Big Picture: The range has been huge and the VIX futures are telling us it might not be over. Last Saturday I said that I wouldn’t be surprised to see a gap lower or a gap higher this Monday. We saw a big gap lower followed by a deep push down. That push lower was […]
Sometimes when you play in the market you get hurt. Monday, August 24th and the days leading into “Black Monday” will inflict a good amount of pain on many market participants. I took a bunch of pain in my Iron Condor positions, but, fortunately, my $RUT Butterfly is doing okay. Those little options bugs are […]
Big Picture: Sure, we could certainly talk about the markets going down yesterday, but it’s probably more helpful to talk about the emotional aspects of trading a non-directional, short options position. This week presented some good challenges. Most of the traders I know, myself included, took some pain on the downside. We rolled, hedged, and […]
Big Picture: It’s been a couple of interesting weeks from both a market and personal perspective. I’ve been on the road for almost two weeks now and last night I arrived in Tucson, Arizona. After leaving Sun Valley, Idaho my original plan was to head to Austin, but things weren’t coming together when I got […]
Let’s be very clear about something, trading options isn’t easy. My belief is that anyone who is interested in options trading should start small and get a feel for how options trading works. Many traders are drawn to options because they offer leverage and the ability to construct market neutral positions. In other words, you […]
Big Picture: Earlier this week I mentioned that the market was a little too quiet and that I expected an uptick in volatility. By that I meant that Historical or Realized Volatility should rise. However, that statement was not a directional call on the market. Realized Volatility is a function of returns so larger percentage […]