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Website Update: New Calendars Added
We added two calendars to help you plan your trading:
The Economic Events Calendar is for U.S. economic events only. If you trade currencies, you'll want to use an international calendar that includes events in the countries (or regions) you are trading. The calendar helps you plan by pointing out potential market moving events like the FOMC meeting announcements. It is important to check it before putting trades, especially weekly option trades that have more price risk built into them.
Sharp USDJPY Overnight Sell Off – US Equity Futures In The Red
In an article from Zero Hedge: http://www.zerohedge.com/node/489531
“… Unless, or course, central banks finally are starting to shift their policy, realizing that they may have lost controlto the upside since algos no longer care about warnings that “volatility is too low”, knowing full well the same Fed will come and bail them out on even the tiniest downtick. Which begs the question: is a big Fed-mandated shakeout coming? Could the coming FOMC announcement be just the right time and place for the Fed to surprise the market out of its “complacency” and whip out an unexpected hawk out of its sleeve?”
The S&P 500 Move Higher is Strengthening
This is an interesting post from Jim Riggio in our forums where Jim discusses his charts and why he thinks the S&P 500 up move is getting strong…
My “Momentum” charts are showing that the S&P's persistant move higher is strengthening.
As you have heard me say in the past… the Oscillators can live up here on the “ceiling” for longer then seems reasonable. This is the type of market (or stock prices) that Peter Lynch was referring to in his classic “One Up on Wall Street” when defining the most common mistakes that investors make… “The price has gone up this high. It can't go any higher.” Oh yes it can.
The Risk is Gone: VIX at a Seven Year Low
The VIX held above 11 most of the day yesterday but closed with a thud at the low for the day of 10.73!
The last time the VIX was below 11 was on Feb 23, 2007 when it closed at 10.58. On Jan 24, 2007, the VIX closed at 9.89. The lowest price I saw on a 14-year chart was Dec 22, 1993 when the VIX was at 9.31.
Jun 28 SPX Broken Wing Butterfly
I put an SPX Jun 28 Broken Wing Butterfly (BWB) on yesterday. They seem to be what many of my option trading friends are trading these days. With volatility at historic lows, trading Iron Condors, Weirdors and Jeeps is very difficult because the premium is so low. The Russell 2000 Index (RUT) has been especially challenging. SV (historical volatility) has mostly been higher than IV (Implied Volatility for nearly two months.
Which is Better: Married Puts or Long Calls?
I read an article about position sizing using married puts with long stock at radioactivetrading.com. Kurt's strategy of married puts is a good idea, but if you remember from my article on option synthetics, that:
Long Stock + Long Put = Long Call
Kurt could achieve the identical risk profile using only long calls. Asking which trade is better is a trick question. The two positions are identical!
This is what long stock versus a long call (or married put) looks like:
The Big Fish are Eating the Smaller Fish
According to Crain's Chicago Business, a New York private-equity firm is planning to take control of OptionsHouse LLC and TradeMonster Group Inc. by investing in both of them and then merging the two companies.
General Atlantic LLC is purchasing OptionsHouse from Peak6 Investments LP and acquiring a majority interest in TradeMonster.
VIX Options to Add Half-Point Strikes in Near-Term Expiration
The CBOE announced they are adding half-point strikes for the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) options. The half-point strikes will be listed for the near-term expiration month and in the strike price range of 10 to 15 (i.e. 10.5, 11.5, 12.5, 13.5 and 14.5 strikes).
The CBOE will keep half-point strikes (between 10 and 15) on a continual basis. The CBOE said customers have been asking for the half-point strikes. VXST already has half-point strikes.
Option Synthetics Primer
Let me ask you a question. Which position is more risky?
1. Selling a Covered Call
2. Selling a Naked Put
Most people would say selling a Covered Call is a great investment strategy, but selling a Naked Put is terribly risky. If you understand Option Synthetics, you'll know that these two positions are exactly the same!
Option Position Greeks Calculator Online
Dan Harvey has a spreadsheet he uses to help guide his contract sizes and manage his Weirdor trades. I extracted the option Greeks portion of it and created an online version which is at https://capitaldiscussions.com/option-position-greeks-calculator
As the instructions say, you just enter in the price of the underlying, the volatility and your position Greeks. The calculator does the math for you and color codes certain fields if you are ok or need to monitor them more closely.