trade options

Key Steps To Option Trading Success

Hi, I hope that your portfolio is growing. This is part two of a series of six articles including a video for each article. If you are interested in learning how to trade options, I recommend you watch all six videos.

A key step to enhance your option trading competence is to give due time for back testing. A number of software programs to aid your option testing work are available on the market today but the use of such will absolutely eat up a huge amount of your time. I have personally experienced using Think or Swim or Optionvue in back testing my options and these softwares come out really good. Then, I come across this new back tester that can save quite much of your time compared to those I have previously mentioned. This new back testing tool is called the Options Toolkit developed and released by San Jose Options.

It would take me one hour to back test one year of trading a Condor with the Optionvue software. When I used Think or Swim it would be a little faster, but I would get less information. Now, by using “Options Toolkit” I actually gather more organized data in about 2 seconds to back test one year of Condor trades. It’s really a great program!

Experience, too, is a very important factor to consider before you find success in options trading. After many years of watching and breathing the stock market, an option trader can develop extensive experience that will make him quite familiar with the many faces it has. Remember, the stock market is changing all the time.

Another way to become a successful options trader is by paper trading. Through paper trading, you can simply get an account with any options broker and start practicing for free. Paper trading though requires serious concentration and time, and you need to go through it for half a year to a year. But then, experience you will get, and you are in no risk of losing a lot of money as in actual trading.

Finally, you must not lay everything you have in your trading account on the table. You should leave at least 25 percent of your capital in cash. The best option strategies require some necessary adjustments, and you must have the extra pocket to accomplish them. One of the secret behind successful options trading is to leave plenty of money in cash for you to be able to keep your portfolio afloat, to lock in profits, and to carry out trading adjustments.

Learn more about the Options Trading Software. Stop by the San Jose Options Mentoring web site where you can find out all about Trading Options and what it can do for you.

trade options

A Phone Call With An Iron Condor Trader

I had an interesting conversation with an option trader today who is still searching for the secret to making consistent returns with option trading. He said many things that I absolutely agreed with.

One thing that got my attention was when he said “Non-directional option trading doesn’t mean we can make money in any direction. It means that we make money if the underlying doesn’t move in any direction. In other words, it’s still a directional trade, sideways.” He was right, and it’s often advertised that it’s easy to make money with options because we can make money on any direction. However, this isn’t always the case.

If you’re trading Iron Condors, you know what I am talking about; especially if you are trading the Condors that most courses and books teach. If you are trading this strategy in 2009, you probably aren’t making anything. That’s because the Iron Condor is just as directional as most option trades only that its direction is sideways. It’s just as hard to predict a sideways move as it is up or down.

Over the years I have received several calls from people who ended up having large chunks taken out of their accounts because of trading credit spreads and condors. The story is always the same… “For several months everything was going great when suddenly I nearly lost my entire account in one day.” I have heard this over and over.

I don’t trade the popular Condors or Credit Spreads precisely because of this reason. Many people believe in trading this way until they are a few days away from expiration and their short strike is about to hit. If this happens, soon you may be trying to hide the truth from your wife or telling the same story to your best friend. As funny as you may think this is, you won’t even chuckle when this happens to you. This style of trading can also contribute to a high stress level which can ruin your life.

To combat the problem, San Jose Options Mentoring has redesigned Iron Condors and Credit Spreads. They taught me a different technique which gives the underlying much more wiggle room, lowering my stress level and keeping me out of dangerous situations. Remember, in most cases, you’re better off the less you have to adjust your condor.

By using their developed techniques, I was able to lock in my profits on Condors. I learned from them how to stay in the trade a little longer after I was able to lock-in my profits, which is unlike most options trader who after they have made a profit exit their trades.

In the end, if I ever have a Condor move against me, then I have developed a technique to keep me in the game by making adjustments and morphing into a new position! I may run into a bad month once in a while, but I’ll get an excellent, free trade from it where most traders bite the bullet and move on.

Win or lose, along with the other strategies which I have developed, I will be able to trade Iron Condors impressively.

Don’t be an ordinary Iron Condor Trader! Learn safer, innovative strategies with San Jose Options. Check us out online for your free Options Trading Video.