The Option Alpha Podcast

Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show185

Filling option trades can often feel like pulling teeth. While some trades and orders get through easily and without issue, others are incredibly stubborn and hard to get filled. To add to your frustration, the entire order execution process appears to be just another confusing black box. There's seemingly no rhyme or reason why this trade got filled but that one didn't? So this week's show is dedicated to shining a light on order filling for option trades and helping to demystify what is otherwise a simple market process.

Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show184

Adjusting trades that move against you can be hard enough. Choosing how to adjust and when to pull the trigger complicates what otherwise was a simple trade to start with. Now, throw in an early assignment to the mix and you've got quite the convoluted option trade on your hands. Sounds daunting already doesn't it? But fear not. Complicated and complex trades like the one that happened to us in FXI the other month give you a great opportunity to learn and grow as a trader. On today's show, we'll walk through the entire FXI position from start to finish, including all the profit and loss calculations including adjustments and an early assignment. Lean into this show and don't skip it - your future self with thank you for taking the time now so that you don't have to freak out later when it happens to you.

Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show183

Be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful. This classic Buffett quote had echoed though the ranks of investors for decades. But does that data support the methodology? Does investor sentiment, which for many investors is widely considered a contrarian indicator, have enough predictive power to warrant our time and attention? In today's show, we'll explore investor sentiment from all angles and help discover which readings, if any, give predictive power to future stock market returns or trends.

Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show182

Greed, fear, FOMO, anxiety, panic, over-confident, stubbornness, impatience. These are just a few of the frequent emotional and mental states that traders find themselves in. And while we cannot avoid these emotions and thought processes, we can learn to manage them through emotional intelligence. This week's podcast was curated to help you learn how to more effectively recognize and manage the dozens of emotional and cognitive responses you'll come across in your trading career.

Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show181

There's an old saying in investing that a "rising tide lifts all boats." And while that might be true, when the tide goes out, all the boats sink and fall just as fast as they rose together. Still, you'll hear the pounding of drums in the name of classic diversification as the portfolio savior during these downturns. Our research suggests, however, that even a well-diversified portfolio can still completely blow up just when you need it to protect you most.

Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show180

You've got your prized covered call setup and it's working in your account - now what? How do you manage or adjust the position in different market scenarios? Lucky for you, we are going to review the best-covered call management techniques on today's podcast. And if you think this show is just for stock traders, you'd be wrong, because proper covered call management could be a lifesaver for options traders who get assigned and are forced to deal with stock.

Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show179

You've got your prized covered call setup and it's working in your account - now what? How do you manage or adjust the position in different market scenarios? Lucky for you, we are going to review the best-covered call management techniques on today's podcast. And if you think this show is just for stock traders, you'd be wrong, because proper covered call management could be a lifesaver for options traders who get assigned and are forced to deal with stock.

Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show178

Box spreads and arbitrage strategies are often synonymous with one another and referenced interchangeably in the options trading community. And after all, who doesn't want a risk-free way to earn money right? But like all things that seem too good to be true, box spreads carry some serious risks if you're not careful in how you set them up. Today's show then focuses exclusively on box spread basics for options traders.

Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show177

Index options have continued to grow in popularity. Potentially because they are easy to use, available in highly liquid markets, have favorable tax treatment in some cases, and offer a simple settlement process. Therefore, we've dedicated an entire show to help you understand what index options are, how they work, how they are different from equity options, and what you need to be aware of if you decide to start trading them in your portfolio.

Show Notes: http://optionalpha.com/show176

Hedging stock positions can be tricky business. One of the most common schools of thought is to use a simple protective put strategy whereby a stock investor would simply purchase a long out-of-the-money put option to act as "insurance" in case the stock fell. Sounds logical but we're skeptics here at Option Alpha and so we went on a hunt to see what research and data say about the protective put strategy and it's effectiveness at protecting or hedging stock positions.