The Option Alpha Podcast

Being a consistent, profitable options trader doesn't take much.In fact, I'd even go as far to say it takes very little time and effort on a weekly basis. Yet, we've been told in the media (and through other publications and websites) that you have to have lots of money, trade fast or day trade to make it in this business.It couldn't be further from the truth.In today's episode, I want to help show you what it really takes and how you can start to implement simple tweaks to your daily routine to become more consistent and profitable.Plus, we'll cover a recent trade we made in APC with a 70% chance of success selling options far away from the current stock price.

In this session of The Option Alpha Podcast I had a chance to interview Sarah Potter, Author of How You Can Trade Like A Pro and founder of www.shecantrade.com. This self-taught trader will share her story and why this former futures trader quickly migrated over to options trading because of the better fit with her lifestyle.You'll hear Sarah's strategy for only trading weekly options on "hot" or "popular" stocks as opposed to monthly contracts. Plus, we will dig deeper into how and why she chooses to use multiple timeframes when trading including the weekly, daily and 60 mins charts. It's a can't miss episode!

I completely underestimated the power of how to set financial goals until about a year and a half ago.Since then I've changed the way I look at and set goals in all areas of my life (not just financially) and it's made a huge difference.In today's podcast, I want to really take the time to walk through the Top 10 mistakes people make in the goal setting area which can dramatically alter your chance of hitting and achieving your goals.Again, I wasn't much different from most people who set silly goals at the beginning of the year just to let them wither away and die 2 months later.But I made a huge commitment to myself, and my family, that goal setting would be dramatically different for me in 2014 and since then it's changed my life in all areas.I encourage you to post your goals in the comment section below and share them with everyone here. I'll be posting mine here after a few people comment and share theirs.

You know the name, and the legacy.But what you don't know about Michael Jordan and his impressive career might actually help you become a more successful options trader.I know what you're thinking already. Kirk, how on earth does basketball relate to trading options?You see on the outside they don't but once you dig down a little deeper you'll find that the best basketball players have very similar qualities to the best traders.I've been on a mission studying what true "success" looks like and when I discovered a little more about Michael Jordan's struggles and victories I knew it was too good not to share with you.

You've got a stock position that you want to protect (or shield) from any impending market sell-off or crash.But buying protection or insurance typically costs money right?And in nearly all cases you've been told to buy put options that are far OTM. The only problem is that these options tend to expire worthless (which is why we sell them here at Option Alpha) and if you have to purchase them each month the costs can rack up over time.In today's show, I'll help you think about option strategies a little different then maybe you have before. Specifically I want to show you how to use different options strategies as building blocks to pay for and finance other protective strategies for your portfolio. 

It's no secret that the long-term average investor returns are pretty low. In most cases, the little guy rarely beats the market and for good reason.Frankly we are horrible stock pickers though we consistently try to find hidden value in playing directionally. Long-term this always underperforms an efficient market and the market standard portfolio (i.e. the S&P 500 Index).So what do we do about this? How do we change our mindset given the glaring stats that the media pushes in our faces daily.I believe the first step is to recognize the 3 biggest excuses that average investors have. Rarely spoken these excuses typically manifest in the subconscious part of the brain.My goal on this podcast is to bring out these excuses, shine light on them and help you move past them so you can become even more successful as an options trader. 

Finding great option trades can be tough sometimes, and I get that. That's why in today's podcast I'll show you 10 detailed trades all under $100 of risk each that you can make right now.Plus, we mixed it up with a little bit of everything; bullish & bearish strategies, high & low volatility trades, stocks & ETFs, etc. And for less than $1,000 of overall risk you could have a completely diversified and balanced mini-portfolio of options trades.My goal is to prove that making high probability trades doesn't require having a huge portfolio to start with or taking a lot of risk. In fact, you'll find that I'm an advocated of small positions regardless of your portfolio size. But by the end, you'll see that trading options for income is a completely viable strategy even if you are not starting with thousands and thousands of dollars.

In the past couple years inverse and leveraged ETFs have been some of the most highly traded securities because of their seemingly "cool" concept for speculation. I mean where else can you get such high exposure to financials or gold than with a 3X bull/bear ETF?In this session of The Option Alpha Podcast I'll going to dig deep into how these products are both structured and priced so that you have a complete and full understanding of the "drag" they carry before investing.No this is not to say that you shouldn't trade inverse and leveraged ETFs because I have before and will in the future. Instead, my goal is to make you smarter about how they derive their pricing so that your timeline for trading them might be adjusted or altered.I never promised this podcast would be a walk in the park, so if you are ready to be challenged and take your training to the next level then let's get started.

You’ve often heard us talk about the important of trading liquid options until you are blue in the face right? In this session of The Option Alpha Podcast we’ll put a real dollar figure to this concept and show just how much “slippage” is costing you trading options that are illiquid.Specifically markets that show a bid/ask spread of just $0.20 could end up costing you more than $3,840 each year - and that’s just the cost of getting into or out of the trade!Throw in the risk that the stock doesn't move the way you want it and you can easily see why most traders dig themselves into a whole even before the trade has a chance to work for them.Yet, often times we focus too much on our commission costs and rarely if ever do you “feel” the pain that slippage costs your portfolio. It’s time we start worrying less about commissions and more about slippage by focusing on only highly liquid options and underlying stocks.

 In this session of The Option Alpha Podcast I have the great pleasure of interviewing long-time trader and industry veteran John Carter - founder of SimplerOptions.com. One of the many benefits of doing this podcast has been the opportunity to meet and connect with other traders with whom I admire and have followed for years. John has been on my short list of those to contact for this podcast (with many more coming that you all will enjoy!) What's so great about his story is that he never had the "traditional" schooling to trade options. He knew he wanted to figure out how the market worked (and make money in the process) and has been on a constant quest to learn and grow. It's this self-awareness and willingness to change and adapt along the way that makes him such a great guest for our show.

In this session of The Option Alpha Podcast I'm going to actually take a look at unique investment outside the stock market that is comparable to how we should be trading options.My hope is that you'll clearly see how being successful with Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Lending is extremely similar to the requirements for long-term options trading success. In fact I'd even go as far to say that most investing requires the same underlying fundamentals for success regardless of where you money physically goes.Of course 2 years doesn't make a trend but the connections between these two markets are fascinating. So tune in as I take you though my personal account with Lending Club over the last 2+ years.Don't forget to add your comments at the bottom of the show notes and let me know your thoughts since this episode was slightly "outside the scope" of what we normally do.

Investing money can be scary (no doubt). . .In this session of The Option Alpha Podcast I want to help you overcome the 3 biggest fears that people have when they start trading options. You see, as kids we were scared of all kinds of things; monsters, our siblings, "Dad" etc. As adults now we still get scared and when we combine the "unknown" with our hard earned money it becomes a nightmare. If I were to ask most investors about options trading their default response would be things along the lines of "it's too risky" or "it's way too complicated".But the honest truth is that these are excuses under the cover of fear; 3 in particular which haunt most new and experienced traders alike.You could be going through these right now or have gone through them in the past. Regardless, I'll bet with 100% odds of success that you'll experience these emotions again in the future at some point.Where's the good news Kirk? Right here because I'm going to

In this session of The Option Alpha Podcast we talk with long-time trader Kim Klaiman from SteadyOptions.com. As you'll hear in this interview, Kim's goal is to trade trade variety of non-directional trades with low correlations.One topic that we dive into a little deeper is the strategy of buying straddles pre-earnings to profit from the rise in implied volatility. And while I personally prefer to trade the IV crush you'll hear Kim's take on how his backtesting research has found some likely candidates where IV does consistently rally ahead of earnings.

In this session of The Option Alpha Podcast I want to help you be a better trader even if you are currently still working a full-time job. Because the reality that even though I stay at home with my daughter, she's a full time "boss" if you know what I mean.So over the last year and a half I've had to change and adapt my own trading style to be even more efficient and productive. This means cutting back and hyper focusing in on the things that really matter in order for me to be successful.Today I'll share 7 smart tips to help you save time while still working your day job. Try 1 or 2 out this week and let me know how it worked out.

In this session of The Option Alpha Podcast we'll have an in-depth talk about trading commissions and broker fees. Specifically, people always ask me about commission and with more members now than ever it’s becoming more and more important to negotiate great commission rates.So I'm here to help you save money by getting your trading commissions reduced. And I give nearly the same answer to everyone each time they ask but there's a special twist on how I did it and why it dropped my rate by 17%. Ready to reduce your commission costs? Let's go then!

In this session of The Option Alpha Podcast I had a chance to flip the script on Joshua Belanger from www.OptionSizzle.com. A former CME runner in Chicago, Josh has been a long time industry trader both on the professional and retail level. What's so great about his story is that over the last 10 years he's been able to learn how markets work from many different angles including being a broker, raising private equity, managing money, and running orders on the CME floor. During our interview he'll explain how his overall trading plan has evolved and also opens up about his more specific strategy for looking at (and profiting from) unusual options activity.

In this session of The Option Alpha Podcast I'll explain why you shouldn't be afraid of the assignment and exercise process when it comes to trading options. You see, all too often it's just a lack of understanding as to how the process really works. Who are the parties involved? How do they select who gets assigned? How long do I have to manage my new risk?I'll answer all of these questions and so much more in today's show and by the end you'll finally be empowered with all the information you need to professionally handle assignment. Plus we'll go through 2 very cool post-earnings trades we made in HAL and MS which still have very high implied volatility even after announcing their earnings.

In this session of The Option Alpha Podcast I completely break-down one of the worst trade alerts we've ever seen using a debit spread. And it honestly gets to the heart of why I started this website and blog more than 8 years ago; because there are still horrible companies and services out there publishing crap that doesn't help investors.In this show we'll compare and contrast this unnamed company's call in NFLX vs a trade we look at live in HPQ. At the end you'll be the judge and add your comments below to let me know what you think of both - which one would you choose? You don't have to choose our trade, I seriously want to hear if you believe this is a good trade in NFLX coming up.

In this session of The Option Alpha Podcast I had a chance to interview Henrick Santander, the guy behind http://www.the-lazy-trader.com who currently works a full-time job but is passionate about creating a trading system that fits his lifestyle.You'll hear how this long time Cuban (of 26 years) moved to Canada and is now trading very successfully each year making smart bets in the major indexes like SPX and RUT. Plus, we'll talk through his most recent SPX iron condor trade including his complete logic behind the entry, strike selection, risk management, etc.

Ever wonder how often going back in history the stock market "crashes"? I mean we know that cyclical markets means another one will eventually happen (it's just a matter of time) but when? Or how often?We did the research for you and analyzed the market data going back to 1928 (as far as we could get it). In this podcast we'll take a look back in time for you and present our case study findings. You'll finally have a clear understanding of how often stocks "crash" and also how bad we are as investors at predicting the next possible move.