TinGull

Welcome to the boards! Look forward to having another spread trader aboard.

Well, today was going awesome until the markets just TANKED and took some of my profits with it. I still ended up making a teeny bit of shake on the day...maybe 20 bucks, but so goes the swing trading world I guess. Nothing really technical changed for me, so till tomorrow....

odds and ends always end up making a whole, don't they?

Back in 2005 they said they were going to introduce saving annotations....

hahahahah! Well, PNRA got nailed like the rest of the market today for whatever reason. Never triggered in the buy area, so no harm no foul. But I agree...I watched a thing on Panera this morning and the closest one to me is an hour away. I used to live right down the street from 2 of them!

Glad to help!

it totally is web based. It's really slick looking, too, and inexpensive!

Looking at StockFetcher....is this all web based?

I use it to scan, not necessarily chart.

I'll keep this as a journal of types, too. I'll post up a picture of my positions statement since it'll be easier than typing it all in.

Absolutely! I'm about done searching out positions for now, so I'll just keep things updated. So far everythings crankin'.

Had to bite. Looked really nice on the 15min coming down into the 8ema and went long the NOV 5 calls. IV was "cheap" compared to where it had been and it's breaking to higher highs now, so all is good. Was filled at 2.05 ($205 per contract) and currently has a natural of 2.25 for a gain so far of almost 10% on cap invested.

Popped up with this stock: JADE Has an incredible surge in volume yesterday as price broke a 2 month downtrend line. I'll watch this one. IV is pretty cheap compared to it's historical...I don't usually compare the 2, but the IV on this stock's options is trading about 140% in the OCTs. Historical vol is at 180%, so still cheap to the historical. Highest IV was at a touch over 200% about 3 weeks ago, so came off a decent clip from there, and is moving up as of yesterday.

Yea, the candles is the big thing with Telecharts that is really tough for me to get over. The scanning is easy and fast for me, and its pretty cheap. 30 bucks a month.

Oh, also...I didn't really answer your whole question. If you've got a software that has access to the option chains, then it should be able to plot implied vol for that particular instrument. ToS does this right on the chart:

I get it right from my thinkorswim platform. They've got it all laid out really nicely along with the greeks for your whole portfolio, so you can see if you're ultra short theta and collecting lots of premium, or if you've got a big gamma exposure over your entire portfolio. For instance... So i can see in an instant where my achilles heel is. In that software you can also plot your greeks against a stock or index. Beta weighting it. So for every dollar DJX moves, my BHI position will increase xxxxx theoretically. We can certainly start another thread discussing all that is the greeks.

Good article. Also, an important thing to consider is getting out of any option plays a week or so before expiry. Gamma exposure that late in the game can drive the delta way higher/lower therefor increasing your risk exposure if something terrible were to happen to the underlying. Gamma basically is the strength of the delta. Delta tells you how much your option is going to move in accordance to the underlying instrument. When the gamma is bigger, the delta will move in accordance. Bigger delta, bigger move in the option when the underlying moves. I got nailed on gamma exposure during Oct 2006 expiry and lost a good amount of money. Granted, I was on the wrong side of the trades to begin with (novice) and had I closed out the position a week earlier...my life would be a bit different right now.

Glad to help! (is that what the Scottrade founder says to the unassuming customers in his chopper?) As for what my plans are...I'll most likely be back into options soon. I know how I can decrease my risk exposure at the get go on a trade with spreads...kinda like putting out a marker lot to see if the trade will work. Then, one can add to the position accordingly. As for what I watch when analyzing options...most importantly I watch the implied vol. I don't necessarily watch it compared to the historical vol, but rather watch the trend of the IV. Depending on where IV is for the instrument, I'll determine whether I want to be a buyer of premium or a seller. As for how I'm finding the things to trade...I'm using a stock scanner (telechart) to find opportunities. You can scan for candle formations within that software, but mostly I'm looking for things on VSA principles, and looking for things that in an overall uptrend right now. I'm currently long gold, oil, and looking at copper for a play there, and some insurance companies look to be a possible interesting play.

Per what Pivot has told me, BootCamp is definitely worth the money. Now...here's a stock I picked up on while learning this new scanning software I'm testing out. PCU It's a copper mining company, and copper's been on a tear. This was some GREAT VSA stuff here. Gap down into the 200ma which was bought as evident by the hammer. The stock still closed below the close of the prior bar, so still looked "bad" at the end of the day ticker. Looking closer we see... Enormous volume with a hammer closing at the highs. Awesome yet? Well, next day gapped UP and closed the gap only to trade up again and give another hammer! Currently sitting 56% higher from the close of that second hammer. Yesterday had nice increase in volume, nice spread, closed just off the highs breaking a minor resistance. Yum...VSA tastes like cake sometimes

Spamming and everything of that sort aside, what is your favorite software for scanning for stocks to trade? MrPaul told me about Telechart and Blocks...holy crap, TeleChart is intense. It's fairly intuitive for a Windows program :rofl: and is lacking in the whole design of it all. You get either a black background or white. No off-white or anything like that. The candles are a little odd in that if the candles gaps up but closes down, it'll draw solid for a down candle, but show green for closing above the previous close. There's no way around that. Anyhow...I love it so far. They've got a killer community of staff who are there to help you write the scans you want to do so you don't always have to know the coding language, but even then...doing scans isnt too tough. What do others use for finding those great swing candidates? btw...I don't get paid to say these guys are good so far....in fact, I pay them for me to say that!

Thanks! Hammer also occurred on increasing volume closing at the highs of the previous bar. I think it was a nice trade, too

One I'm watching right now is PNRA. So far, it's in a seemingly phase 1 (accumulation phase) on the daily charts. Right now it's at the upper range of it's bracket and IV (implied volatility) has been slowly creeping up. Definitely more OI (open interest) on the call side of the equation in the NOV out-of-the-money (OTM) calls, and even more in the jan 55's. Not a huge move from where it is right now (48.95) but it is showing some interesting volume action. Here's the daily on a far out look: Now, upon closer inspection...we've got a higher low occurring in the range as well as abnormal volume happening at the lower bracket extremes. Volume yesterday increased on PNRA while overall markets saw some anemic action, and price did pop 1.58% while the major markets saw a draw down. Volume is increasing as we target the upper bracket extreme, though not so overly huge to lead us to be curious. I'll be watching for a break of this range above 50 bucks and look to buy a pullback to the top of it. Perhaps a call spread to limit my risk upon entry, then if it works in my favor, look to buy more.

With these positions being options plays, I'll be watching the implied volatility a bit closer than the price. Price can move as high as it wants to, but without vol creeping up, too, the options aren't going to move.

Yesterday I put on a couple of gold positions and an oil services position. BHI (Baker Hughes Intl) Was privy to some unusual options activity in the Oct calls, and thought I’d give it a look. Was coming up on resistance, and the sense the call buyers had was this would push though. Implied Volatility came down from 45 to about 32, with historical vol at 57. So, cheap. I went ahead and bought a call spread to participate in the potential move without risking a whole heck of a lot. ••••••••••••••••••••••••• Risk: $98 per contract Reward: Potential $460 per contract Scenario: BOT Nov 100 Call/SOLD Nov 105 Call for net debit of $0.98. BHI has to close above 105 by Nov expiration for me to get maximum profits. BHI currently is trading 96.87 and today broke to record highs. Note, too, the volume on the breakout. This is supporting it’s breakout to these new highs, and it should continue on it’s path upward. Currently: +59.50 per contract GDX (Market Vectors Gold Mining ETF) Was stalking this one for a potential entry on a breakout of the recent consolidation. This morning gapped open and price fell back to the top of the range of the consolidation, and I bought some calls outright as the IV was showing it to be decently cheap. Risk: $155 per contract Reward: Unlimited Scenario: BOT Nov 48 Calls at $1.55. GDX was consolidating at highs and was poised for a breakout. IV had been forming a triangle and was looking to break to the upside. I *could* have bought a call spread on this, too, but the IV was low enough for me to see some upside room to it. When IV hits around 46 (currently at 39) I’d look to exit the trade. Also, note the volume on the breakout today: Currently: Calls trading at 1.62 mid, up about 7 dollars per contract.

HAHA! Thanks Nick. I don't know that I'll be back to intraday trading or not, no one knows the future right I certainly won't miss the leverage. That's one of the things i hate about futures. I guess I'm one of the odd ducks that doesn't like tons of leverage. I'll still be around for sure, especially if we can get a swing trading forum started.