)

The S&P500 grew 27.85 points this week. That is 1.94% in positive territory and there was plenty of activity in the portfolio including the first two trades of the October cycle.

Friday, September 14, 2012

October $RUT Bear Call Spread

Demo-trading:
SELL 6 RUT October 910 Call (@3.10)
BUY 6 RUT October 915 Call (@2.40)

Thursday, September 13, 2012

September RUT Bear Call Spread closed

Demo-Trading:
BUY TO CLOSE 6 September RUT 860 CALL @8.00
SELL TO CLOSE 6 September RUT 865 CALL @5.50

Debit: 2.50 

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

October SPY Credit Call Spread

Demo-trading:
SELL 17 SPY October 149 Call (@0.48)
BUY 17 SPY October 151 Call (@0.22)

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

An expectancy analysis of Regular MACD Divergences for the EURUSD currency pair

This article is a study about the effectiveness of trading Classical MACD Divergences on the EURUSD currency pair. My goal is to evaluate whether Classical MACD Divergences offer and edge and to somehow quantify the edge of the indicator that could lead to the development of likely long term profitable automated strategies.

Saturday, September 8, 2012

Weekend Portfolio Analysis (09-08-2012)

And Up we went! After two weeks of sideways action, Thursday delivered a solid elephant up bar and the S&P500 grew 2.4% this week. Then on Friday, the market was also able to shake off a poor Employment Report and remain in green territory.

Friday, September 7, 2012

How much capital do you need to trade for a living?

It is a good question, and one we probably never asked ourselves in the very early stages of our trading careers. How much capital do I need to trade for a living?

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

September SPY Bear Call Closed


Demo-Trading:
BUY TO CLOSE 16 September SPY 145 CALL @0.25
SELL TO CLOSE 16 September SPY 147 CALL @0.08

Debit: 0.17 

September RUT Bull Put Spread Closed

Demo-Trading:
BUY TO CLOSE 6 September RUT 780 PUT @4.90
SELL TO CLOSE 6 September RUT 775 PUT @4.20

Debit: 0.70 

Sunday, September 2, 2012

Useful resources for an Income Trading System based on selling Options

In order to successfully trade Out of the Money Credit Spreads for income, you don't really need the ultimate information that nobody has, nor the last minute headline before anybody else does. In fact you don't need to be looking at the markets every second and you don't really need real live data, other than the one supplied by your trading platform. In this article I want to share a list of websites and tools I use in order to generate ideas and stay in sync with the markets at the lowest possible monetary cost. In fact at no cost at all.

Saturday, September 1, 2012

Weekend Portfolio Analysis (09-01-2012)

Again, another week of mostly sideways action, with SPX opening the week at 1411.13 and closing yesterday at 1406.58, for a -0.3% performance. The low volumes persist with usual days between 60 million and 100 million shares on SPY, although we saw a little spike to 151 million shares on Friday, still far from the more common 200 million shares per day, but maybe a sign that normal activity will resume from Tuesday on.