The Option Alpha Podcast

Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show193One of the beautiful things about shifting to fully automated trading on the new Option Alpha platform is the ability to finally be able to clone and replicate entire trading strategies using bot templates. Bot templates allow anyone to build a trading strategy and seamlessly share the structure and details of that strategy with one-click. Today, I want to walk through just one type of strategy that I think is the tip of the iceberg when it comes to situational trading and hedging bots. I have no doubt that this discussion will spark some creative ideas, allow you to dream of what's possible, and show you that the future of trading is incredibly bright once you adopt autotrading.

Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show192Back on Show 187 we tackled the top 15 questions we consistently get around options expiration. Today, we're taking a slightly different approach and addressing head-on the 18 biggest questions and concerns traders have around options assignment and exercising, whether on or before expiration itself. Regardless of your trading experience level, seasoned investor, or complete options newbie, I promise you that today's episode will help you more clearly understand and navigate any future options assignment or option exercise situation you might find yourself in. After all, this is part of the business and if you trade long enough you'll have to manage through this, dozens of times.

Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show191We're all subject to investment biases, often multiple biases working together at the same time trying subconsciously to derail us. And whether we offload the actual order execution and management to an autotrading platform or not, the human element or side of investing still impacts the decisions we make and the strategies we choose to execute or not. Until we take the time to label and recognize these major investor biases, we cannot overcome or manage them in the future. Therefore, today's podcast is geared specifically at exposing these classic and detrimental investor biases that ruin your performance. You're either going to learn how to manage and deal with them or be unknowingly controlled by them for the rest of your life.

Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show190One of the most impactful things you can do for your portfolio is add money or capital to it. A consistent and persistent schedule of funding your account, even with small amounts, gives you the added boost that compounds over time. But we all know this already don't we? So why don't we do it, or at least at a higher level than we do now? On today's show, I'm going to help you break down the zillion ways you can save money to invest into core concepts that I have used in my own life to save money at an incredible pace. I'm a firm believer that these "big ideas" around saving money will help free up some cash for you.

NEW Beta Site is Live: https://beta.optionalpha.comToday’s show is a massive announcement – we are officially announcing that we have our launch dates set for our new auto-trading platform. Today on the show, we’re going to answer some common questions that we've been getting around the new platform and we're also going to start going through some of the features that you are going to love about it.We have all the information you need right now about the platform and how to use its new features on https://beta.optionalpha.com.

Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show188Ah, taxes, a dreaded but necessary part of investing and trading. And although you might be inclined to skip this week's show, I'd encourage you to dive in because, even for me personally, this discussion helped clarify and re-solidify concepts that were mildly opaque. After all, tax concepts and terminology can get complicated fast and our goal is to help educate and explain things so that it's useful to you moving forward. Plus, I brought in a special guest to help chat through the different sections and I know you're going to love this week's episode on taxes for options trading.

Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show187We get a lot of questions around options expiration - hundreds and hundreds each week. Yet, the same vital few seem to float to the top consistently so we're pulling these 15 questions into this week's podcast episode to help you understand and effectively navigate options expiration. And in the off chance, we didn't answer your question during the show, you can always reach out to us anytime for help and support. If you're going to trade options, you can't avoid going through expiration. So, if you're going to trade options, you can't miss this week's podcast.

Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show186Summer vacations are in full swing and as everyone rushes to their favorite social distancing hot spot, traders are often left wondering what to do with their positions and trades while away. And since we cannot build automated and trigger-based strategies yet, though it's coming soon from Option Alpha, we wanted to help with a simple but effective checklist you can use to square up your account before going off the grid. Make no mistake though, this checklist isn't just for when you go on vacation, it's also a great workflow to help you before a long business trip or busy week at home when you have limited time to manage your account.

Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show185Filling option trades can often feel like pulling teeth. While some trades and orders get through easily and without issue, others are incredibly stubborn and hard to get filled. To add to your frustration, the entire order execution process appears to be just another confusing black box. There's seemingly no rhyme or reason why this trade got filled but that one didn't? So this week's show is dedicated to shining a light on order filling for option trades and helping to demystify what is otherwise a simple market process.

Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show184Adjusting trades that move against you can be hard enough. Choosing how to adjust and when to pull the trigger complicates what otherwise was a simple trade to start with. Now, throw in an early assignment to the mix and you've got quite the convoluted option trade on your hands. Sounds daunting already doesn't it? But fear not. Complicated and complex trades like the one that happened to us in FXI the other month give you a great opportunity to learn and grow as a trader. On today's show, we'll walk through the entire FXI position from start to finish, including all the profit and loss calculations including adjustments and an early assignment. Lean into this show and don't skip it - your future self with thank you for taking the time now so that you don't have to freak out later when it happens to you.

Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show183Be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful. This classic Buffett quote had echoed though the ranks of investors for decades. But does that data support the methodology? Does investor sentiment, which for many investors is widely considered a contrarian indicator, have enough predictive power to warrant our time and attention? In today's show, we'll explore investor sentiment from all angles and help discover which readings, if any, give predictive power to future stock market returns or trends.

Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show182Greed, fear, FOMO, anxiety, panic, over-confident, stubbornness, impatience. These are just a few of the frequent emotional and mental states that traders find themselves in. And while we cannot avoid these emotions and thought processes, we can learn to manage them through emotional intelligence. This week's podcast was curated to help you learn how to more effectively recognize and manage the dozens of emotional and cognitive responses you'll come across in your trading career.

Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show181There's an old saying in investing that a "rising tide lifts all boats." And while that might be true, when the tide goes out, all the boats sink and fall just as fast as they rose together. Still, you'll hear the pounding of drums in the name of classic diversification as the portfolio savior during these downturns. Our research suggests, however, that even a well-diversified portfolio can still completely blow up just when you need it to protect you most.

Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show180You've got your prized covered call setup and it's working in your account - now what? How do you manage or adjust the position in different market scenarios? Lucky for you, we are going to review the best-covered call management techniques on today's podcast. And if you think this show is just for stock traders, you'd be wrong, because proper covered call management could be a lifesaver for options traders who get assigned and are forced to deal with stock.

Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show179You've got your prized covered call setup and it's working in your account - now what? How do you manage or adjust the position in different market scenarios? Lucky for you, we are going to review the best-covered call management techniques on today's podcast. And if you think this show is just for stock traders, you'd be wrong, because proper covered call management could be a lifesaver for options traders who get assigned and are forced to deal with stock.

Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show178Box spreads and arbitrage strategies are often synonymous with one another and referenced interchangeably in the options trading community. And after all, who doesn't want a risk-free way to earn money right? But like all things that seem too good to be true, box spreads carry some serious risks if you're not careful in how you set them up. Today's show then focuses exclusively on box spread basics for options traders.

Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show177Index options have continued to grow in popularity. Potentially because they are easy to use, available in highly liquid markets, have favorable tax treatment in some cases, and offer a simple settlement process. Therefore, we've dedicated an entire show to help you understand what index options are, how they work, how they are different from equity options, and what you need to be aware of if you decide to start trading them in your portfolio.

Show Notes: http://optionalpha.com/show176Hedging stock positions can be tricky business. One of the most common schools of thought is to use a simple protective put strategy whereby a stock investor would simply purchase a long out-of-the-money put option to act as "insurance" in case the stock fell. Sounds logical but we're skeptics here at Option Alpha and so we went on a hunt to see what research and data say about the protective put strategy and it's effectiveness at protecting or hedging stock positions.

Show Notes: http://optionalpha.com/show175Stock trading is easy to understand conceptually because it's one-dimensional. Either the stock goes up or it goes down. Clear and simple, at least from a trading and profit or loss perspective. Options trading, however, is multi-dimensional. Price, time, and volatility all impact the value and price of an options contract. On today's show we're selectively choosing to highlight the impact that volatility has on options because, as we've seen in the 2020 market collapse, if you're not managing volatility, it could become your worst nightmare.

Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show174Earnings season comes around four times a year for stocks, and as traders, we've always loved the idea of trading these events for the crush in implied volatility and quick potential moves in option strategy positions. However, after analyzing 1,546 earnings events across 40 underlyings over 10 years we decided to stop trading earnings events completely. In today's podcast, I'm going to walk through the research on earnings moves, and how different options strategies performed under various setups and conditions.