The Option Alpha Podcast

  Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show71 For 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...

Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show70 We’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...

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 g...

Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show68 Naturally, if you’ve started trading options for any reasonable amount of time you’ll run across the VIX index. Or as it’s commonly referred to, the “Fear” Index. And while the concept of tracking and trading volatility with the VIX might sound intimidating at first, trust me, it’s not all that complicated and just requires a little common sense. In today’...

Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show67 In 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...

Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show66 Paper 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...

Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show65 If 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...

Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show64 Nobody’s a perfect trader - not by any stretch. We all make mistakes, and when we own up to them, we dramatically increase our ability to overcome them in the future. With more than 35k members in our community here at Option Alpha, I've seen every possible situation and mistake you could come up with - and today we're going to go through what I...

Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show63 A little over a year ago now the CBOE released its first round of options-based strategy performance benchmark indexes. Since, they’ve slowly increased the number of trackable option strategies on their website. Each strategy index is "designed to highlight the long-term utility of options as risk management and yield enhancing investment tools” and r...

Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show62 At least 2-3 times per week I’ll get an email from someone along these lines; “Kirk, why can’t we just buy the best dividend stocks right before the company pays the dividend, and then sell the stock the next day and keep the profit?” Seems like a cool idea, and I’ve definitely seen many smaller blogs peddling this idea to investors, but it might easier sa...

Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show61 I’m just going to come right out and say it - today’s show is going to blow your mind. Not because we are talking about some crazy complicated strategy or options pricing model, but because we’re talking about a dead simple system for selling options every day that generates 22% per year since 2009. And what’s so fascinating for me, the host of the show, i...

Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show60   What if I told you that Warren Buffett, yes that one, is actually just an options trader in disguise? Actually, he’s not disguising anything since his entire strategy and philosophy is all publicly available and linked below. But, that the $5 billion dollar options trading strategy he is using right now has the exact same core methodologies that we use h...

Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show59 It's easy for traders, myself included, to talk about our profitable trades. I mean who doesn't want to talk about making money right? But we know that we can't win on every trade and today I'm going to cover an in-depth case study on our EWZ short strangle. We started building the EWZ position with short strangles back in late November...

Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show58 One of the most challenging aspects of options trading for most people is in finding the best stocks and setups to trade. And I completely understand since there are thousands of stocks from which to choose. So, how do you filter down to a handful of just the best stocks with the best trading potential? In today's podcast episode, I'll help simpl...

Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show57 We already know that you want to learn how to trade options and generate a consistent income. What we didn’t know, as well as we do now, is that we had some pretty specific gaps in our previous courses that made the process of learning how to trade confusing. And because we always want to improve and perfect our training here at Option Alpha, a couple of m...

Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show56 With more than 32k option traders in our program now, I can tell you honestly that I've seen just as many 7-figure IRA accounts as I have 7-figure margin accounts in the last eight years. Many new traders think that trading options in an IRA account limit your ability to make money and generate income. They hear stories about all the "restriction...

Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show55 Market neutral, delta neutral, or balanced portfolio; call it what you want but the concept of making money regardless of where the stock market goes has been a long-time goal for many traders. But what happens when your portfolio becomes unbalanced? What are the best hedging strategies you can use to get back to a neutral stance?  In today’s show, I'...

Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show54 If you’re an experienced options trader, then today’s show is for you because this week we’ll be talking about portfolio margin and how it could help enhance your returns. Yes, portfolio margin isn’t for everyone (you’ve got to have at least $125k in equity to qualify and three years of experience trading options), but the ability to upgrade your margin ac...

Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show53 What if there was an options strategy that took just 1 hour per month to implement and actually beat the S&P 500 benchmark index both in performance and with less overall portfolio volatility? What if that one strategy was available to any trader, regardless of your account type or size?  You see, I believe you work too dang hard for your money and it...

Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show52 Doesn't it just sound so cool even saying it: Robo Advisors. And although some of these automated investing companies have been around for 5+ years now, the recent rise in popularity of robo advisors like Wealthfront and Betterment is alarming. If you haven't been keeping up with the latest FinTech craze, robo advisors are simply the next logical...

Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show51 You're in a trade that's going bad and are thinking about adjusting your position. But before you do, how would that adjustment impact your overall portfolio management? Would it make your portfolio more bearish, more bullish, or have little effect at all? Asking yourself this question above before adding or adjusting your positions gets to the h...

Show Notes: http://optionalpha.com/show50 One of the foundational elements of my personal trading style with options is the belief that the stock market is random. Random meaning that we can't gain an edge picking a direction. And for years, this assumption has been more or less accepted by the public and academia.   In the last couple months, the theory or hypothesis around random financial...

Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show49   Do you think that there will be a stock market crash soon? Maybe in the next six months to 1 year? If you are looking for the ultimate strategy to profit from the next stock market crash, then today’s latest podcast is for you. We went to 2007 and backtested 15 different put option buying strategies to see which combination produced the most profitable r...

Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show48   Options approval levels are options trading restrictions placed on your brokerage account to prevent or allow you from entering different options strategies. Most new traders, and admittedly some experienced traders, often don’t know which trading level they are in or even that levels exist. Still, you should always reach out to your current broker and c...

Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show47 One of the key elements of becoming a more successful trader is the ability to absolutely master options trading risk management. And, contrary to what you might assume, it comes down to a couple simple things. Namely, determining and sticking to an optimal position sizing range for each trade and never allocating your the full value of your account at one...