Author: Mark Wolfinger

It’s expiration week once again and, as far as my portfolio is concerned, I’m not concerned about violent market movement.I’ve covered essentially all my short February spreads and am happy not to have to be...

How does the individual investor/trader learn about options?Many traditional brokers make no effort to help clients.Most financial columnists (with few exceptions) who write about the stock market, avoid options like the...

Milk Trader offers this good advice:”Once you set up your own trading system, you’ll find that losses are simply the cost of doing business and have nothing to do with you being right or wrong.” Although...

What to do about volatility?That is the question.Has it fallen far enough to tempt you to own positions that are long vega (calendar spreads, diagonals, naked long puts and/or calls etc.) It doesn’t tempt me, and I’m...

Today I’m offering something appropriate to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the births of Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin. Trading the markets is truly a business in which only the fittest can survive over the...

Finishing Josh’s lengthy set of questions: Third, how do you pick the strikes for your positions? Do you use the delta of the short option? Do you look at chart support and resistance? Fourth, though it seems that you...

The following is not a real position.It was chosen for illustrative purposes only. Josh requested graphs, and this is my attempt to reply. Assume you bought 20 lots of the following iron condor: RUT Mar 390/400P; 540/550 C iron...

Continuing with Josh’s questions: Second, Adam mentioned on his blog (Daily Options Report) that some numbers he ran showed that the optimal time to sell options (so in your terms, buying an IC, among other strategies) is...

Josh posted a very lengthy question.I’ll be replying in batches. Greetings Mark: Thanks for your blog and your dedication to teaching people about options. I bought the book, have not yet had a chance to take a look at...

I’ve previously discussed the idea of buying extra options (calls, puts, or strangles) – not in an effort to earn a profit – but as protection for an option portfolio that loses money when the market undergoes...