Every options trade is Volatility Trade and four truths that I believe give my options trades an EDGE.

Hi there again. I’m still trading, but have not posted a blog post since 2011!

Since then, some things have changed, and some have not.

I still consider every option trade a trade in volatility.

My history:

I started trading covered calls in 2003 when my friend Joseph told me about them. He came into my office and briefly explained his covered call strategy. I bought my first book on options trading from Amazon and read it immediately. I started selling calls against my long stock positions. I then read McMillan cover to cover twice, and then Natenberg. I then started trading options in many different strategies.  I have read so many more books since then. The first two years were challenging with some wins but overall losses. Since 2004 I have over eight times my initial capital to date.

My stocks and options trading philosophy; also what I call “my edge”:

I trade around the four things that I believe that I know to be true, and do not predict market direction (mostly).

  1. “Volatility is mean reverting”. When it’s high, it eventually goes down. When it’s low, it eventually goes back up. I use the ‘percentile of trailing 12 month implied volatility” to make these predictions. I buy IV when it’s below the 20th percentile of trailing 12 months. IE: when it has been higher 80 percent of the time over the past 12 months. I sell volatility when it’s at least over the 50th percentile, but preferably when it’s in the 80th percentile or greater. I do this mostly on indices and ETFs to avoid ‘headline risk’.
  2. “Over long periods of time, markets tend to go up”. Over all periods of history (so far, to date), the stock market indices go up to new highs, always….!
  3. “Markets go up and down and not only in one direction”. Stocks and markets have up days, and they have down days along their course of the previous belief of ascending markets over long periods of time. This also applies to longer time frames than days. weeks, months, etc.
  4. “Time goes on”. This one seems pretty simple. There is nothing we can do about this one. The calendar goes on, hour by hour, day by day and there’s nothing anyone can do about it.

So, taking these 4 truths into account:

1) I trade volatility to be mean reverting, selling high IV, buying low IV.

2) I take a long term outlook of a positive delta over long periods of time.

3) I scalp gamma and delta hedge positions to take advantage of up and down fluctuations.

4) I’m positive theta on many positions to take advantage of time decay.

If the above appeal to you as an option trader, please bookmark this site. I am in the process of launching my Podcast. I will post here and let you know when it is ready. I have also started a YouTube Channel and a Facebook group which I will link here as well when I start posting continent in the next few days.

My intention is to use this blog, my YouTube channel, my podcast and my FaceBook group to discuss my strategies, discuss individual trades, and encourage discussion through comments to teach my philosophy. I want to help all of you readers that have the same love and enthusiasm for derivatives trading that I do! I would also use the discussion to learn form the many smart people out there.  Oh, and why not try to monetize the blog, YouTube channel and the podcast by selling advertising!  I will not charge anything from my view words for my content. I hope you’ll come back soon. Dr. Lawrence – The Vol Trader