Hey All, I am noob to options but have been trading stocks for a while now. I have been dabbling with options for the past year and lost some real $$. I already understand the options strategies but having tough time understand how to analyze them. - Are there good tools to analyze my strategies without really trying them out in the market? Do trading site provide any software that I can use? - I am also looking for a good options trader. Assuming I won't do too many contracts in a year but more interested in the data and the software that comes with it. What do you guys recommend? Again the goal is to be able understand and analyze my plays without really diving into it with real money. Hoping for no maintenance, low balance type trader. - Any book recommendations. I picked up a few beginners books but they all start with "what is put and call" type stuff. I want to learn what strategy to apply where. risk analysis, stop loss etc. Any help will be greatly appreciated.
question 1 - you can use tos (now tda) software to do this although you can pretty much get this software from any reputable broker. question 2 - again you can paper trade using tda, ib, whoever question 3 - book recs - i'd start backwards and see what type of trader you are FIRST then seek out books for your personality. for ex, i am NEVER short premium b/c i have no desire to wake up one day naked short otm front month puts that i sold for $0.10 USD that are now bid $10.00 USD b/c a terrorist set off a dirty bomb. so with that said, tailor your reading to the strategies you are comfortable with.