The Option Alpha Podcast

In the past couple years inverse and leveraged ETFs have been some of the most highly traded securities because of their seemingly "cool" concept for speculation. I mean where else can you get such high exposure to financials or gold than with a 3X bull/bear ETF?

In this session of The Option Alpha Podcast I'll going to dig deep into how these products are both structured and priced so that you have a complete and full understanding of the "drag" they carry before investing.

No this is not to say that you shouldn't trade inverse and leveraged ETFs because I have before and will in the future. Instead, my goal is to make you smarter about how they derive their pricing so that your timeline for trading them might be adjusted or altered.

I never promised this podcast would be a walk in the park, so if you are ready to be challenged and take your training to the next level then let's get started.

You’ve often heard us talk about the important of trading liquid options until you are blue in the face right? In this session of The Option Alpha Podcast we’ll put a real dollar figure to this concept and show just how much “slippage” is costing you trading options that are illiquid.

Specifically markets that show a bid/ask spread of just $0.20 could end up costing you more than $3,840 each year - and that’s just the cost of getting into or out of the trade!

Throw in the risk that the stock doesn't move the way you want it and you can easily see why most traders dig themselves into a whole even before the trade has a chance to work for them.

Yet, often times we focus too much on our commission costs and rarely if ever do you “feel” the pain that slippage costs your portfolio. It’s time we start worrying less about commissions and more about slippage by focusing on only highly liquid options and underlying stocks.

 In this session of The Option Alpha Podcast I have the great pleasure of interviewing long-time trader and industry veteran John Carter - founder of SimplerOptions.com.

 One of the many benefits of doing this podcast has been the opportunity to meet and connect with other traders with whom I admire and have followed for years. John has been on my short list of those to contact for this podcast (with many more coming that you all will enjoy!)

 What's so great about his story is that he never had the "traditional" schooling to trade options. He knew he wanted to figure out how the market worked (and make money in the process) and has been on a constant quest to learn and grow. It's this self-awareness and willingness to change and adapt along the way that makes him such a great guest for our show.

In this session of The Option Alpha Podcast I'm going to actually take a look at unique investment outside the stock market that is comparable to how we should be trading options.

My hope is that you'll clearly see how being successful with Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Lending is extremely similar to the requirements for long-term options trading success. In fact I'd even go as far to say that most investing requires the same underlying fundamentals for success regardless of where you money physically goes.

Of course 2 years doesn't make a trend but the connections between these two markets are fascinating. So tune in as I take you though my personal account with Lending Club over the last 2+ years.

Don't forget to add your comments at the bottom of the show notes and let me know your thoughts since this episode was slightly "outside the scope" of what we normally do.

Investing money can be scary (no doubt). . .

In this session of The Option Alpha Podcast I want to help you overcome the 3 biggest fears that people have when they start trading options. You see, as kids we were scared of all kinds of things; monsters, our siblings, "Dad" etc. 

As adults now we still get scared and when we combine the "unknown" with our hard earned money it becomes a nightmare. If I were to ask most investors about options trading their default response would be things along the lines of "it's too risky" or "it's way too complicated".

But the honest truth is that these are excuses under the cover of fear; 3 in particular which haunt most new and experienced traders alike.

You could be going through these right now or have gone through them in the past. Regardless, I'll bet with 100% odds of success that you'll experience these emotions again in the future at some point.

Where's the good news Kirk? Right here because I'm going to help you get past these hurdles in today's show.

Fear #1: I'll Go Broke

Fear #2: I Need More Money

Fear #3: I'm Not Smart Enough

In this session of The Option Alpha Podcast we talk with long-time trader Kim Klaiman from SteadyOptions.com. As you'll hear in this interview, Kim's goal is to trade trade variety of non-directional trades with low correlations.

One topic that we dive into a little deeper is the strategy of buying straddles pre-earnings to profit from the rise in implied volatility. And while I personally prefer to trade the IV crush you'll hear Kim's take on how his backtesting research has found some likely candidates where IV does consistently rally ahead of earnings.

In this session of The Option Alpha Podcast I want to help you be a better trader even if you are currently still working a full-time job. Because the reality that even though I stay at home with my daughter, she's a full time "boss" if you know what I mean.

So over the last year and a half I've had to change and adapt my own trading style to be even more efficient and productive. This means cutting back and hyper focusing in on the things that really matter in order for me to be successful.

Today I'll share 7 smart tips to help you save time while still working your day job. Try 1 or 2 out this week and let me know how it worked out.

In this session of The Option Alpha Podcast we'll have an in-depth talk about trading commissions and broker fees. Specifically, people always ask me about commission and with more members now than ever it’s becoming more and more important to negotiate great commission rates.

So I'm here to help you save money by getting your trading commissions reduced. And I give nearly the same answer to everyone each time they ask but there's a special twist on how I did it and why it dropped my rate by 17%. Ready to reduce your commission costs? Let's go then!

In this session of The Option Alpha Podcast I had a chance to flip the script on Joshua Belanger from www.OptionSizzle.com. A former CME runner in Chicago, Josh has been a long time industry trader both on the professional and retail level. 

What's so great about his story is that over the last 10 years he's been able to learn how markets work from many different angles including being a broker, raising private equity, managing money, and running orders on the CME floor. During our interview he'll explain how his overall trading plan has evolved and also opens up about his more specific strategy for looking at (and profiting from) unusual options activity.

In this session of The Option Alpha Podcast I'll explain why you shouldn't be afraid of the assignment and exercise process when it comes to trading options. You see, all too often it's just a lack of understanding as to how the process really works. Who are the parties involved? How do they select who gets assigned? How long do I have to manage my new risk?

I'll answer all of these questions and so much more in today's show and by the end you'll finally be empowered with all the information you need to professionally handle assignment. Plus we'll go through 2 very cool post-earnings trades we made in HAL and MS which still have very high implied volatility even after announcing their earnings.