Volatility vs. Price

Len Yates

Volatility peaks often go with market bottoms and volatility lows corresponded with market tops. What does this mean to the options trader? (more)

Synthetic Straddles Made Simple

Chris Tyler

There's a saying on Wall Street about no free lunches, but if you're an options trader, you might be able to walk away with a 'gift', courtesy of Wall Street. (more)

Surfing The Stock Market Waves

Jon Najarian

Jon ‘Dr. J’ Najarian profiles his favorite strategy to take advantage of what today's market has been giving us: the bull call spread. (more)

An Introduction To Volatility

Tony Saliba

Every options trader should have a grasp at least of a few fundamental principals of volatility (historical, expected, future and implied). The outlining of these is my task at hand. (more)

Extreme Volatility

Len Yates

Extreme volatility says, once again, that this is the bottom. Volatility was extreme in October and yet, here we are in November making lower lows. (more)

Playing A Takeover

Option trading opportunities in takeovers can come and go quickly and can be profitable – just be shrewd. (more)

A Great Volatility Trade

Len Yates

I don’t normally comment on current opportunities in this column but this one is simply so good I can’t keep my mouth shut. (more)

Volatility Skew -- What Is It And How Can I Use It?

Len Yates

Traders say that volatilities are skewed when the options of a given asset trade at increasing or decreasing levels of implied volatility as you move through the strikes. (more)

Buying and Selling Volatility, Part I

Len Yates

The most misunderstood and neglected dimension -- and often the last thing a novice trader learns about -- is volatility. (more)

Buying and Selling Volatility, Part II

Len Yates

We measure how much the price of an asset bounces around using a parameter called statistical volatility, or SV for short. (more)

Pay Attention to Volatility When You Trade

Len Yates

What trader has not experienced seeing the market move in the anticipated direction, but his options gaining only very little? (more)

When High Volatility Precedes Sideways Action

Larry Connors

Many times, when markets experience extremely high volatility they then proceed to trade sideways as volatility reverts to its mean. (more)

Extreme Volatility Readings

Larry Connors

As you know, when short-term volatility is one half or less than its normalized longer-term volatility, it signifies a pending large market move. (more)

Getting A Jump On Tomorrow’s Opening

Larry Connors

One of the better ways to position yourself near the close for tomorrow’s opening is with the VIX. I have found that large intraday moves in the VIX tend to follow through into the next trading day and can be used to predict the market’s open. (more)

Confirming Signals

Larry Connors

Last night we had three CVR buy signals (and three other confirming buy signals) on the Market Bias Indicators page in spite of the stock market dropping for the day. (more)

How to Use Volatility to Your Advantage

Larry Connors

Tonight, I will begin a series of articles on how to use volatility to your trading advantage. The most important feature to understanding how to use volatility is that it is mean-reverting. (more)