I've got a mail for a free options workshop where they claim that a nondirectional trades make money if stock goes up and if the stock goes down it makes money too. Is it possible ? Thanks,
i hope this is not a rhetoric question.... of course it is possible. as long as you have a long gamma position with neutral delta, you can make money on the way up or down equally. unfortunately chances of making any money are in the range of just 30% though.
There a number of ways to achieve this. Some, as has been pointed out, make money as long as it makes a big move to the upside or downside, while taking a loss if doesn't move or doesn't move enough. Other ways of making money regardless of the direction is to use range strategies, such as iron condors, for example. This way you make money as long as the stock doesn't make a dramatic move up or down, so as long as it stays flat or moves slightly up/down you are ok.
Don't buy the workshop. There are strategies that earn profits in rising, falling, or neutral markets. The trick is to choose the right method at the right time. I can show you how to profit 95% of the time? Does that interest you? IT SHOULDN'T. What you need to know is how much do you lose on the losing trades compared with profits on the winning trades. Those are the only numbers that matter. People lie with statistics and these people are not going to be teaching you anything worthwhile for the fees they charge. The FREE workshop is merely an introduction to get their hooks into you. Mark http://blog.mdwoptions.com/options_for_rookies/
Good traders don't hold workshops. Good investors don't run seminars. ie Trump, that pimp. TRMP = .25 a share.
Hombre, What Mark says is right. This reminds me of the Baron's commercial on T.V. where it says something like "Market goes up...you make money....Market goes down....you make money" and my mom always thinks they must know some secret to making money when the market goes down. Of course, they forget to tell you that you have to know the market will go down to profit - if you guess it is going down and it goes up, you will probably lose. With options, it is easy to make a position where you make money in rising markets or falling markets (or both) or in neutral markets, but if you guess wrong, you will lose money just as quickly and easily as owing stock during a market decline. JJacksET4
The initial workshop will be free then you will likely be offered their special training (the same shit you can get in books) about basic strategies. Even if this was a value most new option traders are being given a howitzer with complicated strategies that are commission heavy. Now some people have no problem dropping a few grand for education but there have been some other threads on this topic. I would say open a demo account and trade that for six months and you can trade as many iron condors as you like commission free. Two good option teachers are (read actual mentoring ability) Dan Sheridan and Charles Cottle. There are many others. There are quite a few really knowledgeable option traders on this site as well. You can tell who is who by the posts, good trading.
I agree that you shouldn't buy into workshops/seminarts - better to buy a few books. Myself, I'm trading a NDOS successfully as part of my toolbox. The trade setups are a bit rare, and the payoff isn't that big by options standards - still I find it worthwile to pursue. So yes, it is possible but I'd say they require some market experience.