Vega is the measurement of an option’s price sensitivity to changes in the volatility of the underlying asset. Vega represents the amount that an option contract’s price changes in reaction to a 1% change in the implied volatility of the underlying asset. We also discuss order flow and how it can affect implied volatility and the balance of supply and demand. Click […]
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Open interest is a concept that is unique to options. Volume is a parallel concept to stocks. First, what are they? Second, why should an options trader care about them? Open interest is the number of active contracts. It is a metric that can be tracked or displayed on most options trading platforms, like bid […]
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A call is an option that gives the buyer the right, not the obligation, to buy an underlying asset at a certain point in time at a certain price. A put option gives the buyer the right, not the obligation, to sell an underlying asset at a certain point in time at a certain price. […]
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“Gamma Scalping” is a concept that retail options traders should know about, but frankly will rarely, if ever, use. Not because it is a bad idea, but because it is capital intensive and it’s necessary to own the underlying asset. “Gamma Scalping” involves the process of scalping in and out of a stock or futures […]
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Put–call parity defines a relationship between the price of a European call option and European put option, both with the identical strike price and expiry, namely that a portfolio of a long call option and a short put option is equivalent to (and hence has the same value as) a single forward contract at this strike price and expiry. This is […]
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In contrast to historical volatility (HV), which looks at actual asset prices in the past, implied volatility (IV) looks ahead. … Implied volatility can be derived from the price of an option. Specifically, implied volatility is the expected future volatility of the stock that is implied by the price of the stock’s options Click the video below to see how we dive into this important aspect […]
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Option margin is the cash or securities an investor must deposit in his account as collateral before writing – or selling – options. Margin requirements are established by the Federal Reserve Board in Regulation T. Option margin differs from other types of margin that you may associate with stock or futures trading. These types of margin allow a trader to employ leverage in […]
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The Polarized Fractal Efficiency (PFE) is a technical indicator that was developed by Hans Hannula to determine price efficiency over a user-defined period. This indicator fluctuates between -100 and +100, with 0 as the centerline. Securities with a PFE greater than zero are deemed to be trending up, while a reading of less than zero indicates […]
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When a new trader hears the term “broken wing butterfly” it tends to send shivers down his or her spine. The term sounds really complicated. It does not have to be. If you break down the components of a bwf, you will see that it is simply buying one vertical spread and selling a narrower […]
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There are many ways to approach a trade using options. There are dozens of strategies that you can utilize as well. Do I buy a call? Do I buy a put? Is there an option spread that I can construct? Should that spread be a debit or credit spread? Click the video below to see […]
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