Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show157 A couple of weeks ago I was reading the story of the three little pigs to my daughters. And for some reason, I couldn't help but think about the untold story of the three little pigs who traded options? Yes, it's true, many people don't know this but the three little pigs were actually given a large chunk of money from their mother and each decided to trade wildly different options portfolios when they set out on their own. In today's podcast, I'll walk through each of the different portfolios they used and how volatility and variance can impact long-term performance and why it's important that we know the story of the three little pigs that traded options.

The Option Alpha Podcast: Options Trading | Stock Options | Stock Trading | Trading Online

OAP 157 : The Untold Story Of The 3 Little Pigs That Traded Options

Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show156 Many of our members understand the best times to trade options (i.e. higher IV setups when option premiums are expensive), but should we avoid trading during other market situations? Today's podcast walks through the four general market situations I avoid aggressively trading in and explain why each type requires that you either sit on the sidelines or dramatically scale back your position size.

OAP 156 : The 4 Market Situations You Should Avoid Aggressively Trading

Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show155 Everyone loves a good options trading checklist right? Well, here are the 7 questions you should ask yourself before you put on an options trade. Answer each one over the next week and you'll build a strong habit that will keep your positions and portfolio in check before you put your hard earned money at risk.

OAP 155 : Ask Yourself These 7 Questions Before You Put On An Options Trade

Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show154 We get a lot of emails each day - I'm talking hundreds of emails. Naturally, seeing so many questions and comments come through the system, we found that these 17 top questions keep coming up again and again. So, in an effort to help you, and our team reduce the support inquiries, I'm recording answers to each of these questions in today's show.

OAP 154 : The 17 Most Asked Questions By Option Alpha Members w/ Answers

Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show153 Assignment for some traders can be scary and cause them to freeze up or throw in the towel. On today's podcast, we'll walk-thru another case study in which we got assigned on our iron butterfly position in TLT not once, but twice. Inside I'll move slowly as we look back at each stage in the trade from the original order entry, adjustments, assignment, and ultimately the covered calls we sold after being assigned stock. This podcast is worth listening to twice!

OAP153 : TLT Iron Butterfly & Covered Call Walk-Thru

Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show152 You're looking at a great setup for a neutral trade, but which neutral strategy do you use? Short straddle or short iron butterfly? It's a question we get all the time and today's podcast focuses exclusively on the trade-offs of using one strategy over the other. And while both strategies are built using the same core short straddle position, the choice of adding protection or not using long OTM options can sometimes lead to analysis paralysis. So, let's clear this hurdle together.

OAP 152 : Short Straddle Or Short Iron Butterfly?

Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show151 All over the internet, you'll hear stories of why short straddles and short strangles should be avoided at all costs. Stories of how trading "undefined" risk positions can blow up your account when the market moves against you quickly. And while position sizing still needs to be managed appropriately, the fact remains that properly adjusting short straddles and rolling for duration and premium can help turn so-called losers into profitable positions. In today's show, we'll focus on our most recent case study in EWZ in which we turned this losing set of straddles into a $540 winner with a little patience and some mechanical adjusting.

OAP 151 : Adjusting Short Straddles For $540 Profit (EWZ Case Study)

Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show150 As much as I love options trading and following the financial markets, I enjoy the challenge and process of building wealth. I think about wealth building as a 3-step process in broad terms, possibly in the shape of a pyramid even. And since it's our 150th show, I figured I would take a slightly new angle in today's podcast and discuss what I believe are the most valuable insights I can offer from my own experiences and research on how to manage your money and generate wealth. Plus, we'll use this 3-step or 3-part approach to help frame the conversation as best we can.

OAP 150 : How To Manage Your Money & Generate Wealth The Right Way

Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show149 For some reason, many traders fear being assigned option contracts as part of an option strategy. Maybe it's the large capital requirement to hold the shares or just the "unknown" around how to manage the position. But, like most things in life, when you slow down and take the time to walk through the position and the mechanics it becomes much easier.   On today's show, I want to once again provide another case study on how we managed a recent assignment on our GLD iron butterfly position. If was fun for me to go back through my own comments and remarks during this 4-month trade and I have no doubt that you'll also find it extremely helpful. We'll take you through each and every step from the initial trade entry, adjusting and inversion, being assigned shares, selling covered calls, etc. No details will be left out and we'll walk through the P&L calculations together step by step. Let's begin, shall we?

OAP 149 : Assigned Option Contract Case Study In Gold ETF GLD

Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show148 No system is perfect. No trader is perfect. You will have losing trades. But it's how you react to those losing trades, or even false positive trades, that defines how long you'll survive in this business. Today's show focuses on what I'm calling the 5x2 "Victim Matrix" in which there are 2 paths you can take follow each and every trading event. Each path has 5 stages or steps. Which path should you choose? Well, it's all inside our latest podcast episode.

OAP 148 : The 5x2 Trading Psychology Matrix

Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show147 Did you ever wonder what an options market maker is thinking or how they see the markets and regular traders like us? After all, these guys are the ones that are making markets in different securities each week. So, I invited one on the podcast to ask him questions and learn more about the “other side” of the business we rarely see. On today show, I have the opportunity to interview former CBOE options market maker and volatility trader David Lincoln. During our time together we discussed everything from how he went from making $100,000 in a day to losing $300,000 in one session to the lessons retail traders like us can learn from the his decades of trading experience. We also dove deep into volatility trading and pricing structures for VXX and UVXY and the strategies you can use to profit following a rise in market volatility. This is an episode you won’t want to miss!

OAP 147 : Interview w/ Former CBOE Options Market Maker David Lincoln

Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show146 If you trade options and are struggling to find consistency or profitability it's likely because you are breaking, knowingly or unknowingly, some important rules. Rules that are designed to keep you safe, protect your portfolio, and cater to the math and probabilities that drive any options selling system. On this episode, I'll walk thru the 11 common options strategy mistakes you might be making right now. Plus, we'll talk about the core principle or rule associated with each of the mistakes, which will help you quickly correct your trading system and ultimately find success sooner.

OAP 146 : Are You Making These 11 Common Options Strategy Mistakes?

Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show145 Is less more? Often we hear this phrase thrown about with the assumption that when investing you should do less, sit on your hands or trade further out, in order to generate higher profits and better returns. But is this really the case and does the math and data prove this to be the point? We wanted to put this assumption to the test with a couple backtested short straddles in IWM and EFA. No filters, no profit targets, no stop-loss orders; pure option selling strategies. Our goal was to see if trading options 60 days out was more effective or profitable than trading options more actively 30 days out from expiration.

OAP 145 : Backtesting Results Trading Monthly vs. Bi-Monthly Options For 10 Years

Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show144 On today's podcast, we bring in a very special interview guest, Larry Connors, and discuss his new book Buy the Fear, Sell the Greed. Larry is an established author in the trading and equities space and I thoroughly enjoyed our conversation about market dynamics, trading psychology, VXX pricing structures, and the future of the industry with regards to automation. As you listen to this podcast interview, notice the very similar structure and thought process that both Larry and I share about creating mechanical data-driven event signals that can be replicated in any market environment. This I believe is why traders who use a more systematic approach end up performing better than those who are driven by their emotions and psychology of the environment.

OAP 144 : Interview w/ Larry Connors - Buy the Fear, Sell the Greed Book Review

Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show143 Choosing which ticker symbols and option strategies to use when entering new option trades can sometimes seem overwhelming. In fact, many of our pro and elite members continually ask about the rationale behind why we choose one ticker symbol over another or use one strategy over another when building our portfolio. Today's podcast will help you understand the four-step process we use for evaluating how we choose ticker symbols and strategies when creating our options trading portfolio for each expiration. This framework should help guide you into understanding why IV rank is at the heart of our selection process but also why portfolio diversification becomes the true mechanics that govern which tickers ultimately get selected.

OAP 143 : What's The Rationale Behind Entering New Option Trades?

We are on a mission to help you make smarter investments and trades – it’s just that simple. So if that means pulling back the curtain on everything you know (or thought you knew) about options trading and the stock market then so be it.

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The Option Alpha Podcast: Options Trading | Stock Options | ...

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