Articles by Kerry Given on ArticleSnatch.com

Trading Options: Good or Evil?

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 02:56:51 -0400

You have probably heard people refer to options as a risky enterprise, akin to gambling. And it is true that options trading can be very risky, especially when engaged in with minimal knowledge and preparation. The average stockbroker or financial planner does not have sufficient options knowledge to guide you in the use of options in your portfolio. But that doesn't mean options cannot play a role in a conservative portfolio of stocks. The majority of today's options trading volume derives from institutional money managers who use options to protect their clients' stock portfolios. They are using options as insurance. Options may also be used to boost the income that may be derived from a conservative stock portfolio. Options written on stocks are referred to as equity options and come in two forms: calls and puts. A call option gives the holder of the option the right to buy the underlying stock at the strike price of the option at any time before expiration. A call option is similar to a grocery store coupon for a five pound bag of flour at an attractive price; **End Summary** Topics: options]]> option spreads]]> options trading]]> stocks]]> protection]]> insurance]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> Kerry W. Given, Ph.D., aka Dr. Duke, has over twenty years of experience investing in the stock market and over seven years experience trading equity and index options. He has taken many classes on investing and trading through the years and has discovered first hand how difficult it can be to separate the financial facts from the marketing hype, myths, and get rich quick schemes. He can be reached at: ParkwoodCapitalLLC.com

Have You Insured Your Stocks?

Wed, 26 Aug 2009 10:03:58 -0400

Many people think of options trading as very risky and suitable only for the "high rollers". In this article we will demonstrate one of the ways options can be used in conservative financial portfolios. The basic definition of a put option is that it gives the owner the right, but not the obligation, to sell 100 shares of the underlying stock at the strike price anytime before expiration. If I buy 100 shares of Apple Computer (AAPL) at $136.50 or $13,650 and buy one contract of the Oct $135 put for $10.50 or $1050, I have a total investment of $14,700. This position is called a married put; we are long the stock and long the put (long means we own the stock or option; short means we have sold it and have an obligation to buy it back). If AAPL goes up in price, my stock will appreciate but my put will expire worthless. On the other hand, if AAPL decreases in price, my put will increase in value and make up for a portion of my loss on the stock price, i.e., the put acts as insurance for my stock. **End Summary** Topics: options]]> option spreads]]> options trading]]> stocks]]> protection]]> insurance]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> Kerry W. Given, Ph.D., aka Dr. Duke, has over twenty years of experience investing in the stock market and over seven years experience trading equity and index options. He has taken many classes on investing and trading through the years and has discovered first hand how difficult it can be to separate the financial facts from the marketing hype, myths, and get rich quick schemes. He can be reached at: ParkwoodCapitalLLC.com

Facts and Fallacies About Risk/Reward Ratios

Sun, 12 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0400

One will commonly hear or read the following "rule of thumb" for trading: Only trade positions with potential profits of at least three times the potential loss. This sounds like a reasonable rule, risking a little to make a lot. However, it ignores the probabilities involved. Buying a lottery ticket for $1 to potentially make one million dollars certainly meets this criterion for a good trade. But we intuitively know that the odds against us winning are astronomical. This paper will define risk/reward ratios, define the concept of expected value, and begin to explore the relevance of these concepts to success in trading strategies. Risk/Reward Ratios If we are considering an investment where the maximum gain we can expect is $100 and the maximum loss that we may incur is $500, we would compute a risk/reward ratio of 500/100 or 5:1 (five to one) . This is a high risk/reward ratio in that we stand to lose a large amount compared to the maximum gain. The trading rule above of "potential profits of three times the potential losses", would result in a small risk/reward ratio of 1:3. **End Summary** Topics: options]]> stocks]]> trading]]> options strategies]]> risk]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> Kerry W. Given, Ph.D., aka Dr. Duke, has over twenty years of experience investing in the stock market and over seven years experience trading equity and index options. He has taken many classes on investing and trading through the years and has discovered first hand how difficult it can be to separate the financial facts from the marketing hype, myths, and get rich quick schemes. He can be reached at: ParkwoodCapitalLLC.com

Put Time On Your Side

Sun, 05 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0400

Many conservative income generation trading strategies depend on the time decay inherent in options pricing. When I establish an iron condor well OTM (out of the money), I am selling option spreads and expecting those spreads to slowly lose value as the underlying stock or index trades within a channel. Other traders may use butterfly spreads or place OTM credit spreads on one side only (calls or puts); all of these trades are based on time decay working in the trader's favor. This is in contrast to the long option position designed to benefit from my prediction of a particular directional move for the underlying index or stock. Those positions lose value over time if the predicted move does not occur, so time is not your friend for those trades. One of the items on your checklist before making a trade should be a glance at the calendar to see if any exchange holidays are upcoming. When time decay is on your side, exchange holidays are also your friend. If the market isn't open, it can't move against your positions, but time decay is still occurring and improving the profitability of your position. **End Summary** Topics: options]]> option spreads]]> options trading]]> implied volatility]]> time decay]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> Kerry W. Given, Ph.D., aka Dr. Duke, has over twenty years of experience investing in the stock market and over seven years experience trading equity and index options. He has taken many classes on investing and trading through the years and has discovered first hand how difficult it can be to separate the financial facts from the marketing hype, myths, and get rich quick schemes. He can be reached at: ParkwoodCapitalLLC.com

Vertical Spreads and Implied Volatility

Sun, 05 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0400

One will commonly hear or read the following "rule of thumb" for options spread trading: When implied volatility is high, sell credit spreads and when implied volatility is low, buy debit spreads. Unfortunately, this is simply not true. The credit spread and its corresponding debit spread at the same strike prices will always have virtually identical returns on investment (ROI). Vertical spreads either require a net investment to initiate (a debit spread) or we initially receive money into our account (a credit spread). For this reason, it is common terminology for us to say we are "buying a call spread" when establishing a debit spread and "selling a call spread" to refer to initiating a credit spread. Credit or Debit? There are many decisions made before we put on a trade, but for this discussion we will assume that a vertical spread strategy has been chosen as the optimal trading strategy for this situation. The next decision is whether to use a credit or a debit spread. **End Summary** Topics: options]]> option spreads]]> options trading]]> implied volatility]]> time decay]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> Kerry W. Given, Ph.D., aka Dr. Duke, has over twenty years of experience investing in the stock market and over seven years experience trading equity and index options. He has taken many classes on investing and trading through the years and has discovered first hand how difficult it can be to separate the financial facts from the marketing hype, myths, and get rich quick schemes. He can be reached at: ParkwoodCapitalLLC.com

Beware the Hype in Options Trading

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0400

Selling education on options trading is a big business. We see infomercials on television and receive emails advertising free trading software and foolproof trading systems. Unfortunately, there are many "snake oil salesmen" operating in options education. They are busy selling the dream of instantaneous riches without effort - and their price tag isn't cheap. I recently came across the following statements on option education web sites or advertisements for those web sites: Make all the money you ever dreamed of trading options! Trade options like a pro tomorrow! Want to make 627% trading options? The first statement doesn't even deserve comment. The second statement is extremely misleading. It is certainly true that ordinary people of average intelligence can learn how to trade options - but it won't happen tomorrow! Learning the fundamentals of options terminology, how options trade, how they are priced, and then all of the different options trading strategies and their behavior in differing markets simply does not happen overnight. It requires time, effort, and practice. In my experience, a minimum of six months is required for the fundamental education, paper trading, and then some taste of success trading in small lots before scaling up in volume. **End Summary** Topics: options trading]]> options education]]> options]]> hype]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> Kerry W. Given, Ph.D., aka Dr. Duke, has over twenty years of experience investing in the stock market and over seven years experience trading equity and index options. He has taken many classes on investing and trading through the years and has discovered first hand how difficult it can be to separate the financial facts from the marketing hype, myths, and get rich quick schemes. He can be reached at: www.ParkwoodCapitalLLC.com

Squeezing Additional Income From Your Stocks

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0400

For the purposes of this article, let's assume we have a stock portfolio of conservative stocks, e.g., IBM, GE, etc. We may be realizing moderate price appreciation of the order of 5% annually plus dividend yields of 3%, for total portfolio growth of 8 to 10% annually. One easy way to boost our annual gains without increasing our downside risk is to sell call options against our stock holdings. This is known as a Covered Call. A Covered Call is created by selling the appropriate number of call options against stock in our portfolio. Let's assume we own 500 shares of shares of IBM and IBM closed at $104.69 on May 28, 2009. We are concerned the stock may trade sideways or only slightly upward for the next few weeks. We could sell 5 contracts of the June $105 call options for $2.35, or $235 per contract. This brings $1,175 into our account. If IBM closes at any price less than $105 on June 19, the calls we sold expire worthless and we keep the $1,175 we received and this represents a 2.2% return on our investment in IBM. **End Summary** Topics: stocks]]> options]]> covered calls]]> extra income]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> Kerry W. Given, Ph.D., aka Dr. Duke, has over twenty years of experience investing in the stock market and over seven years experience trading equity and index options. He has taken many classes on investing and trading through the years and has discovered first hand how difficult it can be to separate the financial facts from the marketing hype, myths, and get rich quick schemes. He can be reached at: ParkwoodCapitalLLC.com

Option Expiration and Exercise

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0400

Beginning options traders often make costly mistakes due to either a lack of knowledge or misinformation about the basic parameters of options and their exercise. Examples of common errors include being surprised that one is unable to close an index option position on the Friday before expiration, or being surprised by an unhedged option exercise during expiration. This paper covers some of the basic concepts surrounding option expiration and how options are exercised. Be sure you understand the settlement, exercise, and expiration characteristics of the options you trade. Option Expiration Equity options expire on the Saturday following the third Friday of each month. It is common to hear or read that equity options expire on that third Friday. While that isn't technically correct, it is true that Friday is the last opportunity to trade those options. Saturday expiration was established to give the brokerages time to settle the accounts before the options technically (legally) lose their value. However, some (but not all) index options cease trading at the close on the Thursday prior to expiration and those positions are reconciled on Saturday based upon the settlement price established on Friday. **End Summary** Topics: options]]> stocks]]> options trading]]> options exercise]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> Kerry W. Given, Ph.D., aka Dr. Duke, has over twenty years of experience investing in the stock market and over seven years experience trading equity and index options. He has taken many classes on investing and trading through the years and has discovered first hand how difficult it can be to separate the financial facts from the marketing hype, myths, and get rich quick schemes. He can be reached at: www.ParkwoodCapitalLLC.com

The Dangerous Iron Condor

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0400

Placing iron condor spreads on the broad market indexes is a relatively conservative, non-directional trading strategy that may be used for consistent income generation. This strategy profits as long as the index trades within the channel formed by the two spread positions. It is best used during sideways or slowly trending markets. Condor Spreads A condor spread is a debit spread, established by placing a bear call spread at or above resistance and placing a bull call spread at or below support. The condor may also be established using puts with a bear put spread above and a bull put spread below. The iron condor is a variation on this trade by using a bear call spread above and a bull put spread below the price of the underlying stock or index. The iron condor is a credit spread and achieves maximum profitability if the price of the underlying closes between the short options (the strike prices we sold) of the two spreads at expiration. In that case, all options expire worthless and you achieve the maximum profit, i.e., the credits originally collected. **End Summary** Topics: options]]> stocks]]> investments]]> trading]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> Kerry W. Given, Ph.D., aka Dr. Duke, has over twenty years of experience investing in the stock market and over seven years experience trading equity and index options. He has taken many classes on investing and trading through the years and has discovered first hand how difficult it can be to separate the financial facts from the marketing hype, myths, and get rich quick schemes. He can be reached at: http://www.ParkwoodCapitalLLC.com