Archive for the ‘Tools’ Category

postheadericon P3 and T3 Books- Specific Long and Short Option Strategies

The P3: Putting Profit Probability on Your Side has been available for 12 months and I am excited to announce that its popularity has brought a companion book the T3: Traders Edge.  So traders now have a long and complementary short strategy that dovetail together.  As the P3 is completing, you will often find that a T3 is forming.

Both books go over the specifics of the strategy- indicators, setting up a hart, recognizable chart patterns, buy and sell alerts and confirmations. The P3 details all of the necessary elements to successful trade the guaranteed squeeze pattern.  Many traders asked for a book detailing a short strategy that would be as easy to spot as the P3 and finally the T3 is available.

In addition, both books offer a Newsletter that lists stocks that are creating the pattern for traders who are short on time.  Details can be obtained at (store) http://www.tradewins.com/wendy-kirkland/  or call information at http://www.p3system.com or http://www.t3optionstrading.com .

postheadericon The Puzzle of Deltas

For years I have been telling traders to strive to purchase in-the-money options that have high Deltas, preferably 1. if possible.  Recently, Bev, a friend and fellow trader and I had a dicsussion about Deltas and she explained that she understood it to be advantageous to have a high Delta, but not necessarily as high as 1.  My goal has always been to achieve dollar option profit for every dollar stock profit.

Well, Bev gave me the particulars in a way that I could really understand and I stand corrected.

So here are the details. 

Let’s take two different strike prices for the same option.
Ford Underlying is $13.73 (at time of Buy)
1. The 1.0 Delta,  premium is $5.80
When the stock moves to $14.73 (1 dollar gain),
the premium moves to $6.80  (1 dollar gain.)
If you divide 5.80 by 6.80, you get a 17% gain.
———————————————————————–
2.  The .71 Delta premium is $1.16
When the stock moves to $14.73 (1 dollar gain)
the premium moves to $1.87  (1.16 plus .71 cents))
If you divide 1.16 by 1.87, you get a 62% gain.
——————————————————————————————-
The cheaper the premium, the lower the Delta, but out-of-the-money gets very risky (as far as winning), but the rewards get
higher as the delta gets lower.  You’d just have to luck out.
I still suggest buying at-the-money or in-the-money by a two levels with Delta between .55 and .80. these will have likelier wins.
Now admittedly, the difference in this shared example seems out of proportion. .71 Delta with premium of $ 1.16 and 1. Delta and premium for $5.80. Big span between $5.80 and $1.16 and little span between 1. and .71.  But they’ve been used to illustrate the math involved.  As you now look at the option chains, trying to determine which of the in-the-money options holds the best percentage, you now have the knowledge and skills to answer the question for yourself.
I thank Bev for bringing this advantage to my attentions and I am happy to share it with you.

postheadericon Pay Attention To Where A Candle Closes

If a picture is worth a thousand words, the same can be said for a stock chart. Knowing how to read a candle chart can tell you a lot about how a stock trades.

Strip out all the indicators and moving average lines, relative strength lines and volume bars and you’re left with price action. That’s the most basic , and probably most important feature. On a stock’s price candle, which gives the daily or weekly price range, locate the hash mark or top and bottom of the candle’s body.

This short horizontal lines shows where the stock closed for the day or the week. In the case of the candle body, the top shadow shows the high of the day and the lower shadow line shows the low of the day.

Why should you pay attention to where the stock closes for the day?

It can help you guage whether higher volume buyers are lending support to the stock. It’s a good sign if a stock keeps closing in the upper half of its daily or weekly price range. That means the big boys are likely snapping up shares, prompting the stock to rise or at least hold firm.

But a stock that often closes near its session lows signals weak demand for shares. Could mean the big boys are heading for the exits.

Hash marks or high candle body closes become even more important while a stock forms a base pattern. You’d want to see a stock close in the upper half of its weekly range at the bottom of a base or as it is building a support level.

A bullish reversal at the bottom of a base or support level is also a postive sign. This occurs when a stock declines sharply but ends up recouping most, if not all, of it loss. The hash mark should for a “T”. Big Players may thionk the stock has sunk enough, and may be ready to pick up shares.

postheadericon Stop Orders Can Help When You Have to be Away

You can’t seem to find enough time to spend in front of the computer every day, keeping a close eye on your options, is a common problem. Life always gets in the way.

Don’t fret. By using a sound set of investing rules, you can still succeed at investing, even if you can’t follow stocks throughout the day.

Consider using buy-stop and sell-stop orders. These trades allow you to set a certain price at which you can buy or sell a certain number of options on any stock or ETF.

For instance, you’ve researched and done your DD on a hot bio company. It owns strong sales and earnings and tops a leading sector and industry. The broad market is in a clear uptrend.

You evaluate the stocks technical action now that it has passed your required fundamentals, and sure enough, the stock has formed a solid support area on light volume and now you see volume coming into the stock over the past few days as it begins to give signals of turning up.

You want to grab an at the money option as it breaks out. You can set a buy-stop limit order at the point that you would like to buy. If the break out point is, 50.75 stock price you could set the buy order for the option at its premium of 3.90 That way, if the stock hits that point, your broker will automatically execute an order for you at that price.

The same can be done on the sell side. A sell-stop market order will prompt your broker to sell your shares at that price once the market hits a certain point. As sell- limit order (rather than market-sell order) will ensure it doesn’t get sold beyond a certain price level.

There is one notable disadvantage to this strategy. It doesn’t account for volume changes. If a stock crosses it optimal buy point (the point and price you set) but volume comes in below average, that’s not a strong breakout. On a break out buy strategy, volume should swell to 50% or more above normal levels during a bullish breakout.

If your buy-stop order gets triggered and you later see that volume was weak, you should sell at least a portion of your options. If volume picks up later, you can buy back in.

postheadericon Women Option Traders’ Chatroom

Now that the book is on bookshelves, it will take a little while to build a community of women option traders; nonetheless, we are providing a 24/7 live chatroom. To start, we will schedule chats Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 8:00PM,  EST time. Wendy will be online to answer questions at that time.

To come directly to the chatroom paste chatroom site address into your favorites, click here  http://chatroll.com/option-trading  or click on the link on the right side of the  blog.

Remember you can also come directly to this blog site, without navigating through the WomenOptionTraders’ site by pasting the blog ‘s address into your favorites.  www.WomenOptionTraders.com/blog 

When you go to the chatroom site for the first time, please subscribe (left side- upper corner) (no cost to subscribe-just choose a name on the main chatroll site and then join option-trading chatroom when you are finished). We suggest doing this so we can evaluate membership numbers.

The room will be open 24 hour a day for the convenience of the developing community, the relationships that will form, and to accommodate various time zones. We no doubt will have members from Canada, England and beyond???

We look forward to chatting with you.

Make it a happy day!