I have only started in Stock/ETF options five months ago thinking I could never get back to day trading due illnesses slowing my reaction times. I have done lots of covered calls in my past, but never going into much other than that with stocks, although I traded a great deal in years in Commodities(using options to hedge) and stocks outright, am a Newbie in options to profit outright. Past five months have been a real education, 85% of trades buying options have lost, but the 15% actually has me up overall on that experiment. No more buying them. The rest of the trades have been Credit Spreads and have done just ok overall. I never realized educating myself in options would be so much harder than first thought. It has been fun, in a way. If I didn't have methods for directional trades, I know I would be losing in a huge way. But what is truly amusing, using several different approaches for directional signals, all made better than breakeven cause I had a Trading Plan before entering trades. I have settled on one approach, so I am looking to expand instruments I am watching. Been doing the Dow 30, top 10 volume Etfs and five expensive stocks. Can someone tell me if stocks in the S&P 500 are all optionable? And are they all heavily volume options like the Dow 30? Without going thru ever stock, is there a list of which ones give dividends? Thank you for responses.
You can see monthly options volumes here. I typically take 3 months and extract those that have been in the top 50 or whatever over the period. Keeps me away from flavour of the month stuff. Once I have my list I use FinViz to get further info on the stocks, stuff like dividends, earnings dates, etc. http://www.cboe.com/data/AvgDailyVolArchive.aspx
Options should be traded as fixed risk unlimited reward, such contrast typically leads to low accuracy.
I think you will like doing more equity options. There is a much larger sample to choose from, more liquidity and more flexibility in structuring a trade. A lot of pros seem to get their bread and butter from earnings plays, but it may take you some time to assemble the necessary tools and an efficient workflow. As we all know, everything gets highly correlated during periods of economic shock. But during normal times, lots of ways to make (and loose) money. I am actually looking to get into agricultural options in the not too distant future. I hope we see more non-financial options posts in the future. Btw, your commissions are gonna go thru the roof!
These are meaningful stats. But the paranoid in me says that this list is being watched by wolves and I will get fleeced. http://www.cboe.com/Framed/IBFramed.aspx I dunno. If anybody can make an argument how, I will be very grateful.