This is a video of myself looking for some option trades using one of my real money accounts. These trades are for example only and I may exit or change them at any time without telling anyone.

This is a sample of the types of videos that are produced for Option Genius members which anyone can join from our homepage.

Good news!

OptionGenius.com has just reached an autotrade agreement with the broker OptionsXpress. We are already autotrading with eoption.com but adding a second broker to the mix gives members more options (Pun intended). Many of you probably already have accounts at OptionsXpress.

I’ve written about autotrading before but in case you don’t know what it is, autotrading is where a broker executes trades for you in your account on your behalf. So if I send out a new trade or a trade alert and you are on vacation, or at work, or driving the kids to school, etc you don’t need to worry about missing the trade. The broker will take care of it for you.

OptionsXpress is a very friendly option broker and has recently bought Optionetics so they are very strong in the educational component as well.

I hope this will be a long and happy relationship for all involved.

For more info [...]

We are happy to be introducing several enhancements to the OptionGenius.com service this month. As the days go on, we will announce 3 major improvements that should make membership much more valuable.

The first of these enhancements is Autotrading.

We are pleased to announce that starting today, we will be autotrading with Eoption.com ( a registered broker/dealer). Update: we are autotrading with Optionsxpress.com as well.

Autotrading is a great concept where members have the ability to have their broker execute the OptionGenius.com trades for them in their account.

Best of all, there is no extra charge for this service.

What this means for members:

Once we send out an email trade alert, your broker will automatically enter that order for you in your account. Chances are your order will be filled faster than you could do it yourself. Eoption.com has an autotrade desk where they have people who just sit and wait for these alerts all [...]

Would you like a 17% one day return?

That’s what one of my members got today. He actually did much better than I did. I am still in this trade. He was able to get in at a much better price than I did yesterday and already exited the trade today.

The trade is a butterfly on IBM. For members, it is May Trade #2

I got into the trade for a debit of 1.24, but this member got in at 1.15. For 4 contracts his cost was $460.

He sold the butterfly and exited the trade for 1.35 today. That’s a gain of $80 and a return of 17.39% – in one day!

I myself am up a little less than 10% so far.  Hopefully I too will be out in a couple more days with a nice double digit gain.

The symbols used to trade options are changing soon. Here is how Fidelity explains the changes:

Options Symbology Initiative (OSI)
Background

Due to the significant growth of the option market, the Options Clearing Corporation (OCC) has enacted an industry-wide initiative known as the Options Symbology Initiative (OSI). Fidelity will be implementing changes during the weekend of January 23, 2010. The new options symbology will expand the current option series key, commonly referred to as the OPRA symbol, from a 5 character convention to a new key that accommodates up to 22 characters.

Benefits of the symbol change

It will be easier to identify a contract’s underlying security, original expiration date, call or put, and strike price without the use of code-translation tables. It provides more flexibility than the OPRA symbols. The new convention allows for the addition of unique identifiers for new issuers, for the indication of expiration days other than the standard monthly expiration, [...]

A fellow trader emailed me about a new movie about floor traders. Options are still traded on the floor but more and more floor traders are leaving because as it says in the trailer, everything is moving to computers.

Looks like a good movie.

Trailer #2

HI Allen,
 
I have been trying to trade since Wednesday.

 My orders never get filled at Mid. Do you set the limit below the mid?