Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show66 Paper trading has its place in the investing world, but it likely isn't as useful as many brokers and financial gurus make it out to be. In fact, I'd even argue that if you are currently paper trading you're probably not using the virtual platforms to get the optimal experience out of them. Now, I won't deny that paper trading does have some benefits in helping traders learn the mechanics, but the drawbacks, in my opinion, outweigh the perceived usefulne...
Oct 17, 2016•20 min•Ep. 66
Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show65 If you're even remotely interested in personal finance or wealth building, you've likely heard of Todd Tresidder from Financial Mentor. If you haven't yet, well, then we've got a special treat for you today as Todd joins the Option Alpha podcast in this exclusive interview. Naturally, he's got an incredible resume having spent much of his time in the Hedge Fund space before retiring at age 35, but it's the actionable and real-world investing experience t...
Oct 10, 2016•53 min•Ep. 65
Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show64 Nobody’s a perfect trader - not by any stretch. We all make mistakes, and when we own up to them, we dramatically increase our ability to overcome them in the future. With more than 35k members in our community here at Option Alpha, I've seen every possible situation and mistake you could come up with - and today we're going to go through what I know are the top 15 1/2 options trading mistakes people are making right now. Trust me; it wasn't easy to narr...
Oct 03, 2016•46 min•Ep. 64
Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show63 A little over a year ago now the CBOE released its first round of options-based strategy performance benchmark indexes. Since, they’ve slowly increased the number of trackable option strategies on their website. Each strategy index is "designed to highlight the long-term utility of options as risk management and yield enhancing investment tools” and really helps bring some context to options trading for the little guys like you and me. In today’s show, I...
Sep 26, 2016•31 min•Ep. 63
Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show62 At least 2-3 times per week I’ll get an email from someone along these lines; “Kirk, why can’t we just buy the best dividend stocks right before the company pays the dividend, and then sell the stock the next day and keep the profit?” Seems like a cool idea, and I’ve definitely seen many smaller blogs peddling this idea to investors, but it might easier said than done. In today’s show I’ll help you understand the four most important dates you need to kno...
Sep 19, 2016•23 min•Ep. 62
Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show61 I’m just going to come right out and say it - today’s show is going to blow your mind. Not because we are talking about some crazy complicated strategy or options pricing model, but because we’re talking about a dead simple system for selling options every day that generates 22% per year since 2009. And what’s so fascinating for me, the host of the show, is how calm and cool our special guest is talking about his strategy. It’s just so mechanical and sys...
Sep 12, 2016•36 min•Ep. 61
Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show60 What if I told you that Warren Buffett, yes that one, is actually just an options trader in disguise? Actually, he’s not disguising anything since his entire strategy and philosophy is all publicly available and linked below. But, that the $5 billion dollar options trading strategy he is using right now has the exact same core methodologies that we use here at Option Alpha, i.e. option selling. Unfortunately, this strategy and business setup is not commo...
Sep 05, 2016•33 min•Ep. 60
Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show59 It's easy for traders, myself included, to talk about our profitable trades. I mean who doesn't want to talk about making money right? But we know that we can't win on every trade and today I'm going to cover an in-depth case study on our EWZ short strangle. We started building the EWZ position with short strangles back in late November and ending making more 27 trades over the course of five months to adjust and hedge the position. It was by far one of ...
Aug 29, 2016•32 min•Ep. 59
Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show58 One of the most challenging aspects of options trading for most people is in finding the best stocks and setups to trade. And I completely understand since there are thousands of stocks from which to choose. So, how do you filter down to a handful of just the best stocks with the best trading potential? In today's podcast episode, I'll help simplify the process for you because I can almost guarantee that you're overthinking it. Finding the best stocks fo...
Aug 22, 2016•22 min•Ep. 58
Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show57 We already know that you want to learn how to trade options and generate a consistent income. What we didn’t know, as well as we do now, is that we had some pretty specific gaps in our previous courses that made the process of learning how to trade confusing. And because we always want to improve and perfect our training here at Option Alpha, a couple of months ago we surveyed thousands of members in search of the "missing links" to our program. After mo...
Aug 15, 2016•19 min•Ep. 57
Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show56 With more than 32k option traders in our program now, I can tell you honestly that I've seen just as many 7-figure IRA accounts as I have 7-figure margin accounts in the last eight years. Many new traders think that trading options in an IRA account limit your ability to make money and generate income. They hear stories about all the "restrictions" brokers place on new accounts that prevent you from making high probability trades and quit before actually...
Aug 08, 2016•22 min•Ep. 56
Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show55 Market neutral, delta neutral, or balanced portfolio; call it what you want but the concept of making money regardless of where the stock market goes has been a long-time goal for many traders. But what happens when your portfolio becomes unbalanced? What are the best hedging strategies you can use to get back to a neutral stance? In today’s show, I'll walk through three different portfolio scenarios and offer my advice on the best hedging strategies to ...
Aug 01, 2016•28 min•Ep. 55
Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show54 If you’re an experienced options trader, then today’s show is for you because this week we’ll be talking about portfolio margin and how it could help enhance your returns. Yes, portfolio margin isn’t for everyone (you’ve got to have at least $125k in equity to qualify and three years of experience trading options), but the ability to upgrade your margin account to this portfolio risk model is incredibly powerful. With portfolio margin, your broker is ass...
Jul 25, 2016•22 min•Ep. 54
Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show53 What if there was an options strategy that took just 1 hour per month to implement and actually beat the S&P 500 benchmark index both in performance and with less overall portfolio volatility? What if that one strategy was available to any trader, regardless of your account type or size? You see, I believe you work too dang hard for your money and it doesn’t take a fancy financial planner or sophisticated mobile app to help you generate higher return...
Jul 21, 2016•25 min•Ep. 53
Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show52 Doesn't it just sound so cool even saying it: Robo Advisors. And although some of these automated investing companies have been around for 5+ years now, the recent rise in popularity of robo advisors like Wealthfront and Betterment is alarming. If you haven't been keeping up with the latest FinTech craze, robo advisors are simply the next logical Wall Street sequence or disguise for money management. Instead of having a financial planner or "human" direc...
Jul 08, 2016•25 min•Ep. 52
Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show51 You're in a trade that's going bad and are thinking about adjusting your position. But before you do, how would that adjustment impact your overall portfolio management? Would it make your portfolio more bearish, more bullish, or have little effect at all? Asking yourself this question above before adding or adjusting your positions gets to the heart of today's podcast episode. Too often I find that options traders who spend the bulk of their time concen...
Jun 27, 2016•29 min•Ep. 51
Show Notes: http://optionalpha.com/show50 One of the foundational elements of my personal trading style with options is the belief that the stock market is random. Random meaning that we can't gain an edge picking a direction. And for years, this assumption has been more or less accepted by the public and academia. In the last couple months, the theory or hypothesis around random financial markets has repeatedly been challenged, which is a good thing. A countless number of people have tackled th...
Jun 20, 2016•33 min•Ep. 50
Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show49 Do you think that there will be a stock market crash soon? Maybe in the next six months to 1 year? If you are looking for the ultimate strategy to profit from the next stock market crash, then today’s latest podcast is for you. We went to 2007 and backtested 15 different put option buying strategies to see which combination produced the most profitable results during the last market crash. Honestly, we’re due now for a serious correction or recession soo...
Jun 13, 2016•23 min•Ep. 49
Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show48 Options approval levels are options trading restrictions placed on your brokerage account to prevent or allow you from entering different options strategies. Most new traders, and admittedly some experienced traders, often don’t know which trading level they are in or even that levels exist. Still, you should always reach out to your current broker and check with them directly to be sure. While trading approval levels and names can vary from broker to br...
Jun 06, 2016•27 min•Ep. 48
Show notes: http://optionalpha.com/show47 One of the key elements of becoming a more successful trader is the ability to absolutely master options trading risk management. And, contrary to what you might assume, it comes down to a couple simple things. Namely, determining and sticking to an optimal position sizing range for each trade and never allocating your the full value of your account at one time. In simple terms; don’t invest too much money in each trade and always have money left over. M...
May 30, 2016•24 min•Ep. 47
Show Notes: http://optionalpha.com/show46 Tax day has come and gone that doesn’t mean that we can’t start preparing in advance for next year by looking ways to reduce or minimize our tax exposure. Today’s newest episode is Part 2 of 3 all about options trading taxes based on the questions that our members submitted. We’ll continue to dive deep into your most requested topics and questions to make sure we’re getting the correct answers for you so that you can confidently move forward. Sure, taxes...
May 23, 2016•18 min•Ep. 46
Show Notes: http://www.optionalpha.com/show45 Did you get flagged as a Pattern Day Trader? Concerned about what can happen if you make too many day trades in a short period of time? In this session of The Option Alpha Podcast, I'll clearly lay out the not-so-scary Pattern Day Trading Rules (PDT) that you can often run into if you're an active trader in either stocks or options. Now, personally speaking, we rarely (if ever) run into an issue with the PDT rules because we aren't day traders. We ar...
May 16, 2016•18 min•Ep. 45
Show Notes: http://www.optionalpha.com/show44 Options traders often reference the "Greeks" which include delta, gamma, vega and theta of their underlying positions as a way to measure the sensitivity of an option's price to market movements. And while looking at option greeks can be helpful, there's also a big misconception about them... one that trips a lot of traders up early on in their career. Most traders falsely assume that the "Greeks" are part of an options price - but they are NOT part ...
May 11, 2016•29 min•Ep. 44
Show Notes: http://optionalpha.com/show43 Back in mid-2014 we surveyed our members and it completely changed our business. We overhauled our video training , threw out all the junk and added more in-depth modules and PDF guides that everyone had been asking for. The result was an almost explosive growth in our ability to reach and train people. Realizing just how powerful this was in 2014 I wanted to survey our members again to see if there were any “missing link” that we needed focus on. After ...
Mar 14, 2016•33 min•Ep. 43
Show Notes: http://optionalpha.com/show42 The Stochastics indicator has long been a favorite for investors and could arguably be one of the most popular technical analysis indicators. Today I’m going to show you the results of our backtesting analysis on the Stochastics Indicator and I think you’ll find it extremely useful wWhether you’ve used it before to trade or if this is your first time looking it up. Now, unlike the results we saw in Show 41 of the podcast , today’s mini-case study did see...
Jan 22, 2016•15 min•Ep. 42
Today I’m going to give you a very special sneak peak inside our new technical analysis backtesting report called SIGNALS . Learn more here: http://optionalpha.com/signals Specifically, we’re going to look at how the Absolute Price Oscillator performed over the course of 20 years, testing 223 different stocks and the subsequent signals generated from those trades. What’s the point of telling you all this? There’s no hiding that this is meant to be a little bit of a teaser for you because I think...
Jan 20, 2016•16 min•Ep. 41
Grab your copy here: http://optionalpha.com/show40 We Backtested More Than 17.34 Million Stock Trades Over 20 Years to See What Really Works... Discover the specific indicators that generated winning trades 82% of the time and outperformed the market by 2,602% on average. Read the Entire Report in Just 30 Minutes. Get insights from 12 months of backtesting research of more than 1,476 different technical analysis indicator variations. Option Alpha's TOP 5 Indicators. We revealed our Top 5 indicat...
Jan 18, 2016•20 min•Ep. 40
Do you remember the feeling you had the first time you were introduced to technical analysis or stock charting indicators in general? You were probably at some weekend stock market seminar or watching a video online, and everything just clicked in your mind. The volume signaling that more buyers were present in the market to drive up the price, or the lines showing where support and resistance were; it all just made logical sense. Forget reading reports and company filings digging for great stoc...
Jan 12, 2016•14 min•Ep. 39
For years, I've had members ask me about options trading taxes, ways to reduce your taxes, the best legal structures, international trading taxes and hundreds of other questions on the subject. Recently I decided to survey just our PRO and ELITE members to find out what questions they wanted specifically answered when it came to trading taxes. What were the hot-button issues they had and subsequently never found an answer to? After hundreds of responses I compiled a long list of questions I woul...
Dec 11, 2015•44 min•Ep. 38
Part of our mission here at OptionAlpha.com is to offer the highest level of transparency possible in order to help you gain more confidence in your own options trading system. This week we launched our newest feature after spending more than 5 months developing a propriety portfolio tracking software that monitors and reports key statistics and metrics in real-time. This software tracks and categorizes real money trades, not paper or backtested trades. Want to see the most recent stats updated ...
Nov 19, 2015•35 min•Ep. 37
