Category Archives: Public

Why Should I Learn to Trade Options?

blackwomanfacethinking    Every day, 40,000,000 options are traded hands across the world on 3,000 companies such as Exxon Mobil, Starbucks and Apple computers. Each option contract is worth 100 shares, with an average value of about $50, making a total of some $200,000,000,000 ( twenty billion dollars). Every day!

That makes options trading the third largest financial fight in the world, right after the currency and stock markets. And you don’t know about it, or how to make money in it? Its not your fault, as it never gets coverage on local news, and is not taught in your local high school or college. Its’ time to get options trading known in our schools and in the public world.

There are two things you need to know about options. 1. What they are. 2. How you can make money.

Options are rights to buy or sell anything at fixed price at some date in the future. In this world of constant change and economic uncertainty, options lock in the price of something–100 tons of flour headed for a famine-torn country,  or the price of a share of stock like Genzyme, the company with a potential cure for Alzheimer’s. Options provide security for businesses and institutions like pension funds, and monthly income for traders. Options are the security market for the securities markets. 

The second thing to know is that options have a fixed shelf life from one week, or one month, to several years. That means buyers of options must exercise their rights before they expire. So there is the second important thing to know: The people who make the most money in options don’t buy them, they sell them.

  • Imagine you owned a house worth a million dollars, and every month someone came and gave you $5,000 for the right to buy that house for house in hand$1,100,000. You would collect a lot of money, would’t you? Until eventually the house was sold for $1,100,000. Better still–what if you didn’t own the house–it was someone else’s–could you still sell the options without having to share the income with the home owner? You could also use the cash you took in and buy at a discount!

So, why should I learn to trade options?

1. You can typically earn in a month what people earn on their money in the bank (1 – 2%) or stock market (0% – 20%) in a year. If you put your money is the bank, you get perhaps 2% interest at the end of the year. That’s a long time to wait, and its not much

But options traders collect their money upfront. You get your 2% now! With good trading methods, you can do it again next month, and the next. More skilled traders can get 4-8% per month without much risk.

2. Options trading gives you the opportunity to make money without owning stock.

If you buy 100 shares of Apple Computer stock, it will cost you about $13,000. But for about $3,000 you can buy a Call option which will behave pretty much the same as a stock. If the price goes up, you can gain profit, dollar for dollar. You can even collect dividends on it to enhance your return. That means you can control perhaps 300 shares of stock for the same investment, giving you leverage and increased returns.

3. Traders who sell options are paid very well for provide a service to others.

Options sellers are like insurance companies. They collect premiums and hold the risk money until it is not longer needed. Sellers are paid by the week, month, quarter or year. Once the week or month is over, the trader keeps the money, just like your healthcare or insurance company.  The option seller never needs to own the stock, because he doesn’t have such rights. Instead she has obligations to purchase from or, to deliver stock to, others and provides the insurance others need.

In a typical trade, 100 shares of stock can be protected by a Put if the market goes down, or purchased by a Call if the price goes up. You can accumulate enough profit by selling and then buy stock at a discount. You can be paid very well for providing this service!

So, what’s the risk? First, let’s consider the risk of being a net buyer. You are purchasing an asset that is time-limited and decays in value every day. The time advantage is to the seller of options, not the buyer. The danger to sellers is that they will mismanage the risk associated with trading– having to deliver stock to others at a price higher than the market, or receive stock that is worth less than its market value. Successful traders who sell options usually also buy their own insurance to protect against loss, just as insurance companies employ re-insurance.

Get more for selling options than you have to pay out in insurance, and bingo! there’s your profit.

So savvy options traders sell rather than buy options, and cover potential losses with insurance. Yes, there is an internal market providing insurance options to traders.

INCOME minus INSURANCE = PROFIT

Keep taking in more more than you are giving out, and your account can grow at a clip of 8% or more per month–if you know how, when and where to trade.

At the moment, you can’t learn this in any high school in Hawaii, and there are no college level courses at any of our local universities. Are they preparing students for the real world? Do students have options? Apparently not–until now.

Honolulu Options Traders, LLC is designing educational modules, seminars and online resources so that any person, any age, anytime day or night, can learn the principles, strategies and management of successful options trading. Practice with paper money, and launch off into the new income stream that is flowing by–at $200,000,000,0000 per day.

We offer evening classes, week-long intensives, private mentoring in person or on Skype, and are developing a range of products such as games and social groups to make it easier.

What to do next … You can join for free on Meetup, or attend a free Live Trading event. Then pay for a class and practice on paper with no risk. You have many decades of life ahead to earn big money. Options trading is one of the best opportunities for your future financial needs that you will ever see.  You don’t need a license, or a sales team, and there are no employees to manage. You just need a computer and 20 hours of training until you learn the HOT Trading  System.

So come and learn the world of options trading, and gain a life-long skill. Your future is waiting for you.

And now you know your options!

View our schedule. Come to a free Introduction to Options Trading or sign up for classes at Meetup, our social media site. Our classes are every Tuesday at Manoa Innovation Center, 2800 Woodlawn Drive in the Manoa Valley near the University of Hawaii main campus.

All rights reserved worldwide. Copyright 2015 Graeme Sharrock and Honolulu Options Traders, LLC

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Options Trading Courses — Spring 2015 Schedule

optionsjustahead

 

Our Spring 2015 Semester of classes in options trading begins in a few weeks!

See course description for details of classes, buses, parking, etc.

 

  • Manoa Options Trading Intensive   Mon – Thurs Mar 24-27, 8:00 am – 12 noon
  • Maui Options Trading Intensive       Tue- Fri  Apr 7 – 10, 8 am – 12 noon
  • INTRODUCTIONS                                     Tue Mar 17, 24  6:00 & 7:30 pm   ALWAYS FREE!
  • FUNDAMENTALS COURSE                    Tue Apr 14 – Jun 30 $350 / 250 milit/stud ID
  • ADVANCED COURSE                                Tue Apr 14 – Jun 30 $350 / 250 milit /stud ID

HOT spring 2015 classes

INSTRUCTOR: Graeme Sharrock, President / Honolulu Options Traders, LLC 

LOCATION: Manoa Innovation Center, 2800 Woodlawn Drive, Honolulu, HI 96822  USA

SCHEDULE click right to enlarge

 

 

For more information . . . 

Copyright © 2013-2015 Graeme Sharrock and Honolulu Options Traders, LLC | All rights reserved worldwide. | P.O. Box 75343, Honolulu, HI 96836

Scamology 101: Eight Reasons NOT to Trade Binary Options

 

scam It’s the scam of the decade!

Binary options brokers are springing up everywhere on the internet, and the public is getting ripped off.  With flashy sites and manic testimonials, they are enticing thousands into a speculative trading fad that you should avoid!

Here’s eight reasons NOT to trade binaries…

1. You don’t know who you are dealing with. Almost all websites refuse to tell us who they are, where they come from, who they bank with. Their infomercials make huge promises, but avoid risk statements, and refuse to reveal their identity.  But they are often criminal enterprises and want all your personal information–passport number, social security numbers, credit cards, etc.  Sure signs of a scam! So stay away from any company not based in USA and regulated by the CFTC. Call them at 888-366 2382 if you are not sure.

2. You’ve got a 50/50 chance of being wrong. In a binary play, you either win or lose. That’s it. You have no way to win more than you lose, and as many people are poor managers, they will probably lose more often than they win. These are bad odds, no better than tossing a coin.

3. The payout favors the broker. Binary options brokers offer 75% to 90% of the winning dollar. That means if you lose, you lose $100, but if you win you only get about $85. That’s uneven and unfair–and its a scam.

4. You can only buy and not sell options. In true options trading, the public can sell as well as buy, and smart traders know that the time value of premiums favors sellers over buyers. (That’s why at Honolulu Options Traders we teach how to sell with limited risk.) But in a binary world, the broker holds the cards. He can sell every play to two people, and only one can be right, so he almost always wins.

Let me explain.  One kind of binary option offers  you money if the stock goes above, say 66, or below, say 64. Let’s say you decide that the stock is going to move either way soon, and you buy the 66 and the 64. Stock moves to 67. You paid for two options, but  the broker has to pay out on only one. There are variations on this, of course, but overall the broker can’t lose, because he will never have to pay out as much as he takes in. You’re the sucker!

5. The broker holds all the money. In a normal stock options account, you can select “margin” and get money transferred out of your account at any time. t’s a scam– ‘nuf said about that one.

6.  Brokers are refusing to pay out money. Many people are complaining that they cannot get their money out from the binary broker when they want it.  When the supposed broker is located on a Caribbean Island, Nigeria, Russia or Cyprus, what are you going to do?  You can register your concern and alert other traders at Binary Option Watch Dog.

7. It’s unregulated. Its the Wild West all over again! Unlike the regular stock and options markets, binary  brokers operate independently and without ethical or legal constraints.  You can demand, threaten and even sue them if they rip you off, but good luck collecting from them. There there is no requirement for fairness, openness or  disclosure of liability, human greed takes over.

8. You have to sit there for hours to make any money. Even if you have a foolproof system and can beat the “house” in binaries, you either need to buy expensive software, subscribe to a chaotic signal system, or suffer from eyestrain and backaches. One online broker claims that you have to follow his system “exactly, with no deviation…” So, its goodbye freedom!

These are all good reasons to avoid binary options until they are properly integrated into the regular market and the odds of winning are improved for traders. Of course, I expect some posters to tell me they’ve made it big with binaries, or that they have an online system that removes the need to wait for payout. Fair enough. I’ll listen and learn.

I’m willing to be wrong about binaries, but until these problems are addressed for regular traders,  I’m sticking with selling regular stock options and making good money each month.

Graeme Sharrock

President / Honolulu Options Traders, LLC

Introduction to the HOT Options Trading Courses (2015)

Welcome to the HOT Options Courses! 

These in-class courses are designed for beginning and intermediate options traders in Hawaii looking to create cash flow or accumulate wealth using stock options.

Hawaii is a kind of oasis in the middle of the vast Pacific ocean. The islands have their own time zone and ways of doing things. We live a relaxed life, free from anxiety and pressure.  The HOT way of trading options is adapted to life on island, with seasons and tides and prevailing winds—but with a global perspective. Our method of trading will enable you to build a successful financial business without the frenzy of day trading, blearily watching the market for hours every day. Spending only a couple of hours a day, you will be able to manage options positions and generate money for the rest of your life. Just as the ocean and the waves bring the fish to our shores but you use nets, lines and poles to harvest them, so you will learn how to work the times and tools and gather from the abundance of the financial world.

The HOT Options Trading System uses “risk-defined,” “high-probability” strategies and emphasizes the careful management of positions in order to ensure profitability. No financial advice or stock recommendations are given, as personal circumstances vary and market conditions are continually changing.

The Promise of the Courses

The Courses are designed to teach the essential principles, strategies and management of options trading. As a result, every student should be able to design and execute a trade plan with an 80% success rate and consistently generate 8% per month cash flow, using a PaperMoney account.

How the Courses are Organized

The three levels of our curriculum take you from beginner to intermediate level in a few months. Even if you think you know options, you might take the Fundamentals course because it is specifically designed toward our trading system.

Advanced – 8 classes

Fundamentals – 12 classes

Introductions – 4 classes

INTRODUCTIONS

You may have already attended some introductory classes. These have been offered frequently in Honolulu at Cafe 360 (evenings), The Box Jelly (lunchtimes), Oahu Veterans Center, and now Manoa Innovation Center. These classes describe what options are, how traders study charts, and the thinkorswim platform (TOS).

  • Introduction to Options Trading
  • Introduction to Reading Charts
  • Introduction to the thinkorswim Platform (1) and (2)
  • Introduction to Options Trading as a Business

FUNDAMENTALS

The second level or Fundamentals Course covers the basics of options trading in 12 or so weeks. Students will use the thinkorswim platform to create a training account and practice 100-200 trades over the course. No real money will be used and no financial advice is given.

There are three tracks: Principles, Strategy, Management

  • (1) Time & Cycles (Principles)
  • (2) Options & Greeks (Principles)
  • (3) Price & Charts (Principles)
  • (4) Scans & Probability (Principles)
  • (5) Basic Strategies (Strategy)
  • (6) Volatility (Strategy)
  • (7) Momentum (Strategy)
  • (8) Advanced Strategies (Strategy)
  • (9) Rules & Regulations (Management)
  • (10) Record Keeping (Management)
  • (11) Trade Plan (Management)
  • (12) Risk Management (Management)

ADVANCED

The Third Level or Advanced Courses offer an opportunity for traders who wish to further improve their trading skills and prepare for life as a professional options trader. Students may choose from among these courses as needed.

  • (13) Repairs (Strategy)
  • (14) Earnings Season (Strategy)
  • (15) Writing / Naked Puts and Calls (Strategy)
  • (16) Squeezing More Profit (Strategy)
  • (17) Taxation (Management)
  • (18) Track Record (Management)
  • (19) Financial Management (Management)
  • (20) Money, Life & Time Management (Management)

The sequence of classes may not be the same as listed above. The content and titles of courses may be changed at any time.  Additional seminars in binary options, options on futures, options on currencies, etc. may be added.

Your Teachers

The Course will be led by Graeme Sharrock, President of Honolulu Options Traders, LLC and assisted by others. Individual classes may be taught by instructors qualified in various aspects of stock and options trading, financial management, taxation, or related subjects.

Graeme Sharrock and Honolulu Options Traders, LLC are independent of any registered brokerage firm and do not make recommendations on stocks or investments, offer financial advice or receive any commissions.

Course Support

All students will need the following:

  • thinkorswim PaperMoney account from TDAmeriitrade
  • Excell spreadsheet or similar
  • The Bible of Options Strategies
  • Calculator

Homework

Students should expect to do two hours of extra study for each class, including preparation and follow-up exercises.

Location

Classes will be held at the Manoa Innovation Center, 2800 Woodlawn Drive, in the Manoa Valley. Free parking on site. Bus No. 6 (Woodlawn) stops just 200 years away on E. Manoa Road & Huapala at Bus Stop #1414 at 5:08 PM, 5:30 PM and 5:51 PM. Return buses leave from the Starbucks on East Manoa at 7:25 PM, 8:00 PM, 8:35 PM, 9:00 PM and 9:50 PM.

See the Schedule of Classes on Meetup or Facebook for times and costs.

Course Fees 

Live Trading                         Always free!

Introductions                     Always free!

Fundamentals Course     350 Regular / 250 Military / 150 Meetup members

Advanced Course               350 Regular / 250 Military / 150 Meetup members

Registration is limited. To RSVP go to meetup.com/honolulu-options-traders/

All rights reserved. Copyright 2014-2015 Graeme Sharrock and Honolulu Options Traders, LLC

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How to Pick the Right Strategy for Today’s Market

sellhibuylowA crucial question…

Once I have selected  which options to trade, then how do I know the right strategy to use?  Should I buy long Calls on a stock moving up? Or should I sell Puts? When should I put on an Iron Condor? The answer is….it depends on the market. So you should know what goes with what.

First, you should know the available strategies. Buy and acquaint yourself with The Bible of Options Strategies which explains the most popular strategies:

  • Long Put
  • Long Call
  • Covered Call
  • Covered Put
  • Straddle
  • Strangle
  • Credit Spread
  • Bull Put Spread
  • Bull Call Spreads
  • Bear Put Spreads
  • Bear Call Spreads
  • Iron Condor
  • Butterfly
  • Broken Wing Butterfly
  • Calendar Spreads

Next choice your trades using these five rules . . . .

1. Know and go with general market conditions. Don’t trade against the overall trend. If market is going up and up, then don’t sell Calls. Instead sell Puts by using Bull Put Spreads.

2. Follow the charts and let patterns guide you. Charts provide an enormous amount of information, enough to take options trading out of the “speculative” class and into the “high probability” class. If a stock is trading in a range (per the chart), then use a bullish strategy when it bounces off support, and then a bearish strategy when it bumps into and comes off resistance.

3. Let the VIX guide your entry and exit points.  The CBOE issues a methodology that uses near-term put and call options to measure implied volatility for the S&P 500.  When there is confidence in the market’s direction, or when stocks are going up, the VIX goes down. When there is greater uncertainty, or when stocks are generally going down, the VIX goes up.  However, when stocks are going down dramatically, even with great certainty, as in the Big Drops of 2008 and 2009, the VIX also goes up dramatically. So it is really a fear or sentiment index. Sellers of options make money off other people’s fears.

4. Only close your your trades when they are profitable.  If sell whenever your trade is losing money, then you will quickly deplete your account. If your strategy is correct, then there is 80% chance you will make money. So trust your skills and choices!

Three Rules of Thumb

1) When the VIX is dropping, stocks are going up, market is bullish. Reverse is also true. When VIX is going up, stocks are dropping.

2) Periods of consolidation within a bull market usually see a quick spike in the VIX in the 15-20 range.  20-25 is a correction, 25-35 is a recession, 35+ is major recession and raging bear market (or at least fear of one!). Do not panic! Instead, pick the right strategy for the appropriate VIX range.

3) After the market goes through a period of consolidation (VIX above 15 or even 20), it usually heads back up again], and the VIX heads south. At that point, selling Puts is highly profitable. You can often get 50% more credit than when the VIX is lower. When the VIX is higher, you can also advantage of higher volatility and sell further away from the action.

5. Collect money whenever possible.  Look at the Theta column on your  portfolio. It tells you how much money per day you are collecting by doing nothing, just letting the value of the options wind down. If you to want to make $100 per day profit, then Theta should be  $100 or greater.

I like to sell and collect around 20-30% on my credit spreads. Buying back or giving back premium is my last resort.

TIGER Says: “Collecting cash is the best way to avoid losing money!”

Questions or comments? Contact me at GStrading@me.com