Covered Calls and LEAPS - Income Generation Potential

Skill Level: Beginner

Mark Dannenberg, CSE
Traditionally, the Covered Call strategy has been utilized to help minimize losses in a stock portfolio: an investor will purchase a stock, sell a Covered Call and if the stock price goes down, the call premium will minimize the loss on the investment by the amount of the premium received.

Contrary to conventional wisdom - in this session, we will demonstrate that a Covered Call may be used as a management tool to effectuate consistent income production from a stock portfolio without placing the investor at substantial risk of unprofitable call out.

Fundamental Terms: What does PE stand for, stock buybacks, earnings 101, dividends 101, etc.

Skill Level: Beginner

We all see charts all the time whenever we talk about trading. However, there is a fundamental side to all of this. In this event we will talk about how to understand what all of these terms mean. You will also have the opportunity to learn ways that they may be of use to you as a trader regardless of the time frame you like to trade.

Intro to Equity Options

Skill Level: Beginner

Join us for a 75-minute introduction to listed options. This class will define calls and puts plus view profit and loss graphs for these derivative instruments. We will also explain the overall risks and benefits of trading options.

Options News You Can Use: An Insiders Guide To Puts, Calls And Financial News

Skill Level: Beginner

Stephen M. Sears, Senior Special Writer, Barron's & Barron's Online
Options trading has now become mainstream, and news coverage of the market has exploded. Steve will provide a behind-the-scenes guide to how options news is created and disseminated with the intent of helping traders use the news to make better decisions.

Putting it all together: Ideas on how to set up a total portfolio for investing and trading combined

Skill Level: Beginner

Options trading has now become mainstream, and news coverage of the market has exploded. Steve will provide a behind-the-scenes guide to how options news is created and disseminated with the intent of helping traders use the news to make better decisions.

The Markets Never Sleep: Strategies for Trading Around the Globe

Skill Level: Beginner

Tom Busby, Founder, DTI Traders
Every job you have in life requires training or education…the stock market is no different. Tom Busby has been knee deep in the futures, stock and options markets since the late 70’s. Busby spent a lot of time educating himself about the markets he thought he had licked prior to the Crash of 1987. After that fateful day Busby adopted a structure, a discipline, and a method that has allowed him to trade for a living. In this presentation he will talk about using specific times of day to trade, as well as the use of support and resistance and major market indicators in his quest to help you answer the question of whether to be long, short or out of the market.

Volatility: How It Affects Your Trades

Skill Level: Beginner

Greg Jensen and Fasi Filaga, Spread Trade Systems
Volatility—A key component to look for in selecting stocks to trade, this session on volatility will outline and define historical volatility and implied volatility. We will discuss how these two components of option prices can affect your trades and how to best use volatility to your benefit.

What You Don't Know About Expiration Could Hurt You

Skill Level: Beginner

Join us for a class that aims to help explain option expiration and what to do if you are assigned. If you trade options or option spreads, eventually you will probably be faced with an early assignment or exercise. Whether this has happened to you pre or post expiration, we will cover topics designed to help you better handle exercise and assignments.

Back to Top

7 Habits to Help You Trade - With Case Studies

Skill Level: Intermediate

Tom Gentile, Optionetics
Learn from Profit Strategies Founder Tom Gentile 7 Habits that may help you place smarter trades. These include building a foundation, system trading and development, execution, option strategies, and much more. Tom will not only be teaching these habits, but applying them with real market case studies using stocks and trading systems. This session was created to help you accelerate your trading.

Adjustments — Turn losing trades around

Skill Level: Intermediate

Greg Jensen, Spread Trade Systems
This “trade adjustment” session will detail the process of adjusting the options trading instruments using Option Chains. We’ll define the rights and obligations associated with each option instrument, introduce and review the different adjustment options and then apply the adjustment process with each of the 4 options trading instruments. Participants will become familiar with those steps that can be taken to help minimize losses when trades move in the wrong direction—or even possibly turn them into profitable trades.

Bear Market Strategy & Income Strategies using LEAPs

Skill Level: Intermediate

Ross Jardine
Many traders want to make money at any time or condition of the market. A Bear market can often be used as a way to continue to see your account grow if you know the strategies to take advantage of the weakness. Ross utilizes strategies designed to recognize and trade the Bearish trends, to help you make money in all market conditions. Risk in trading is a concern for everyone. In this session the goal is to identify strategies aimed to reduce risk by covering yourself from the unknown while at the same time selling the high volatility in an attempt to generate a repeatable income approach to trading.

Commodity Prices with Leveraged Option Strategies

Skill Level: Intermediate

David Hightower
Increasing demand from rapidly expanding economies and improving standards of living in China and India and the development of biofuels continue to feed a commodity "Super Cycle." This has already produced record prices for copper, platinum, crude oil and wheat and may do the same for many other commodities. A "Battle for Acres" is developing between soy, corn, wheat and cotton, as those commodities are bid higher to secure acreage in an attempt to expand production and meet the growing demand. With the higher prices comes higher volatility, which increases risk but may also create opportunities. Dave Hightower will show you how you may benefit from the increasing volatility using options.

Conservative option strategies for the long term investor

Skill Level: Intermediate

Joe Cusick
This class aims to dispel the myth that options are only for the short term speculative trader. Simulating stock positions, bond positions and options will be just some of the topics covered at this event. This event is a must for anyone interested in staying in the game for the long term.

Diagonal Spreads vs. Covered Calls…Which strategy is best for you?

Skill Level: Intermediate

Mike Tosaw
Leverage has its advantages and disadvantages. In this workshop, you will have an opportunity to learn about a way that you can leverage yourself if you like to trade covered calls as well as see how you can help guage if you are over leveraged if you are a diagonal spread trader. We will go over how time decay can work against you for each strategy.

Effective Market Entry and Exit Strategies in the Grain Futures

Skill Level: Intermediate

Jim Wyckoff
Better market entry and exit strategies often translate into more trading winners--and potentially more profits. Jim Wyckoff will explain in detail key market entry and exit strategies for the grain futures (many of which can also be used effectively in other markets) by using key technical signals and by employing selected market and stop orders. Jim's trading strategies can often be employed in any trading timeframe--from intra-day trader to longer-term position trader.

Effective Trading Tactics using FX Options

Skill Level: Intermediate

Alex Jacobson, ISE
The goal of this presentation is to help you develop an effective trading strategy for FX Options, one of the market's lowest volatility products. Understand how to use longer-term FX trading techniques for selecting the right currency pair, depending on your risk tolerance. FX Options are an investment strategy that allow you to trade your views on the strength or weakness of the U.S. dollar relative to foreign currencies. These exchange-listed securities are cash-settled in U.S. dollars and have a European style exercise.

Four Conservative Option Strategies Investors often Overlook

Skill Level: Intermediate

Vic Schiller of Investors Observer & Ernie Zerenner of PowerOptions Plus
In the constant scramble for hot trades options investors sometimes gravitate to trades that may not be the smartest investment.

Are there better trades with less risk? Are there trades with the same risk but higher potential profit? How can investors potentially spend less for a similar trade? Learn about the strategies, tactics and tools designed to help you invest smarter in up, down, or flat markets.

Fundamental Stock Investing and Options

Skill Level: Intermediate

Philip Guziec, Derivatives Strategist, Morningstar, Inc.
Options are most often linked with "trading" which typically uses technical analysis, or gut feel estimates to capture short term profits. However, options can also be used as an extension of long term fundamental stock investing. This breakout session will discuss the linkage between fundamental valuation based investment strategies and equity options.

Live Trading with Dan Sheridan: Creating a Portfolio for Monthly Income.

Skill Level: Intermediate

Dan Sheridan
Dan Sheridan, 23 year CBOE pit veteran and founder of Sheridan Mentoring, will attempt to show you how to build a portfolio of income trades from scratch. Learn how to make a plan, pick the vehicles, and get the trades executed into the market place. He will also discuss valuable tips on getting your orders executed at the best possible price.

Intro to Energy Futures

Skill Level: Intermediate

Do you want to know more about the energy futures markets? Join us for a breakout session in which we will discuss the basics of the energy markets. You will learn not only what drives the energy markets but also how to trade on this information.

Intro to Emini S&P futures

Skill Level: Intermediate

Join us for a breakout session discussing the basics of the e-mini financial futures. We will cover topics such as placing a futures trade, determining margin requirements, and calculating profit and loss.

Live Trading with Professional Trader Tom Busby, part 1

Skill Level: Intermediate

Tom Busby, Founder, DTI Traders
Professional Trader Tom Busby will take you through a day in the life of a trader. Busby has been trading for 25+ years and can show you how to pinpoint entry, exit and stop placement prices in the stock, futures and options markets, including the E-Mini and Dow Futures. As the President of DTI, he has been educating traders on the global markets since 1996. In this presentation Busby will share his trading strategies and techniques with you during a live market.

Managing the Trade: Critical Steps to Define Your Risk & Reward in Options Trading

Skill Level: Intermediate

Price Headley, Founder, Big Trends - sponsored by CBOE
One of the biggest mistakes many options traders make is setting their price target and then buying the option that will make them the most money if the price target is reached. In the majority of cases, such best-case hopes yield to the reality of many other scenarios that can play out. Generally, the successful trader needs to factor in many elements into the proper choice of the option: from time and volatility, to the amount to invest, to how to manage the trade once you have entered to get the maximum potential relative to a defined risk. In this presentation Price Headley will help show you how to better define reward relative to risk, and how making the proper options choice may greatly impact your ability to follow your trading method more consistently over time.

Meet the Greeks

Skill Level: Intermediate

When traders talk about "the Greeks," they are referring to the different ways risk can be measured as it relates to a particular option or position. If you always wondered how these different Greek letters (e.g., delta, gamma, vega) help enable traders to manage risk, then this breakout is a must see.

Options Indicators for Effective Market Timing

Skill Level: Intermediate

Price Headley, Founder, Big Trends - sponsored by CBOE
Join Price Headley as he shares his favorite indicators to time the markets, including the put/call ratio and the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX). Price will also be showing you applications of this daily market analysis, focused on index options spread strategies using the S&P 100 Index (OEX). He will also discuss trade management guidelines, including both time stops and trailing stops, to help you determine when the trade may need to be held or exited.

optionsXpress Power Tools

Skill Level: Intermediate

This may be the best 75 minutes that you could spend to learn more about the power suite of tools offered at optionsXpress. Whether it's a tool to decipher a strategy or to screen for potential trading candidates, we will cover it all.

Portfolio Margining

Skill Level: Intermediate

New portfolio margin rules for equity options, stock index options and other positions are now in effect. These new guidelines typically offer more leverage and allow eligible investors to base margin requirements on the net risks of highly correlated holdings held in an account. Unlike current strategy-based margin requirements, portfolio margin establishes a margin requirement equal to the greatest loss that, theoretically, could result if a gain or loss is calculated on the portfolio as a whole—at set increments on the upside and downside. The portfolio margin method is a more accurate assessment of risk. Because of the leverage that portfolio margin allows customers to utilize, guidelines require $100,000 in minimum account value. Join us for a discussion on how these new portfolio margining rules may work for you.

Spread Your Wings: Using Butterfly Spreads

Skill Level: Intermediate

Steve Smith, TheStreet.com
This session will define and describe the construction of butterfly spreads. Discuss the applications and flexibility of this low cost, limit risk strategy. Market neutral passive positions. Directional plays on the broad market and individual stocks. Varieties of butterfly spreads including skip strike butterfly. Explain the pricing dynamics of the butterfly spread to understand when to use and how to maximize potential opportunities. This includes how market makers may use butterfly spreads to build long term inventory option positions to short-term speculative trades. The session will use real examples of both passive investing and identifying stock specific trading opportunities with a focus on earnings and known news events.

Supercharge Your Trading for 2007 and Beyond

Skill Level: Intermediate

Tom Gentile, Optionetics
Join Tom Gentile, Senior Vice-President & Chief Options Strategist at Optionetics, as he reveals his "Six Trading Skills". A devoted systems trader, Tom unveils the basic fundamentals of this effective trading approach and explains how systems trading works, and how you may be able to create winning systems of your own. He also explores seasonal trading systems that may be put into action right away. What's more, he'll divulge his 40-Week Bullish and Bearish Strategy aimed at helping you capitalize. Finally, if you've ever wondered about stock market cycles in association with election terms, you may want to watch Tom serve up data to help support his Election Year Investing Strategy. See some compelling patterns for the upcoming election cycle and find out what actions you may want to consider to help beef up your portfolio.

Synthetics: What is the put/call mirror strategy and when might it be used

Skill Level: Intermediate

When you trade a stock on margin, you will pay an interest charge to a broker. On top of that, you still have to have a 50% margin requirement. With an option combo, you can set up a very similar position with a reduced margin requirement. Trading on reduced margin contains risks. We will discuss the potential risks and benefits of this strategy. If you are trading for the short term, this may be something that is of interest to you. This strategy and other strategy similarities for call and put spreads will be discussed as well.

Road Map to Retirement: Using Options to help generate Monthly Cash Flow

Skill Level: Intermediate

Freddie Rick, Founder, BetterTrades
Please join Freddie Rick, founder of BetterTrades, an education company specializing in teaching individuals to trade in the stock market, as he introduces you into the exciting world of trading Iron Condors, a trading method designed to help generate monthly cash flow. An Iron Condor is a neutral spread strategy that involves buying and holding four different options.

The key value to this BetterTrades proven trading system is that it uses a "hands off" approach. This system will show you how to trade under any market condition, while allowing you to have the time and freedom that you have always dreamed of.

So stop sitting on the sidelines...Come hear about BetterTrades!

Technical Analysis 101: What are MACD, stochastic, etc.

Skill Level: Intermediate

What are all these technical indicators and how do I use them? This is a class aimed at beginning technical analysts that are looking for answers on how charts can be read for identifying potential profit opportunities. We will also discuss how to put everything into perspective by setting proper risk management.

The Art of Adjusting

Skill Level: Intermediate

Dan Sheridan
Dan Sheridan, 23 year CBOE pit veteran and founder of Sheridan Mentoring, as he teaches specific adjustment techniques on some of the popular strategies like Calendars, Condors, Butterflies, and Double Diagonals.

Time Decay: When to consider In-The-Money, At-The-Money, or Out-Of-The-Money options and why

Skill Level: Intermediate

Have you ever bought an option where the price of the stock goes your way and you still lose money? Do you ever wonder how to determine a strike price for a specific strategy and time frame? When might it better to do a spread instead of a single leg option? Not only will we go over some ways to select a potential strike price, we will also cover how to use optionsXpress for determining “what if” for various option strategies.

A Unique Vertical Spread with Jared Levy

Skill Level: Intermediate

Jared Levy, Wizetrade
Join Jared, a former options market maker and specialist, as he teaches how to help make time work in your favor without margin, using this alternative option spread. This is a low-maintenance strategy that most beginners to intermediate traders may consider, even with a Level 3 options approval. This strategy aims to take advantage of a stock going up, sideways or even moving lower, with limited risk.

Volatility: So what’s the Big Deal?

Skill Level: Intermediate

How important is volatility on the scale of 1–10? Many traders would probably say about “35”. In this event, we will cover volatility (both implied and historic) and we will show how it may affect an option’s price along with how it may affect specific strategies. Whether you are a directional trader or delta neutral, this will be a great event.

Wizetrade for Options

Skill Level: Intermediate

Tim Truelove, Wizetrade
Wizetrade for Options software programs and training packages are designed to help provide you with a better understanding of the options markets as well as several option strategies from basic to advanced. Additionally, this session may help you to develop a better understanding of directional price movement using proprietary algorithms to aid in entry and exit signals for directional and non-directional option strategies.

Back to Top

Advanced Trading Tactics for Precious Metals Futures Markets

Skill Level: Advanced

John Person
Learn how to potentially profit and protect your risk from volatility in the current commodity bull market. As the precious metals markets move, Gold & Silver daily ranges often meet or exceed other markets dollar values. Traders may want to consider adapting and diversifying into trading opportunities in multiple markets. Use this special opportunity to learn advanced technical trading strategies to trade the electronic precious metals futures markets with 30-year trading veteran and author, John Person. This workshop will help to explain the distinct benefits of trading gold and silver futures versus other trading vehicles. John will show you how to develop a trading plan based on four set-up patterns and triggers often used to enter the market, as well as a technique to use for stop placement, risk management and how to calculate profit objectives.

Futures 101

Skill Level: Advanced

Join us for a seminar discussing the basics of the futures markets and trading futures. We will cover topics such as placing a futures trade, determining margin requirements, and calculating profit and loss.

Futures and Options Strategy Applications Using Japanese Candlesticks

Skill Level: Advanced

Dan Gramza
Traders with specific trading guidelines may react to the market in a very consistent fashion with identified profit and risk management objectives. CME Group invites you to join Dan Gramza, President of Gramza Capital Management and instructor of CME Group professional traders, as he presents his proprietary approach to Japanese Candle trading techniques. Learn the logic and rationale behind his trading strategies as Dan explains the process to create critical trading parameters.

Discover new trading strategies and gain insights into the CME stock index and FX markets. Find out why financial institutions, investment managers and individual traders typically use these exciting products.

Futures Trading Using Unique Trend Analysis

Skill Level: Advanced

Dan Gramza
In this presentation, Daniel Gramza presents the concepts and techniques of Trend Analysis. Learn how Daniel’s unique approach may open a new dimension to trading by revealing techniques you may use to help define a trending market, how to technically determine when a trend change has occurred and how to trade the new trend.

In this presentation, Dan seeks to help you learn:

• Specific techniques to define a trending market
• How to technically determine when a trend change has occurred
• How to identify proprietary symmetrical and non-symmetrical trend change
• How to trade a new trend
• What market conditions may lead to the most potentially profitable trades
• How to determine magnitude objectives of different trading techniques
• How to determine when a trade should become productive
• How to identify when a trade is failing
• How to determine where to place the risk management stop
• How to manage profits

Dan will apply techniques to live CME Group markets including equity index, fx and interest rate futures.

Greek Neutral Trading: How to set up a price neutral trade with Greeks and how there will always be risk somewhere

Skill Level: Advanced

Delta neutral is a popular buzzword in the options industry. How about gamma, theta, or vega neutral? There is a way to be neutral for all types of trades. This is a topic that all option traders should know about regardless of whether they trade direction or volatility. This class aims to deliver an understanding of how to help offset risks for any situation that may arise.

High Speed Indicators for High Speed Trading of the Futures Markets

Skill Level: Advanced

Fari Hamzei, Hamzei Analytics - sponsored by CME
Fari Hamzei will discuss the evolution and how the use of Hamzei Analytics' Proprietary Indicators may be applied to trading the futures markets, CME's Equity Index Futures (ES, NQ & Mini-sized Dow). Live Charts will be used.

How to Survive with Power Trading in Globalization 3.0

Skill Level: Advanced

John O'Donnell, Chief Knowledge Officer, Online Trading Academy
John O'Donnell, Chief Knowledge Officer, Online Trading Academy OTA's Chief Knowledge Officer and market veteran John O'Donnell explains the differences we are all facing in the new economic world of Globalization 3.0. Why do asset bubbles form, and why do they burst? Tune in to learn how to hedge the coming global debt bubble in the coming economic crisis. Will the real estate bubble burst? Learn ways to help protect your home equity and hedging your subprime mortgage exposure. Join John's workshop and see how the world economy really works-not just the perception of other's beliefs.

Maximizing Implied Volatility & Directional Break-Outs

Skill Level: Advanced

Ross Jardine
The true test of understanding Implied Volatility is the ability to apply it to your own trades. During this breakout session, Ross will attempt to demonstrate how to utilize Implied Volatility in conjunction with Advanced Technical Analysis while implementing a couple of directional trading strategies that aim to employ a favorable risk to reward ratio.

Modern Portfolio Protection

Skill Level: Advanced

Larry McMillan
The S&P 500 Index has not had a correction of as much as 9% for well over four years — a record length of time. Moreover, the current bull market is now the fourth longest in history. Given these facts, many stockholders and portfolio managers may choose to use derivatives (options or futures) to hedge their positions, while still allowing room for the upside potential. In this session, we’ll look at strategies for “macro” and “micro” portfolio protection, including covered call writing, overwriting, buying puts, buying put spreads, collars, and buying VIX calls.

Optimizing your spread trades in a high volatility market

Skill Level: Advanced

Alex Jacobson, ISE
Volatility has spiked. Learn how you may be able to structure your spreads to benefit from volatility differences.

Options 201

Skill Level: Advanced

“Spread” is a loosely used term that can describe any multi-part strategy. In this breakout, we will introduce you to the Bull Call Spread, Bear Call Spread and Diagonal Spreads. This event aims to provide you a better understanding of spreads and how they can be an alternative to trading options speculatively.

The Power Of Options

Skill Level: Advanced

Larry McMillan
Options are often useful in a number of ways, as indicators in their own right. As contrary indicators, implied volatility (including VIX) and put-call ratios may provide accurate signals of broad market behavior as well as that of individual stocks and futures. Conversely, sometimes option data may be a direct predictor. One often-useful way is as a predictor of takeovers or other corporate activity. A large increase in option volume and volatility in stock options is generally a strong signal, which has often predicted several takeovers. Finally, option activity preceding “events” — such as earnings announcements or FDA hearings — may also be a clue for the astute option strategist.

The re-pricing of risk, what does it mean for my trading?

Skill Level: Advanced

Steve Meizinger, ISE
What are the opportunities and the potential risks in the current options marketplace? Currency options, equity options and narrow based index options will be used as examples of how a better understanding of volatility risk may enhance your portfolio.

Trading Predictions and Option Strategies

Skill Level: Advanced

Jim Bittman, CBOE
This interaction of market prognosticators andoption strategists offer trading ideas, lively discussion and audience participation. Trading ideas for the current market will be presented by Price Headley and Fari Hamzei, while potential strategies will be discussed by marty Kearney and JIm Bittman.

Volatility

Skill Level: Advanced

Mike Tosaw
How important is volatility on the scale of 1-10? Many traders would probably say about "35". In this event, we will cover volatility (both implied and historic) and we will show how it may affect an option's price along with how it may affect specific strategies. Whether you are a directional trader or delta neutral, this will be a great event.

Wing Spreads

Skill Level: Advanced

Fasi Filaga, Spread Trade Systems
This session will cover the use of wing spreads in a stagnant or range-bound market. In addition to a general overview and definitions, we will cover the specifics of utilizing the butterfly, iron butterfly condor and iron condor trades. The practical application of wing spread trades will be covered in detail so that participants will feel comfortable regarding when and how to use these trades.

Back to Top