After thinking about it,I am pretty confident you are correct in your assessment..... I think I have distilled 20 years of derivative trading and simplified it to a level where I dont need the greeks.... I am back in your camp!!
If you buy options, buy them when premiums are attractive. If you sell options, sell them when premiums are attractive. Thank you for your time--Ishmael
Pay attention to the underlying and you can easily see the attractiveness. Thank you for your time--Izzy
Bull! Options don't trade like stocks. You find a bullishly attractive stock, that does not mean it's a good idea to buy calls. Thanks for wasting everyone's time-John Galt
I don't think he was serious.... i think he was providing just as useful a reply as another member here... unless you're joking too, in which case that would make me a dolt. edit: while i'm at it... wrt to the original question... I just don't see how you could, w/out a graphical view. i'm doing it with td waterhouse... and I have to rely on greeks since they don't have those fancy charts.
I just found two posts (both from Maverick74) that I personally consider are quite relevant. Do the Greeks provide any reasonably good predicting capability for the upcoming options prices? I think the Romans (IV) do! http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=1326299 http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=1615995
My personal view is, for some long-term directional and trend-following traders, buying calls (long calls) would be a fairly good decision, basically! Of course, I might be wrong.
Joe, You have obviously spent a great deal of time engaged in introspection. The time has not been wasted. Ultimately, we need at the very least a good feel for Options behavior, and a good understanding of the maths involved will help people achieve this. Regards Johno