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Carley Garner, Senior Strategist and Broker at DeCarleyTrading, will be monitoring this thread so that she may answer any questions that you post here relating to DeCarleyTrading products and services or Options Trading in general.
Please keep in mind that some customer service/technical support issues are best handled through proper channels at DeCarleyTrading.
Carley Garner has extensive experience with Options Trading and her brokerage firm also specializes in trading Options on Futures, specifically short option selling with competitive rates. DeCarleyTrading offers self-directed trading as well as broker assisted trading and a wide variety of trading platforms to choose from. DeCarleyTrading is a member of the Zaner Group which means they have access to multiple FCM's to find the right clearing relationship best for your needs.
In addition to this thread, I will also be asking Carley Garner to stop by on occasion for a casual webinar where she can answer questions via audio while also sharing her screen to visually demonstrate any points as needed. The date/time of those sessions will be announced here in this thread. These sessions will be limited to questions only, there is no prepared presentation. After the session ends, the recording will be posted in this thread.
Feel free to ask any questions below and we'll do our best to get them answered.
The futures.io (formerly BMT) "AMA" (Ask Me Anything) series is by invitation only. It is part of a new program we are launching shortly called "Certified Trustworthy", something that has been months in the making. I will provide all the details of this new program as soon as it is ready for launch.
Mike
There is a substantial risk of loss in trading futures and options; it is not suitable for everyone
Legendary / Stochastic Calculus is not your friend
Experience: None
Platform: Ninjatrader, Python API
Broker: CQG
Trading: S&P, Crude, Gold
Posts: 879 since Oct 2009
Thanks Given: 3,512
Thanks Received: 1,563
@Big Mike sounds like Carley is very popular here on futures.io (formerly BMT), I can personally attest to her knowledge and high standard of professionalism.
I have been selling options on futures for years. But it is rare to find others doing it. I was wondering if there are others here doing it.
I have been doing it for 5 years. Learned it from James Cordier's book.
I have sold energy, grain, …
There are about 1,000 posts and it is a popular place for some option guys to hang out. In that thread there is recent discussion of a seasonal drop in Crude around April/May. Do you agree with this and if so, what option play would you consider for this type of trade, especially given the recent moves lower in crude?
Margins vary greatly from firm to firm. For example, Interactive Brokers vs optionsXpress. I assume your firm as well.
Is an options trader expected to download PC-SPAN to calculate margins? Or is there some online tool that can do it? Is there some pre-defined ratio of SPAN margin that you would set for an account when it is opened?
Does anyone have any experiences to share about Carley Garner or her products and services? I am doing some research before inviting her on to do a webinar on futures.io (formerly BMT).
@Big Mike @ron99 I haven't gotten a chance to go through the entire feed, but I can certainly comment on crude oil seasonals
It is true, in recent years crude oil has had a tendency to see sharp declines in May. However, when looking at longer-term data, the May dip has been shallow with most of the sharp selling occurring in June. I suspect the stronger correlation with equities has played a part in shifting the seasonal weakness into May (after all, the stock market mantra is "sell in May and go away").
Obviously, seasonals are a great tool but it is imperative that your trading decisions are dependent on multiple forms of analysis. In other words, I believe that seasonals is a big piece of the puzzle but it isn't the only one
Knowing these seasonal tendencies, traders might look to the May and June window as a time to be on stand by to sell calls into price strength and volatility (which is when options are most valuable).
Crude oil options can see painfully quick Theta (time value erosion), so I tend to not favor a long option strategy in this market.
*There is substantial risk of loss in trading futures and options.
*There is substantial risk of loss in trading futures and options.
If you have any questions about the products or services provided by DeCarleyTrading, please send me a Private Message or use the futures.io " Ask Me Anything" thread.
@Big Mike There are a lot of advantages to trading options on futures, relative to options on stocks...and SPAN margin for all accounts regardless of size or trader experience is one of them. However, there is a minor drawback in that it can be difficult to determine SPAN margin levels intraday. Most trading platforms cannot accurately calculate SPAN margin, thus leaving the trader guessing at the exact requirement until they can reference their official statement that evening.
The biggest obstacle in providing traders with this information is the secrecy of the CME's mathematical formula for SPAN. The CME charges licensing fees for access to SPAN so most platform vendors and brokers find that it isn't cost effective to provide to all clients free of charge. Other platforms have mimicked SPAN so that clients can get a pretty accurate estimate, but again...the official reading won't be available until the statements are cut.
With that said, most traders can effectively trade without knowing the exact SPAN margin on an intraday basis by simply following generalities. For instance, as a rule of thumb...most near the money options will be charged a SPAN equivalent to about half of the stated futures margin. Moderately out of the money options will be charge at about a third of the futures margin. If you need more precise figures than this before entering your order, you are probably being too aggressive with your trading by over-leveraging.
*There is substantial risk of loss in trading futures and options.
*There is substantial risk of loss in trading futures and options.
If you have any questions about the products or services provided by DeCarleyTrading, please send me a Private Message or use the futures.io " Ask Me Anything" thread.
Any suggestions on how to play Corn options at this time? There is a strong seasonal tendency for the market to retrace somewhat between March and April before moving up mid-June-July, but the fundamentals are pretty mixed for grains this year.
I prefer bullish trades in corn simply because this is one of the few markets that tends to move higher faster than it retreats. Also, traders like stories...and every year there is some type of weather related story that gets things moving. However, there is a USDA report tomorrow and that is always good for some unpredictable price action. It is possible we test the 660 range before recovering (May contract).
Volatility is incredibly low in this market, it seems the best play is a simple long option strategy. For instance, long May calls at strikes of 740 and higher. Post USDA, and preferably from lower prices, we might consider a synthetic (long put and long futures contract).
*There is substantial risk of loss in trading futures and options.
*There is substantial risk of loss in trading futures and options.
If you have any questions about the products or services provided by DeCarleyTrading, please send me a Private Message or use the futures.io " Ask Me Anything" thread.