The Option Alpha Podcast

In this session of The Option Alpha Podcast I completely break-down one of the worst trade alerts we've ever seen using a debit spread. And it honestly gets to the heart of why I started this website and blog more than 8 years ago; because there are still horrible companies and services out there publishing crap that doesn't help investors.In this show we'll compare and contrast this unnamed company's call in NFLX vs a trade we look at live in HPQ. At the end you'll be the judge and add your comments below to let me know what you think of both - which one would you choose? You don't have to choose our trade, I seriously want to hear if you believe this is a good trade in NFLX coming up.

In this session of The Option Alpha Podcast I had a chance to interview Henrick Santander, the guy behind http://www.the-lazy-trader.com who currently works a full-time job but is passionate about creating a trading system that fits his lifestyle.You'll hear how this long time Cuban (of 26 years) moved to Canada and is now trading very successfully each year making smart bets in the major indexes like SPX and RUT. Plus, we'll talk through his most recent SPX iron condor trade including his complete logic behind the entry, strike selection, risk management, etc.

Ever wonder how often going back in history the stock market "crashes"? I mean we know that cyclical markets means another one will eventually happen (it's just a matter of time) but when? Or how often?We did the research for you and analyzed the market data going back to 1928 (as far as we could get it). In this podcast we'll take a look back in time for you and present our case study findings. You'll finally have a clear understanding of how often stocks "crash" and also how bad we are as investors at predicting the next possible move.

In this session of The Option Alpha Podcast I'll explain why most traders think stop-loss orders help manage risk and protect them when in fact they end up creating more losing trades. Using the "Lazy Trader" program I'll show you with concrete numbers on live trades how a stop-loss order would create 50% more losing trades than if you did nothing at all and let the trade stay a loser all the way through expiration. You probably think I'm absolutely crazy for saying this, but listen in and see what the facts say about option probabilities.

When you start to trade more often and with more positions, remaining as neutral as possible will help smooth out your returns over time. This doesn't mean that you can't get directional (betting on a move up or down in something) but it does mean that you have to know how to re-balance your portfolio. We've shown before that using SPY beta weighting is a great start and in today's show we'll continue that discussion with additional underlying asset correlations. Know how these work will help if you ever start building targeted strategies in a particular sector/industry - like Oil, Technology, Social Media, etc.

In this session of The Option Alpha Podcast I'm going to change the way you think about buying stock forever. Because just buying shares isn't effective anymore and with the help of options you can both increase your probability of success and reduce risk (and net cost basis). But first I'll need your help with my "Financial Planner Challenge." If we are going to change the way people invest we have to educate the so-called market experts because I guarantee that 99% of financial planners have no clue how to use options to increase returns and reduce risk for their clients. Plus, I'll show you a current example using NFLX with hard numbers of how you could reduce the cost of buying stock by 1.5% each month and still keep an 11% upside potential. Sound awesome? Let's go. . .

In this session of The Option Alpha Podcast we are going to help you finally create an easy to use 3-step system for picking the best option strategy. Unlike most traders who try to fit their favorite strategy into every market situation, you'll find out why after asking just 2 simple questions we can eliminate the possible universe of options strategies by 80% to the best possible traders for that specific situation. Remember that in this game, strategy trumps direction every time.

In this session of The Option Alpha Podcast I'll give you a step-by-step guide to the top 7 things you should check before you make another trade. And this is not some quickly thrown together list; these are strategic steps that will help you make more decisive action when it comes to picking and filtering good trades from bad trades. Each checklist item is placed in perfect order so that you can quickly figure out if a trade is worth your time analyzing or not.

In this session of The Option Alpha Podcast we are going to cover the 14 stages that all investors go through with their emotions. Understanding that traders have specific emotions which have varying magnitude, is critical to learning how either you or another investor might behave. Thankfully there is a cyclic process of psychology that explains the relationship between our feelings and our judgments. And we'll show you to remove yourself from this cycle so that you can master the markets as a non-emotional trader.

In this session of The Option Alpha Podcast I'll answer one of the biggest questions I get when it comes to trading options with probabilities. You see with probability trading there can be this misconception that it's all a "Zero-Sum" game. But today I'll show you how you can break this cycle and start making more money with non-traditional thinking about how you close winning or losing trades. This show will make you think hard about how you trade.

In this session of The Option Alpha Podcast we're going to have a very advanced conversation about implied volatility (IV) and why understanding IV is critical to gaining and edge in the market. Plus we'll use a very specific example with YHOO and HAL both that have IV of 32% but when we apply IV percentiles we find out that you should be trading these stocks completely different. Buckle up - this one is intense! 

In this session of The Option Alpha Podcast I'll show you with real data why if every new trader was doing this 1 thing different they'd make more money. Plus I'll relate this to how why casinos have table limits because they know that limiting how much people gamble is actually more profitable for them long term. And finally we'll tell you why you should never be afraid of trading options once you hear this bankruptcy stat.

In this session of The Option Alpha Podcast I'll start a huge discussion on why I think you don't need charting or technical studies to be successful trading options. Plus I'll use YHOO & INTC as examples.

In this session of The Option Alpha Podcast I'm going to give you a complete step-by-step guide to learning how trade options in 3 months. You'll learn to focus on 1 concept each week for 12 weeks.

In this session of The Option Alpha Podcast I'll cover some key foundational concepts about Call and Put options contracts by highlighting a classic simulated real estate deal.

In this session of The Option Alpha Podcast I'll cover one of the biggest misconceptions around trading and investing - account size. I'll explain why having more money actually makes you place worse trades.

In our 1st session of The Option Alpha Podcast I'll cover a little more about my trading background and how we got this far from such a small blog to start. Plus my goals and expectations for this podcast.