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What all of these paths hold in common is that they are geared for "retail" traders and focus on individual trades. What you're not told is that there is no one option strategy that works all of the time. Covered call traders tend to do real well during periods when the market is climbing higher and will even make out okay when it's trading sideways. A falling market can bring a lot of pain for them, however.
Ever hear of iron condors? Terrific for taking advantage of range bound markets, but when the market makes a big move up or down, you can really get hurt. So, what if we took all of the best things these strategies offered and rolled it into one monstrous options strategy? There are folks who have tried this. It's a trap for the unwary. There is an answer, though... What if you learned how to trade like a professional? What if you learned how to open multiple options positions, each complimenting the rest of your portfolio, to create exactly the risk profile you want? That's how the professionals do it. Why not you? First, let me share a bit of my history as an options trader so that you can appreciate where I am coming from and why you might want to consider what I have put together here. How Irrational
Exuberance Prepared Me My name is Chris Smith. I'm the founder of TheOptionClub.com, and I'm a retail trader just like you.
My accounts got fat and I could see my dreams being fulfilled... What I did not realize was that we were experiencing a wildly irrational bull market...one that Alan Greenspan referenced as being fueled by "irrational exuberance..." ...I was just another one of the lemmings drinking the Kool Aid as I bought stock as fast as my on-line broker and dial-up Internet connection allowed... Yes, it was the "Dot Com" era and I was riding the euphoric wave that lifted profitless companies with the expectation that the Internet was going to... ...yes...change everything, including their income statements! Then came the big reality check... As the market began to wake up to the fact that most of these Internet companies were losing money quarter-after-quarter, and clue in on the reality that they owned stock in a bunch of crappy companies, the market began a vicious sell-off that ripped gaping holes in my portfolio.
I went to cash. I waited for the market to bottom. I bought back in... Then the market sold off some more... Now I was using stop loss orders, which were routinely being triggered as I continued to buy stock in a falling market. I was getting clobbered! Finally, I realized that buying stock in a bear market was a fool's game and that I was the fool playing it. I was humbled and finally realized that there was a great deal I needed to learn...and that began my journey into options trading... Charlie's 5% Per Month Cash Machine One day while the market was selling off, I found myself sitting in a conference room for most of the day. During the breaks, I began talking to the guy next to me about the market and confessed that I had suffered a real set back. This guy, let's call him Charlie because I've honestly forgotten his name, began telling me how he was now pulling 5% or more out of the market each month! Doing the math in my head, I realized that was 60% per year and considering my recent experience thought that was a screaming hot return. That day, at lunch and during each break, I asked questions and even took notes about how Charlie was selling call options against his stock. After Charlie explained the "nuts and bolts" of his operation it seemed straight forward and almost "stupid easy" to pull off. Here's how Charlie was doing it...
Each month Charlie would look for stocks that had found support in the market or that had begun to trend higher. Once he had several candidates, he looked at the call premium and calculated his return for each one. Charlie explained that if the stock traded higher he would be assigned, but that he was okay with that since he would have made his 5% or more on the trade. "But what if the stock doesn't trade higher?" I asked. Charlie just shrugged and with a casual gesture said he would keep selling his calls each month, just like a cash machine... After that conference was over, I was on the telephone to my broker asking about options and what I needed to do to trade them. The brokerage sent over a small pile of forms I had to complete and send back. Looking at that pile of forms, which seemed like just one more disclaimer after another, it occurred to me that I might want to learn a little more about options before jumping in... Enter The Hotel Seminar... My first step after spending the day with Charlie, was to buy a small handful of books about options. I read up on covered calls and then tried Charlie's cash machine approach. What I found was that covered calls don't work so well in a bear market. It didn't matter, though. I had learned enough to know that options were the solution I was looking for and it was simply a matter of educating myself properly. The next step was to "invest" thousands of dollars in a weekend seminar that promised to reveal all I needed to know to trade options. For two days I sat in a hotel ballroom and learned the basics about options...
...and the company's other seminar offerings. I also learned that if I really want to learn how to trade options that I would need to spend about $20,000 on additional seminars and related products. I was fascinated, though. I also remained convinced that options held tremendous opportunity for me to control market risks, create profit opportunities, and resurrect my investment and trading accounts... As it turns out, I was right... Getting Serious And Trading Like A Business After years of reading about options, discussing options, back-testing, experimenting, and learning as much as I could possibly learn about options I began to formulate the theories and philosophies that would finally allow me to realize my goal. What I did was step away from the "one trick options trading pony" mentality. I had realized that no one options strategy was fool proof and that this simple fact was not going to change no matter how much I tortured any given strategy with adjustments and modifications. Iron condors are great when the market is range bound, but you'll suffer when it breaks out from its range. Calendar spreads and diagonals will deal you losses when implied volatility falls...and this is particularly true if you're using LEAPS! Covered calls work well in flat and up-trending markets...but you can get hammered when the underlying stock sells off. Married puts seem so safe, but they're no safer than buying a long call and they need an upward market move if you hope to make money...
Unfortunately, most of the subscription trading services only focus on ONE strategy! Many try to convince you that their system is your key to obscene wealth, but come on...we both know better. Appreciating that each options strategy has its own inherent strengths and weaknesses, it becomes apparent that no one strategy holds the answer... If there is no ONE strategy, then what's the answer? Before answering that question, let's ask another. Who's actually making money trading options? The answer is the obvious one - professional traders.
Well, if professional traders make money trading options perhaps it would make sense for us to pay attention to what they do and then try to adopt similar approaches in our own accounts. Makes sense, right? Now, the answer to the first question is that if there is no ONE strategy that will unlock the vault, then the answer lies in using a combination of several strategies. If you doubt that conclusion, just watch a professional options trader over the course of the year. They will adopt the strategy that best suits the market's condition. If the idea of trading multiple strategies has you unnerved...don't be. There Are ONLY Two Market Certainties. So, We Want To Make Sure Our Trading Takes Advantage Of Them I had also learned that the market was unpredictable. Technical analysis has its uses, but it is NOT a crystal ball and no one is going to foretell market sell-offs or declines reliably enough for us to make money...at least not on a recurring basis. What is certain is that market prices will fluctuate from one day to the next and that stock options will expire. Playing on this certainty, I focused the core of the portfolio on "theta positive" positions. This allowed my portfolio to appreciate in value, without regard for market direction, through the simple passage of time while market prices fluctuated up, or down, within a wide range.
I also developed strategies and techniques to take advantage of directional price moves, hedge against market sell-offs, and to protect profits once earned.... All of the theories and skills I've referenced are not secret or proprietary in any sense. They are commonly used by knowledgeable options traders, both professionals working with institutional money, as well as sophisticated retail traders. The key is to first learn the basics about options and how they work, then refine that knowledge into a comprehensive trading approach... I did it after several years and with the benefit of having access to some very knowledgeable people in the option trading world. ...then something happened that BLEW MY MIND! A few months ago I became aware of another retail trader, like me, and you! He had learned the very same, or very similar, lessons that I had learned and had developed a trading methodology quite similar to my own. Each month he was building a core portfolio of theta positive trades to create a large profit envelope. He then complimented the theta positive positions with short-term directional trades. The short-term nature of the directional trades limited the negative effect of theta and hedged against significant changes in implied volatility. Those trades also helped offset the risk of a large market move. What was particularly surprising was that he had produced numerous videos revealing exactly what he did every month. The videos were awesome...
It was like walking over to your neighbor's house and listening while they explain how to program your VCR...simple and straight forward. When he was done, you feel like you can go do it yourself! I had to watch the full set of videos, which he was offering for sale. I paid a "pretty penny" to get a copy but it was well worth it. In fact, I learned a few things that I began incorporating into my own trading. What really got me was how similar his approach to option trading was to my own. After watching the entire set of videos, I got in touch with this gentleman and bought a license to the entire video set because I knew I had to share them with the members of TheOptionClub.com.
Now, that license was not cheap and I may very well end up regretting parting with that cash. However, I felt is was important for me to do so that I could bring those instructional video materials to you. That's not the end of the story, though. His trading methods are really good... Mine are not too shabby either and I do happen to have some thoughts about things that were not contained in his videos. So, I intend to add to his materials with videos and publications of my own... ...more about that later and how it will really benefit you! It's Not Your Fault That You Lost Money Trading Options In The Past Because Most Options Education Does Not Really Prepare You To Trade Remember those questions I asked at the beginning of this report? What I can tell you is that if you answered "yes" to just one, or even all of those questions, it is because you have not made the transition from being educated about options to knowing how to really use them. It's not your fault, though!
Years ago I went to college and got a business degree. I learned about accounting. I was taught various economic theories. I studied marketing, and finance, and production theory... I learned a lot in college...but, I did not learn how to run a business. After college I went to law school and took classes in contracts, criminal law, civil procedure, tax, and more... When I graduated from law school, after another three years of study on top of what I spent in college, I had learned quite a bit, but did not know how to practice law... Was I just learning disabled? No. It's not that I was a defective student. It's that my education in college and law school were not designed to teach me how to run a business or to even practice law. That combined seven years of my life wasn't wasted, though. What I received were valuable building blocks that I could put to use in my choice of career path. The point I am driving at is the fact that college and law school gave me an academic and theoretical understanding of various concepts. The experience broadened my mind and exposed me to new ideas... ...it did not show me how to adapt those concepts to practical applications, however. After college and law school I got a job and began encountering real world problems. I learned how to apply my theoretical knowledge by watching more experienced people. I went through the same process with options, and so does everyone else who decides that they want to trade them. Options traders are NOT born. They're made. If you have learned about options and have an understanding as to how they work you are probably ready to learn how to apply that theory... This is where a lot of new option traders encounter frustration. Their initial trades may fail to produce profits. They may achieve profitability for a period of time, just to see those profits disappear in a string of losses. Frustration! Every trader must transition from theory to practical application... Discovering How To Apply Options Theory To Real Markets There are a few good training programs available that will show you how to take your knowledge about stock options and apply it in a methodical, business-like manner to create consistent and ongoing profits. Those programs can cost $6,000 or more, and can be a very solid investment in your options trading career. Maybe you can't afford $6,000 right now for the privilege of personalized mentoring... Well, there is now a lower cost alternative. Below I have embedded just a portion of one of the videos I mentioned earlier. It's less than 10 minutes long AND I shrunk the size down to fit on this web page... ...but if you hit the play button you should still begin to get a sense of what the video course is about. I have the full length version of this video, which runs about 30-minutes, plus seven additional videos that I am making available at absolutely no cost. You can watch them for FREE...
The link to the first video is live. If after watching that video you want to watch all eight of them, just provide your first name and e-mail in the form below.
You will receive an e-mail from us, asking that you confirm your request. Once you click on the confirmation link, we will provide you with immediate access to videos 2 through 8. The Trading Room Was Opened Up To A Small
Group
What You Can Expect From
Your Upon subscribing, you will have access to the core video course, which consists of 11 modules. Each of these modules contain several 'hands-on' videos walking you through the topics covered. The videos let you see exactly what to do as you learn and you can watch them over and over again to strengthen your understanding. As I mentioned above, I plan to expand upon these original course videos and add additional materials over time. Trading is an ever evolving practice, so we aren't going to let this curriculum grow stale. There are topics that have already been identified and that will be addressed. Members subscribing to the service are also making requests for new materials, and while we can't guarantee that every request will be fulfilled, we are trying to accommodate as many as we reasonably can. You will be able to download and watch these videos on your home computer. We will give you the username and password you need to access them anytime of the day or night - when it's convenient to your schedule. In addition, you will have access to these videos and any new materials we add at a later date, so long as you remain a subscriber! The Modules in the core video course are: MODULE 0: INTRODUCTION TO TRADING AS A BUSINESS & TRADING WITH CONFIDENCE
MODULE 1-2-3: THE GREEKS - MANAGING BY THE NUMBERS
MODULE 4 : TRADE SELECTION AND STRATEGY
MODULE 5: PORTFOLIO BUILDING
MODULE 6: USING THE TOS PLATFORM - THE TOOLS OF THE TRADE
MODULE 7: PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT BY THE GREEKS, ADJUSTMENTS, VIX and More...
MODULE 8: THE ART OF ADJUSTMENTS - THE SECRET KEY
MODULE 9 : CLOSING POSITIONS
MODULE 10 : THE BIG PICTURE - TECHNICAL ANALYSIS
MODULE 11 : ADVANCED TECHNIQUES AND EXPLOSIVE WEALTH BUILDING STRATEGIES
The course will be delivered to you 100% online. You can download the videos directly to your computer in *.zip / *.wmv video format. This allows us to provide you with the highest quality and clearest videos for you to watch. You may make one copy of these videos on a storage device (CD, DVD or external drive) but may not allow anyone else to view, copy or share them. They are for your use only. What Else?In addition you will receive access to approximately 30 "Daily Market Review and Commentary" videos. These videos were shot on a day-to-day basis, giving you insight into how the principles taught in the course can be applied from one trading day to the next. In the Daily Market Review Videos you will see what not to do, discussions about assessing and responding to market conditions, the process of digging into your positions so you understand what your numbers mean, how to assess the 'health' of the market and trends, and more... Basically you'll experience historical markets on a day-by-day basis by looking over a trader's shoulder as they 'think out loud' and strategise positions, and do some deep thinking about their portfolio and this business. There is still more...Regular live training sessions are held most weekends. Just log-in on your computer or dial in using your telephone. Those training sessions are recorded and added to the download archive. Need even more help? We have established a private, members-only discussion forum. This is where you can connect with others studying the same materials as you, ask questions, get answers, and discuss trading. You'll have access to the forum for as long as you're a member. And remember...it can only get better because we will be adding more to the curriculum. As long as you remain a subscriber, you will have access to our latest materials and can take part in our ongoing options trading discussions. Okay! What's The Bottom Line? Hey! Times are tough. Maybe laying down $6,000 or more to spend time with a mentor or trading coach is not in this year's trading budget... That's okay because it is still possible for you to learn sophisticated monthly income trading methods. The goal here is to make this incredibly affordable so you can learn the concepts necessary to "trade like a business" without the stress of a large commitment. Now, relax because I'm not going to ask for $6,000. I do want to make a point, however We have all seen other courses for $3,000, $5,000, $6,000, and more. There are just a few guys out there who are worth paying that kind of money to, and at some point you may be willing to sign up with them. As for the rest, I know that you will get much more from this course. I want to put some solid materials in your hands at a very reasonable and affordable price. Some will call it down right cheap... The cost of the course is an up-front fee of
You will enjoy unfettered access for 45-days, after which
you will be automatically billed just
The bottom line is that once you log into the Trading Room after having subscribed, take a look around. If it's not what you want, just send me an e-mail and let me know within 48 hours. I'll reverse all charges and we go on with our lives. If you log in and feel pretty enthusiastic about what you see there (and I'm pretty confident you will) download the videos from the first module or two and dive in. Check into the private discussion forum and get acquainted with your fellow students. After the initial 45 days, you will be charged a
monthly fee, but at The TOC Trading Room is a private membership web site intended to help subscribers learn about options and how options can be used within an investment or trading portfolio. It is not a trade advisory service. All purchases are subject to our Terms of Service.
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Disclaimer Terms Of Service Site Map Copyright © 2003-2009 Christopher Smith, B.B.A., J.D., and TheOptionClub.com. All rights reserved. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||