Mail Call: Listener questions and comments

• Comment from Max_p24 - One of the best podcast for option trading. They have amazing Bootcamp for option beginners.
• Question from Brian Collamer - Back in October I sent this question and I see you ran with it in a couple of other shows: “You mentioned that when selling options the fastest theta decay occurs in the 45-30 day range. I thought that was only true for ATM options? Do OTM options decay the fastest at 60-70 days and then kind of flatten out?” In each show you had asked where I had seen/heard this. LiveVol blog and forum. Thanks for the great content! PS: Futures Roundtable needs to be twice a month IMHO.
• Question from Imbroglio - If I exercise a call option what happens - do I just hit a button and the stock hits my account? Or does it take some time? When do I actually get the stock? If I want to collect a dividend do I need to exercise a few days early in order to get the stock in time to collect the dividend?
• Question from Angry Bunny - What the hell is a front spread? How does it differ from a back spread? Who the hell comes up with these names? They seem to make no sense.
• Question from Neal Tompkins - How do I know when an option is going to be less liquid? What are some good suggestions for dealing with less liquid options?
• Question from Jason Dague - I am long AAPL from about $99, and have a protective put on right now at $105 for July. When do you know whether to roll your put up? I am obviously down on the put by ~%70% from where I bought it in November.
• Question from Jay - If the market is really falling out of bed what are some good strategies to take advantage of that movement while also minimizing option decay?
• Question from Matt Dilks - Hi, I have just listened to Mark on Topstep trader, and missed the questions. But could you recommend which company/broker to get a sim/demo account to get to grips with trading options? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
• Question from John D. - Hi, Love your show. You guys do a great job. Keep up the good work. My question...If I am looking at a pair trade (e.g. long Facebook, short Twitter), obviously I can do it by buying/shorting the stocks. I was trying to figure out if there is any way to effective do the same thing with options what the advantages might be, if any. I thought of doing a synthetic long/short, but did not see any advantage since I will be naked short an option for both names... but maybe margin treatment is different? Long call on one and log put on the other does not seem to make sense since I am pretty much guaranteed to lose the premium on both those positions. Is there another or better way to structure this type of trade using options? Thanks.