Several years ago, before IB had universal accounts, I maintained two different accounts. One futures, one equity options. Since I'm not a stock guy my options account suffered from poor trading and had a balance of around $155. Rather than just close it (there was no way I was going to further fund my options BS) I found a 1.50 call in QQQ and bought a 1 lot. A week or so later the call was worth a dime. Thus I had just a tad over 10 bucks net liq. Lo and behold there was one of those mega rallies where the call went back over a buck. I sold it for 1.10 and then hit a few doubles, triples, ect and went from $10 to $2700 in something like 2 months. I remember the last trade in the account was buying $2700 in CSCO calls in front of earnings and those options died a quick death......
I think you have to be very conservative, find a pattern that you've seen work over and over, find options that move nice ice, nyx, nmx, aapl, ebay, hpq, hov, rimm these trade like stocks 30% is only .09 on a .30 option if you can pull it off 30% on 1000.00 turns into 112,500.00 in 18 trades I still believe if you get good at chart reading then options are the best way to make cash I don't know anything about delta, gamma rama or any of the other stuff I just buy puts and calls when I think price is going to move I'm sure volitility on ice on friday before options ex was way down but the .05 went to 8.50 that day they announced a merger look at that chart of ostk yesterday, i'm sure that was no option to want but it took off, so I just watch price and patterns on a 10 day, 20 day 60 day and the 1 and 2 year charts and look for patterns that I think will work
the aapl 85.00 more then doubled today the ebays almost a double and amln ran to 1.50 should have held
why not it looks like it took off from .50 to 4.00 on the 50 calls I found a couple that really trade like stocks, i'll put up the charts of some off them but I caught a double off psun and should have held on and jrcc and it barely traded , so I looked at some that traded nice but I think if you catch them right any option should move, i'm trying to put together some that I know will move so I can watch them like aapl it really trades and rimm, i'm sure guys on here know much more about these things then I do, I don't trade anything but puts and calls, I know a little bit about the complex stuff but I am trying to keep it simple
heres the charts for asd made a nice move http://i8.tinypic.com/2w65iqx.gif http://i15.tinypic.com/40asufq.gif
heres some charts that look like their stocks aapl, ebay, hpq, rimm http://i1.tinypic.com/2yy1dtj.gif http://i9.tinypic.com/4ckgymx.gif http://i13.tinypic.com/4ics905.gif http://i2.tinypic.com/4h17mfc.gif these are not real time but they look like stocks
Thanks joe. It's funny how we sometimes see something we saw a long time ago but it can mean so much more at a later time when we see it again. I worked with options partime until 2005 and then discovered futures and lost myself in them. I have tried to keep my trading at a macro/directional only level but I know I will one day have to get those damn greeks into the system. One thing that I find very interesting is your take on seeing options as you see stocks. Meaning only trading the most liquids options, where you can find thin spreads and with penny pricing available now, applying a simple intraday trading system could make just the right mix I imagine. The fact that options have greeks could make a selection process even more entertaining. Do you have any idea of how many stocks have options liquid enough to be traded intraday as a stock? So much to learn, so little time. Good luck in your quest !!
ma did anybody catch any of this today the 100s went from .o5 to 2.50 the 105s went from .15 to 3.50 http://i6.tinypic.com/2qxc37k.gif http://i17.tinypic.com/2vsly0m.gif just wondering if anybody who really knows options can explian the delta and volitility and if it had any effect on these today or did they just change with price?