TinGull

Awww shucks....thanks

Welcome back PP

Had to post this up 'cause it's a beauty! Its on XME from this summer...note the low ass volume on the teeny spread/doji right at resistance....yum!

Wow...7 dollars then a per side? Who do you trade thru?

How much do you pay per side on an options contract now?

Oh..the pink box is the area where price needs to land by expiration in order for me to reap maximum rewards. Wide sweet spot....thats what I like.

Sure, this is one play I'm currently in. Small iron condor on the SPY with my short strikes at 158 and 143. Right now I've got about 10 days before I'd look to close out this trade (10 calendar days). If all goes as planned, it'd be around a 26% return on my risk for 25 days in the market for that particular trade. I'm scouting out other candidates after this Fed decision today to put some DEC plays on in the coming week.

I would still consider that to be a "test" simply because the length of that bottom wick relative to the top. I have a hard time taking hard and fast rules about lots of things because things need to be given some wiggle room. The most important thing in that first test was the real lack of volume. My entry would've been at the close of that first test.

215 est today

I had gotten a couple questions recently regarding "tests" and I wanted to post up a couple charts that have nice examples of what a "test" looks like on a chart. For me, I want to see something that has come out of a base and is starting to initiate it's uptrend. Here, in PBW, you can see that after there is some climactic action, there is then a "test" (first black line). Wonderful example there. Plan would be to get long at the close of that bar. The second "test" comes along later and happens near the highs...this one I'd be more reluctant to take, but when you see the next bar is UP and closing on the highs with increased volume, you have a good idea that professional interest is wanting to take it higher. Price then consolidates ABOVE the highs (very bullish) and then heads higher. PBW is currently in a consolidation above those new highs and we'll see where it takes us from here.

One thing to be careful of when buying options for a swing play is the Implied Volatility. Note on Verisign the IV is at it's yearly high right now. They release earnings tomorrow and after that the IV will drop like a stone...always does. This is when you *could* start to lose all the time premium that's built into this close-to-expiry option. ANR was a good buy volatility wise...but price action wise, for me...it's a little high. Could it keep going up? Absolutely it could! I'm always hesistant to buy new highs without a pullback. Buying on a gently increasing volume-down bar with a WRB may not be my style, but I'm sure it works for some. Just a couple things I noticed with those plays.

And to note...on a MONTHLY chart...of the DIA... October is looking like a higher volume spinning top at resistance, huh?

And you can absolutely position trade things like the cash Russell and SPX or OEX and MNX...if you wanted to. I've got a list of about 50 ETF's/stocks that I watch and I don't go screening for other things anymore. Makes life a bit easier.

Maybe?? Of course I will!

I see exactly what you see and am really looking forward to some sort of downturn in the market as SPX is getting a tad bit close to short strikes on one of my positions and I'd rather not have to adjust. 10 days for the SPX to move 40 points...that's my cushion. Got a 100 point SPX move cushion to the downside so I'm cool there...

Buying the NOV 40 calls is purely time premium at this point in the cycle and you've got no intrinsic value in those options. Even if MSFT were to move much higher but remain below 40, you're not going to see that option move. Remember, the last 20 days your time decay is impacting the option price the most dramatically.

As I've posted many times...check out redoption.com and optionplanet.com . They are ToS educational companies and offer TONS of great info regarding different strategies. Also, the CBOE has webinars for free that you can watch.

On a Mac...you absolutely can That's why it's a Mac!! If you have Q's, just shoot me a PM

Welcome to the boards tawe trader. Great to hear you're enjoying VSA and learning all about it. I agree that you may not need the software to trade with VSA, but in learning what VSA is and the signals that are generated...the software certainly can help push that learning phase along.

I use iShowU from shinywhitebox.com

You're mac can certainly do it if mine can

I agree with aiki14. The greeks aren't going to be as important to you if you're doing a 3-5 day swing. When I put on spreads that last for 30-50 days...then they're important to me. I'm still learning how to utilize the greeks for adjustment purposes rather than just using price alone, though...I don't know if that's really a necessary thing for how I trade. It might be later on down the line. As for who to use...I use thinkorswim. OptionVue is cool, but pricey and you can get tons of the same stuff on ToS for free. ToS is a realllllly awesome company that constantly makes improvements to their software, so definitely check them out.

http://www.traderslaboratory.com/forums/f30/how-to-post-a-chart-properly-805.html theres a thread on how to post a chart If you still need me to get a bqi chart I can in a bit...

Exactly. It's a slow moving stock, so getting in isn't always too tricky, but I agree on waiting for a retracement. I never like getting in on the initial break, anyways.