I want to get into options, but the little I learned way back pointed towards these being good mostly for intraday trading. I want to hear from those who maybe trade options on a weekly basis and/or longer periods than that. I've got a day job still and can't be in front of a monitor to baby sit my every move.
To develop your option trading into consistent results is not an easy path. You may consider following a reliable service which is not a "white knuckle" ride while seeking your <dream trade> on the side, since you have a day job. The RTT by Capital Discussions may be a fit.
depends on which time zone you live. Here in Alaska markets open at 5:30 am. I go to work at 9 am so I have plenty of time to daytrade in the morning. Usually I have more returns at first hour versus rest of the day and plus you don't want to sit in front of screen all day, you will get trapped by noise. Distracted trading is better IMO
That's all I trade, Weeklys. That said, I recommend that you start your education by reading the following books and visiting the following websites. Books: -Option Pricing & Volatility (2nd Edition)..Sheldon Natenberg -Options as a Strategic Investment (5th Edition)..Lawrence G. McMillan -The Complete Guide to Option Selling: How Selling Options Can Lead to Stellar Returns in Bull and Bear Markets (3rd Edition).. James Cordier and Michael Gross - Options, Futures, and Other Derivatives (9th Edition)..John C. Hull - Getting Started in Options (8th Edition).. Michael C. Thomsett - Option Spread Trading: A Comprehensive Guide to Strategies and Tactics..Russell Rhoads - Trading Weekly Options..Russell Rhoads In addition I would visit, at a minimum, the following websites to help further your education; The Options Industry Council http://www.optionseducation.org/en.html The Options Clearing Corporation http://www.optionsclearing.com/ Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) Education Center http://www.cboe.com/learncenter/ Chicago Mercantile Exchange Education Center http://www.cmegroup.com/education.html NASDAQ http://www.nasdaq.com/ Financial Industry Regulatory Authority http://www.finra.org/ National Futures Association http://www.nfa.futures.org/ Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Option_(finance) There's also a number of magazines available on the newsstands (e.g. Barnes and Noble, Books A Million, etc.) that feature articles and columns about options and how to analyze/trade them. They include; Modern Trader (was, until 2015, Futures and still is on the Web) http://www.futuresmag.com/ Technical Analysis of Stocks and Commodites http://www.traders.com ThinkMoney (online and mostly options oriented) https://tickertape.tdameritrade.com/thinkmoney Best
Weekly, Monthly, and Yearlies are all viable option trading strategies. Options are powerful tools that can be used for many diverse purposes and in many diverse ways. There are some very common and popular trading strategies that revolve purely around weekly/monthly (or even quarterly) options. For example, the Covered Call. Also, purchasing of Call Options one quarter out is a popular strategy if attempting to capture an unexpected rise after an earnings report.
One of the best option books you can get AFTER familiarizing yourself with Options 101 books from Natenburg, Cottle and McMillan is John Bender's interview on Market Wizards. His take on profitable options trading is using technical analysis ON THE TICKER to figure out it's probability distribution and putting on the right spread to maximize profit. His example was Gold where he put on a backspread after breaking $800 (I think).. His thinking was the BlackScholes posits a smooth bell curve centered around $800 while real life demonstrates that gold landing at $750 has better chance than $798 due to buildup of stops after the key $800 level. MOST option services/scanners does not address this kind of screening ie spread payoff AND technical studies on ticker. It can be done with Amibroker, Sierracharts,and maybe Ninja- after some programming but definitely nothing off-the-shelf. Good luck.
Lastly, here is a link to the book. He made tons of $$$ and used it to buy land in LatAM to preserve wildlife,etc. Sadly, John Bender was killed (by his wife?) in Costa Rica years ago. http://www.uamconsult.com/book_606_chapter_15_JOHN_BENDER_-_Questioning_theObvious.html