Volatility Edge in Options Trading, The

Volatility Edge in Options Trading, The

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Description

JEFF AUGEN, currently a private investor and writer, has spent over a decade building a unique intellectual property portfolio of algorithms and software for technical analysis of derivatives prices. His work includes over one million lines of computer code refl ecting powerful new strategies for trading equity, index, and futures options. As co-founding executive of IBM’s Life Sciences Computing business, Augen defined a growth strategy resulting in $1.2B of new revenue and managed a large portfolio of venture capital investments. From 2002 to 2005, he was President and CEO of TurboWorx, Inc., a technical computing software company founded by the chairman of the Department of Computer Science at Yale University. He is author of Bioinformatics in the Post-Genomic Era: Genome, Transcriptome, Proteome, and Information-Based Medicine (Addison-Wesley, 2004).

 

 “Jeff’s analysis is unique, at least among academic derivatives textbooks. I would definitely use this material in my derivatives class, as I believe students would benefit from analyzing the many dimensions of Jeff’s trading strategies. I especially found the material on trading the earnings cycle and discussion of how to insure against price jumps at known events very worthwhile.”

DR. ROBERT JENNINGS, Professor of Finance, Indiana University Kelley School of Business

 

“This is not just another book about options trading. The author shares a plethora of knowledge based on 20 years of trading experience and study of the financial markets. Jeff explains the myriad of complexities about options in a manner that is insightful and easy to understand. Given the growth in the options and derivatives markets over the past five years, this book is required reading for any serious investor or anyone in the financial service industries.”

MICHAEL P. O’HARE, Head of Mergers & Acquisitions, Oppenheimer & Co. Inc.

 

“Those in the know will find this book to be an excellent resource and practical guide with exciting new insights into investing and hedging with options.”

JIM MEYER, Managing Director, Sasqua Field Capital Partners LLC

 

“Jeff has focused everything I knew about options pricing and more through a hyper-insightful lens! This book provides a unique and practical perspective about options trading that should be required reading for professional and individual investors.”

ARTHUR TISI, Founder and CEO, EXA Infosystems; private investor and options trader

 

In The Volatility Edge in Options Trading, leading options trader Jeff Augen introduces breakthrough strategies for identifying subtle price distortions that arise from changes in market volatility. Drawing on more than a decade of never-before-published research, Augen provides new analytical techniques that every experienced options trader can use to study historical price changes, mitigate risk, limit market exposure, and structure mathematically sound high-return options positions. Augen bridges the gap between pricing theory mathematics and market realities, covering topics addressed in no other options trading book. He introduces new ways to exploit the rising volatility that precedes earnings releases; trade the monthly options expiration cycle; leverage put:call price parity disruptions; understand weekend and month-end effects on bid-ask spreads; and use options on the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) as a portfolio hedge. Unlike conventional guides, The Volatility Edge in Options Trading doesn’t rely on oversimplified positional analyses: it fully reflects ongoing changes in the prices of underlying securities, market volatility, and time decay. What’s more, Augen shows how to build your own customized analytical toolset using low-cost desktop software and data sources: tools that can transform his state-of-the-art strategies into practical buy/sell guidance.

 

An options investment strategy that reflects the markets’ fundamental mathematical properties

Presents strategies for achieving superior returns in widely diverse market conditions

Adaptive trading: how to dynamically manage option positions, and why you must

Includes precise, proven metrics and rules for adjusting complex positions

Effectively trading the earnings and expiration cycles

Leverage price distortions related to earnings and impending options expirations

Building a state-of-the-art analytical infrastructure

Use standard desktop software and data sources to build world-class decision-making tools

For the first time, learn how to take full advantage of market volatility and profit while others are running for cover

 

  • Learn an all new, breakthrough strategy for profiting by trading options in volatile markets.
  • Includes practical, detailed guidance on tools you can use to determine when to buy and when to sell.
  • Information available nowhere else: based on more than a decade of advanced research by one of the most successful private option traders.
  • In The Volatility Edge, options trader and researcher Jeff Augen introduces a breakthrough strategy for fully leveraging the immense opportunities that arise from market volatility. Drawing on more than a decade of never-before-published research, Augen provides new analytical techniques and visual tools that every experienced options trader can use. For the first time, Augen bridges the gap between pricing theory mathematics and market realities, providing new data visualization tools and analytical techniques for studying historical price change behavior, making more profitable trading decisions, and systematically managing and mitigating risk. Augen covers topics addressed in no other options trading book, introducing innovative new strategies for exploiting rising volatility that precedes most earnings releases; trading the monthly options expiration cycle; leveraging put:call price parity disruptions; understanding the impact of weekend and end-of-month timeframes on bid-ask spreads; and using the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) more effectively. Unlike conventional guides, The Volatility Edge doesn’t rely on oversimplified, artificial positional analyses: it reflects ongoing changes in the prices of underlying securities, market volatility, and time decay.

    Acknowledgments . . . xi

    About the Author . . . xii

    Preface . . . xiii

    A Guide for Readers . . . xv

    1. Introduction . . . 1

    Price Discovery and Market Stability . . . 6

    Practical Limitations of Technical Charting . . . 9

    Background and Terms . . . 12

    Securing a Technical Edge . . . 16

    Endnote  . . . 21

    2. Fundamentals of Option Pricing . . . 23

    Random Walks and Brownian Motion . . . 25

    The Black-Scholes Pricing Model . . . 29

    The Greeks: Delta, Gamma, Vega, Theta, and Rho . . . 32

    Binomial Trees: An Alternative Pricing Model  . . . 42

    Summary . . . 45

    Further Reading  . . . 45

    Endnotes . . . 46

    3. Volatility . . . 47

    Volatility and Standard Deviation . . . 48

    Calculating Historical Volatility . . . 50

    Profiling Price Change Behavior . . . 61

    Summary . . . 75

    Further Reading . . . 76

    4. General Considerations . . . 77

    Bid-Ask Spreads . . . 79

    Volatility Swings . . . 82

    Put-Call Parity Violations  . . . 89

    Liquidity . . . 91

    Summary . . . 95

    Further Reading  . . . 97

    Endnotes . . . 97

    5. Managing Basic Option Positions . . . 99

    Single-Sided Put and Call Positions . . . 100

    Straddles and Strangles . . . 118

    Covered Calls and Puts  . . . 137

    Synthetic Stock . . . 143

    Summary . . . 146

    Further Reading . . . 148

    Endnotes . . . 149

    6. Managing Complex Positions . . . 151

    Calendar and Diagonal Spreads . . . 152

    Ratios . . . 162

    Ratios That Span Multiple Expiration Dates . . . 175

    Complex Multipart Trades . . . 182

    Hedging with the VIX . . . 195

    Summary . . . 202

    Further Reading . . . 203

    Endnotes . . . 204

    7. Trading the Earnings Cycle . . . 205

    Exploiting Earnings-Associated Rising Volatility . . . 207

    Exploiting Post-Earnings Implied Volatility Collapse . . . 21

    For the first time, learn how to take full advantage of market volatility and profit while others are running for cover

     

  • Learn an all new, breakthrough strategy for profiting by trading options in volatile markets.
  • Includes practical, detailed guidance on tools you can use to determine when to buy and when to sell.
  • Information available nowhere else: based on more than a decade of advanced research by one of the most successful private option traders.
  • Additional information

    Dimensions 0.80 × 5.90 × 8.90 in
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    ISBN-13

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    Subjects

    higher education, Employability, IT Professional, ITP General, 3-32 FT PRESS