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.

Show Notes: http://optionalpha.com/show175

Stock trading is easy to understand conceptually because it's one-dimensional. Either the stock goes up or it goes down. Clear and simple, at least from a trading and profit or loss perspective. Options trading, however, is multi-dimensional. Price, time, and volatility all impact the value and price of an options contract. On today's show we're selectively choosing to highlight the impact that volatility has on options because, as we've seen in the 2020 market collapse, if you're not managing volatility, it could become your worst nightmare.

Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show174

Earnings season comes around four times a year for stocks, and as traders, we've always loved the idea of trading these events for the crush in implied volatility and quick potential moves in option strategy positions. However, after analyzing 1,546 earnings events across 40 underlyings over 10 years we decided to stop trading earnings events completely. In today's podcast, I'm going to walk through the research on earnings moves, and how different options strategies performed under various setups and conditions.

Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show173

We're excited and honored to have a very special guest this week on the podcast, Richard Hudson, co-founder of the London and Brussels-based Science Business Publishing Ltd. He's the co-author of The (mis)Behavior of Markets: A fractal view of risk, ruin & reward which he wrote with famed Yale/IBM mathematician Mandelbrot. Our discussion frankly should be required listening for any investor and was recorded in January of 2020 immediately preceding the market crash that occurred just weeks later.

Show Notes: http://optionalpha.com/show172

This week on the podcast we're doing something a little different and turning this podcast episode into a full-blown audiobook. Today I'm recording the newest book we released entitled "Mastering Covered Calls". I encourage you to pick up your copy now, did we mention it's 100% free, and follow along as you listen to this audiobook. We've included dozens of charts, tables, and graphs to help as part of this new book and we hope you enjoy listening or reading your copy.