Recent content by emilov

sails, for sure. if I was to trade longer term options I'd need to learn more about the pitfalls (only one of them being interest rate changes, and a few of them at that (sails they are not? well I've no idea about these, although I could have googled it ;). anyway, I don't trade them, just...

So, what about that beer Wayne ;)? In school I learned differential equations, and yet I live my day to day live without them just fine. I don't remember much of it anyway. I'm sorry should I have appeared to sound rejectful of the math side of options. I definitely don't think it's wrong...

Sails, that trade was an ITM call. The fact that I lost on it had nothing to do with me not understanding option pricing. And who says I don't, if I ever get a minute free of my sweet but very demanding 2 month old daughter I'll finish coding my options calculator (with pricing projections based...

Ah Wayne, We should so get together for a beer or something :), do you live in Australia? You certainly sound Australian. See, I'm doing this for free too (I don't sell a course or promote one). The sole reason I have that blog (and/or post here) is because a few traders I know asked me what I...

Why did I even bother to post back only to get hammered on again? Yes I agreed, only to set an end of the argument. You see, it might be as you say, I never cared if it were. I discussed the strategy I applied the way I use it. If you are smarter, you can obviously do better, good on you. All I...

well, wayne and I discussed the strategy of mine on my blog. and, well we agreed that neither of us was really wrong, we were talking about different things. my strategy, when dissected does NOT equal an ITM call. it just equals what it is, a bull put spread plus an added call. just like with...

Hey, I agree with wayne about the rubbish books. I recently read Option Spread Strategies from Anthony Saliba. I really enjoyed it and reviewed it on my blog. The book teaches about option strategies. You should also read a good technical analysis book. Steve Nison's book on candlesticks is...

Ahh thanks for clarifying wayne, now I see my "mistake" too. Next time I do this I'll try matching months (and strike as you suggested). But hey, it's a good mistake to make, right, if it makes more money?

What wayne means is that when you buy options that you offset by selling other options you might not incur a debit (you might even get away with a credit). This still means that the clearing participant will charge you heaps of margin for the sold option (because it is uncovered, or naked). This...

Dear Wayne, thanks for keeping the discussion on an objective level, unlike others who chose to get personal just because someone dares to awake the appearance of disagreeing with their views. A slight comment on SPAN, the ASX and clearing participants use TIMS which is quite different in...

Wow fellas, I missed a large portion of the discussion here. Firstly, a reverse collar, which consists of a bought out of the money call and a sold out of the money put is an unlimited risk (because of the sold put), unlimited profit (because of the bought call) trade, it has nothing to do...

I find that there is always a HUGE difference between a synthetic and the real thing. Synthetic long stock does NOT equal buying the stock at all. Your leverage is so much bigger! Even if my example is a synthetic long call, and the graph looks the same, it brings more cash to the table: the...

Well, how you call it depends in where you learned it ;). Still, the idea is appealing, to reap higher rewards than with a straight call, less time decay and still a limited risk AAND the higher flexibility to massage the trade should it not kick ass, as it should. The downside is much higher...

You are correct, sold put & bought call => synthetic long (also called a reverse collar). Adding the bought put decreases your credit but it protects from higher margin and losses on the down side. The bull put itself helps to offset (at least partially) the time decay of the bought call. So...

ok sure, now follows the generic disclaimer about general advice and bla bla ;) You can spin this quite using various strikes. Let's say TLS was trading at 3.35 (which is what it is trading for right this second) and you are convinced it is going to explode on the upside (it won't but lets...