Butterfly Spread – Trading With Gangsters

One of the most solid, steady, robust, reliable, and profitable strategies available to us option traders is the butterfly spread.

In lazy, quiet market conditions there is very little – if anything – to do to manage these trades other than sit there in your chair and watch your trading account grow as your 0 day risk graph line rises steadily up into the air. In fact, it’s so hypnotizing that it’s actually sort of difficult to stick to your rules and take the darn thing off when you pass through your profit target for the month.

Then again – during the quieter times in the stock market – most likely the same is true for the other ‘option income’ strategies – such as the iron condor, the calendar spread, the diagonal – and the double calendar.

What sets the butterfly spread apart from the others is how this trade performs during extreme market conditions.

Ever since the crash in late 2008, theta positive, monthly income option trading has been a challenging endeavor to say the least. Sure, all those afore mentioned trading strategies can and have worked – however through many of the months there’s been a lot more work, adjustments, annoyance, and stress involved then in past more peaceful trading times.

Out of all of those strategies (and I’ve had the ‘pleasure’ to trade them all through this period) the butterfly spread – and in particular the iron butterfly and the broken wing – is the one option strategy that has been the most robust – the most consistent – the most reliable – and the one that has given me the least amount of problems – and the most amount of profits.

Sure, I still do like – and trade – the other strategies – like the iron condor, the credit spread, the calendar, etc…

I just prefer – in a big way – the butterfly spread.

Oh lordy.

I get all emotional and choked up just thinking about it.

Okay, here – let me try and pull myself together…

Basically it comes down to this -

If a low down dirty thug walked into my trading room one day and forced me at gunpoint to pick just ONE trading strategy I was allowed to trade for the rest of my life – I’d have to choose the butterfly spread.

Butterfly Spread – I love you.

Ah man…anybody have a kleenex?

Searching to understand more about how to trade the iron condor, then visit www.ironcondoroptiontradingstrategy.com to find the best free tools and training on the iron condor .

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Does The Iron Condor Strategy Actually ‘Do It’?

What exactly is the iron condor? This is a trade that makes profit when the underlying market being used is range bound. Of course options traders try to utilize strategies that can take advantage of movements in the market. Many times – and maybe most of the times – there is not a lot of movement and the underlying just trades in a range, leaving the options being traded to expire with no value on expiration day. These types of trading range markets are ideally suited for the iron condor option trading strategy.

You can imagine the iron condor strategy trade as a purchased strangle and a sold strangle. ‘Strangles’ can be both bought and sold and it is a trade where both a put and a call option is purchased some distance away from where the underlying is trading at. The premiums a trader can expect to take from a strangle position will be less than a straddle due to the fact that the options being sold are some distance away from ‘at the money’. A different way to imagine the iron condor option trading strategy is to think of it as 2 credit spreads – a bull put spread and a bear call spread. The long calls or puts above and below where the short options are placed at are the wings.

For example, let’s take a look and we find that the SPX is trading at around thirteen hundred and so we buy the jan call option at 1375 bringing in right around $245, and at the exact same time we buy the january put option for $4.38. If you are working with an options friendly broker – the required margin will be the difference between the two strikes – or the difference in the spread. In this example you would need around thirteen hundred dollars or so for this spread trade.

The calculation would be:

1380 at $2.45

1350 at $4.00

That’s around a credit premium that has been brought in of around two dollars or so.

$15 dollars minus $2 dollars = Thirteen – then times this by one spread (100 contracts) equals about $1,320.00 dollars.

Just as long as the underlying stays below the short strike levels the entire credit that was pulled into the account can be kept – which can be a very good short term return.

This is the call side spread of the iron condor trade we are referring to. To finish off the iron condor completely, you would need to add another credit spread – a put credit spread – down below.

This trading strategy can work wonderfully if you know what you are doing and the market conditions are right – and there are some option traders who use it as their primary trading strategy. But it’s not without its potential pitfalls and dangers.

Knowing which stock or index to use – as well as knowing how and when to properly place, exit, manage and adjust the iron condor is essential. And perhaps the most important of all of these is understanding how and when to correctly manage and adjust the position. If you don’t understand this strategy fully – or if you have a game plan that you will follow strictly – could be your downfall and wind up costing you significant losses. I know this from first hand experience.

To discover how to acceptably trade the iron condor methodology for steady monthly income, visit this iron condor site and catch our Free Video and get our Free Report.

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Ways A Forex Trading System Can Help You To Be A Greatly Improved FX Currency Trader

First why don’t we start with the definition of a Forex FX trading system. A FX trading strategy may also be referred to as a a “trading method” or a “trading strategy”. The easiest method to put it may be to state that the FX system is a set of procedures to be followed so as to proficiently trade Forex currency pair.

Forex currency pair trading systems generally come as a cause and effect declaration. Basically the strategy operates in an, “if — then” manner. The following is an illustration below:

In the event the EURUSD gets to a price greater than the greatest value yesterday, then buy the EURUSD right now.

Trading system developers may begin with an easy idea such as the if then statement above. They will next run testing on the idea making use of historical Forex currency pair information. The objective is to observe how the concept might have done in the past. If it functions very well the next thing is to polish the strategy by way of further testing.

A Forex trading strategy can also be referred to as a “mechanical trading system”. It is referred to as mechanical given it performs its assignments in a very machine-like style and provides the trader FX trading signals. It lets you do this with no fearfulness and / or feelings and that is on the list of crucial reasons for using trading systems. Forex trading strategies have grown to be well-liked by both individual traders not to mention large financial institutions because of the “mechanical” characteristics.

With a foreign exchange trading system you essentially have got a roadmap that you follow while you journey towards productive FX currency pair trading. A good trading system removes guess work . The fact a Forex trading system may be successful by evaluating offers traders an enormous amount of self-confidence. It’s confidence that permits the effective forex trader to be able to push aside virtually any possibly constraining bad inner thoughts in order to buy and sell FX currency pair effectively.

A good Forex currency pair FX trading system gives you the following info:

What you should buy and sell — A system will tell you which currency pair to buy and sell be it the EURUSD, GBPUSD, EURJPY, etcetera.

When you should enter — A good system will tell you at which price or time to get into a trade

When to get out — Your trading system will advise you when you should exit a trade

How much to risk — Never enter into a trade without knowing the amount of investment capital you’ve got at stake. Any good Forex currency pair foreign exchange trading strategy should have it’s risk outlined ahead of time.

When to do nothing — In forex trading doing nothing is definitely doing a thing. Remaining particular and trying to keep away from potentially poor positions is going to be as essential as generating money-making trades. Getting impatient continues to be the downfall of countless traders. To profit routinely you need to wait for the right opportunities.

As you have seen a good Forex trading system will assist you to become a much more profitable, prepared, and confident forex trader. You might by now think, however, not all trading systems are created equal. If you decide to purchase or rent a commercially available FX trading strategy be sure that you investigate it carefully. Test drive it by using a FX currency pair demo account prior to making use of any real money to trade the strategy.

Forex-Strategies.com provides excellent online information on forex trading platforms and additionally timely FX trading tips. For lots more information, excellent articles, current news, and tools, check out this great site: http://www.Forex-Strategies.com

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Trading Iron Condors – Riding The Iron Condor Spread Trade To Bring In Option Cashflow

A number of different techniques and strategies are available to option investors to help assist them in achieving consistent and reliable monthly income from the option market.

For example there is the butterfly spread, the iron condor , the diagonal (an/or the double diagonal), and the calendar spread, the double calendar spread – and, the vertical spread, which is sometimes also referred to as the credit spread.

The vertical spread (or credit spread) is a foundational trade that can be found in many other option income strategies. The iron condor spread is in actuality just two vertical spreads placed on either side of where the market is trading.

Also take a look at the butterfly. This strategy is comprised of verticals as well. One in the upper half of the position and one in the lower half. Also the iron butterfly is made up of two credit – or vertical spreads. A put vertical and a call vertical – both sold at a credit.

The vertical spread trade can be built from either call options or also put options.

Following is an illustration of a bear call vertical spread on the imaginary stock XYZ…

Sell 5 RIMM 50 Call Purchase 5 RIMM 50 Call

The vertical spread in the example above is a bearish position. Our hypothetical trader who placed this trade believed that RIMM would be moving lower – or staying in it’s general vicinity on the chart.

Some might think that because we are using calls this should be a bullish position, however this is not the case since we are selling the option that is closer to money, hoping to capture the time premium in the event that the stock moves down.

As long as the outlook on this trade is correct and RIMM stays where it is at or heads downwards, this trade will ‘win’ and the initial credit received when the trade was first placed will become the profit. Also keep in mind that this strategy can be used with both call options and put options at the same to build what is called an iron condor trade.

Want to find out more about how to trade the iron condor for monthly income, then visit Ted Nino’s site on how to trade this strategy as well as the iron condor for monthly cashflow.

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Riding The Iron Calendar Spread – Firing The Calendar Spread To Bring In Option Gains

The Calendar Spread is an option cash-flow technique that is loved by both pro option traders as well as the retail crowd to create a consistent monthly income.

The calendar spread is an option strategy that makes it’s money from the fact that options are an evaporation asset that loses it’s value over a period of time. decaying value. This is how the trade makes money. As expiration day approaches, the premium that was sold in the near month option loses it’s value – allowing the option trader to buy it back much cheaper than it was sold for.

To construct a calendar spread trade, we need to sell a closest month option while buying a later month option at the identical strike price. During the trade, the time premium in the closer month option (the one that was sold) loses it’s value at a much brisker rate than the option that was bought. This difference is how the profit is generated.

Following is a made up example of a calendar spread place on SPY: Buy 1 Aug 105 call. Sell 1 Sept 105 call.

While in this hypothetical example, the calendar position was made up of strikes on months that were right next to each other (April and May) – they don’t have to be built this way. You can use any combination of different months.

To prove this point, instead of using the December options in the trade example above, January could have been used. Or even February.

Ideally the the calendar technique is used with stocks or options that are trading in a range without a lot of movement. However, they can also be profitably traded in trending markets as long as the strikes who were bought and sold are near where the underlying ends up trading at expiration.

Since some option traders feel that the calendar spread is one of the most easiest option trades to manage, they like trading them better than some other option trades, like the iron condor, credit spread, and butterfly. Regardless, it really comes down to personal preference and in the end, all option traders would agree that this strategy is a wonderful technique to have in their ‘trade toolbox’.

To be taught more about the iron condor methodology, visit Ted Nino’s site on how to accurately place, exit, handle and adjust the calendar spread for ongoing winnings.

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The Iron Condor Strategy – Firing The Option Iron Condor To Reap Option Returns

The iron condor has two faces (and I thank the good lord above that neither one of these faces belongs to Babs – but then again, perhaps it’s even worse)

Usually when the iron condor and the new option trader meet, the iron condor comes across as this amazing beautiful trade – a holy grail type of method that almost guarantees success with every single trade. A spread that only takes a few minutes every month to put on and manage – and one that spits out consistent cash like a broken Las Vegas slot machine.

Of course, new option traders go gaga over this strategy – and who could blame them. It seems to be a trade that’s almost too good to be real.

And sadly, sooner or later (mostly sooner) they discover that it IS too good to be true.

But it doesn’t have to be that way.

See, the iron condor IS a magnificent trade – and it DOES take very little time to manage – and it CAN kick off outstanding returns.

BUT – and a big but here – what the gaga eyed option trader who is so head over heels in love with this trade doesn’t yet realize – is that this strategy can get a nasty streak every now and then that if not properly handled can completely annihilate all those amazing returns our unsuspecting trader manage to rack up. And then some…

It all boils down to the risk to reward ratio of these trades. They have a high probability of winning many small trades – but just ONE loss can completely DESTROY a trading account. And if the one trading these birds don’t realize and fully understand this – and more importantly how to properly manage these trades and how to make effective iron condor adjustments – before long they will get creamed and blasted out of the market possibly with a huge, unrecoverable loss.

But again – it doesn’t have to go down this way. The iron condor can be tamed – and trained – to produce consistent and reliable monthly income – even through the occasional one or two tantrums and fits it might throw around every year. The key is to learn how to correctly manage these trades from the get go – from the day they get put on – AND – how to utilize the various iron condor adjustments that are available to keep these trades profitable and from getting out of hand in whatever market condition. Learning iron condor adjustments is the KEY.

To find out more about the iron condor technique, visit this training website for scores of free training videos, examples, and tutorials on how to properly start off, exit, negotiate and adjust the iron condor strategy to yield a steady monthly profits.

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Iron Condor – Here Comes The Pain

In order to properly trade the iron condor, you need to have a game plan in place first regarding adjustments. Before you even think about what strikes you will use you should have this management plan already in place. If you don’t you could get utterly destroyed by a big move in the market or the underlying and you wouldn’t have a clue what to do. Remember, the way that the iron condor is set up, with it’s skewed risk to reward ratio, it could take a few of these – or maybe even just one – to utterly destroy your trading account.

Another way of looking at the iron condor is to view it as a sold strangle with purchased wings on the outer edges for protection. The strangle trade is an option trade where the one who is putting the trade either buys or sells an out of the money put and call on either side where the stock being used is trading at. Strangles’ premiums are less than those of straddles due to the fact that the contracts are out of the money. This is basically just a call option spread up above where the stock is trading at, and a put option spread position down below where the underlying is trading at. Your paired positions are the condor’s wings.

The reason it is so important to have a sound management plan in place before such a move is due to the risk to reward ratio that the iron condor strategy carries with it. By finding a way to put the probability factor of this option trading strategy in our favor we can use that to help us be much more successful with this trade. A big move either way – or even just a move in the underlying that is larger than you were expecting – can have disastrous results on your trade and your profits.

The Keys to Successful Iron Condor Strategy

- Know that there are different ways for adjusting iron condors. There isn’t a ‘particular’ way you you need to do so. 


- Protecting your profits and your account should always come first. 


- Never allow the inevitable small losses to morph into big losses. 


- Don’t get bored with taking small consistent wins.

Your key to success in trading this strategy is consistency in gaining profits. These profits must be protected. Adjusting iron condors must be done according to one or more pre-planned strategies whenever the possibility for a large loss looms.

I always used to make great monthly returns trading this strategy for a number of trading cycles in a row – but somehow always seemed to give it all up during the few volatile months that always seem to come along in a year. BUT – all that changed after I discovered this very simple to follow step-by-step method of adjusting iron condor positions. After discovering the methods taught at this iron condor website, I now know exactly what to do when a problem month comes along to keep from losing the rest of my iron condor profits I’ve accumulated throughout the year.

Ted ‘The Spread is an option selling zombie – particularly fiery with riding the iron condor . Visit his iron condor Trading Site to see more about his First-rate Smooth Plan to maneuver the weeklys for reliable profits.

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Answers To What Is Forex Exactly And Why

What is Forex exactly? It is the foreign exchange market, which is a global financial market for trading currencies around the world.

The market’s main goal is to assist in international trade by allowing a business to convert its currency to another countries currency which is usually for tourism and commerce.

For example it allows a business from the United States to bring in goods from one country like France and to pay Euro although the business’s money is the United States dollar.

It also facilitates the carry trade in which investors borrow affordable currency and invest in a higher paying currency, which some claim will cause some countries to be less competitive.

A usual transaction is that a party purchases a quantity of one currency by paying a quantity of another currency. Some say it’s a global over the counter financial market.

Modern foreign exchange began forming during 1971 when countries eventually started switching to the floating exchange rates from the previous exchange rate system which was a fixed exchange rate of the Bretton Woods system. After this adaption when currencies were allowed to float freely against each other the value of individual currencies varied. Which has caused a need for foreign exchange services.

It is a very unique market, its got a huge trading volume which leads to high liquidity. It operates continuously 24 hours a day except on the weekends, it has low margins of relative profit compared with other markets of fixed income and because of its geographical dispersion. Its use of leverage that enhances profit margins compared to account size. And it has been referred to as the market closest to the ideal of perfect competition.

Until the beginning of the internet, currency trading was really limited to interbank activity on behalf of their clients. But with the rapid spread of the internet, a retail market aimed at individual traders has rose up and that provides an easy access to the foreign exchange markets, either through the banks themselves or through brokers.

So what is Forex? I think the dictionary’s definition explains it best. It’s commercial paper drawn on a person or a corporation in a foreign nation and the process of balancing accounts in a commercial transaction between business organizations of different nations. The system in which one currency is converted into another currency and enabling international transactions to take place without the physical transportation of gold.

The arrival of different forex trading schemes makes the business very complicated today. That is why you should be able to develop a currency trading technique that is simply effective.

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ETF Trading Signals Taught Me A Different Way Trade

I have been playing the stock exchange for some years now. Like everyone, i’ve taken my share of losses, but I’ve also made a lot more than I lost and so i can’t complain. I did hot stocks and trend following and traditional trading, but I never got involved in the ETF market until recently.

A friend of mine told me about ETF Trading Signals and said he was doing better with his ETF investments since he started subscribing to the service. I was skeptical, but I took a look and did some investigating. ETF Trading Signals changed the way I looked as ETFs as an investment instrument. While the returns were less than I make on some of my hot stocks, the risk was a lot lower. I decided to try it out.

Instead of considering my ETFs as long term financial instruments, I started looking at them as I would any other stock. The low buy in meant that I didn’t have to tie up as much capital as I did with some other methods. It isn’t as fast as hot stocks, I usually hold my ETFs for one or two months, but following the tips from ETF Trading Signals has helped me to make more in this market than I thought I could. I owe my friend a nice dinner.

The advantages to ETFs are the low buy in and the low risk factor. The disadvantage is the annual fee that applies, since they are a mutual fund. Its a great investment for someone who doesn’t have much capital and wants to keep his risk as low as possible. With the alerts and tips from ETF Trading Signals, you can make a better than average yield on this investments.

You can make a lot more than average on the low risk investment like ETFs with the right advice. ETF Trading Signals is right more frequently than they are wrong. Nothing is certain in the stock market, but so far I’m obtaining a better return on my ETFs than I expected to by using the tips and advice provided by this site.

This kind of investment isn’t for everybody. I like to use a number of strategies during my approach to the marketplace. I invest a specific amount each month in each one of these. ETFs are more long-term than hot stocks or trend following, but you can get your capital out when you need to, and by keeping tabs on the marketplace you can make a much better profit than you might expect.

To date, by using ETF Trading Signals I have been in a position to stay ahead of the curve and make more about my investments than I expected to after i decided to enter the forex market. I often make more with my other methods, but I additionally take more chances and i have taken heavy losses on hot stocks previously. The risk is really reduced for ETFs, that i am more likely to sell because I am not happy with the return than because of any financial loss about the issue.

If you’re considering engaging in the ETF market, I strongly suggest you subscribe to ETF Trading Signals. If you’re trying to get rich quick, it likely won’t happen by doing this, but should you be looking for any low risk investment with reasonable returns, the advice on this website can help you maximize your profits.

Go to ETFTradingSignals.com and sign up for their free newsletter to receive the best ETF of the month or find more about their gas ETF.

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The Forex Megadroid Automated Trading

For those looking to make money from the largest financial market in the world, using automated trading software like Forex Megadroid may well be a good what you are looking for. The Forex or Foreign Currency Exchange is the largest market on the planet for trading foreign currency, but the process of making money on this market is not easy.

It takes time and money to become a successful trader and many people do just that each day, but finding a solution that is rewarding can take some time. Software that allow much of the online trading practice run that little bit smoother and should mean more money for the trader.

Forex Megadroid was developed by two people with many years of experience within the trading industry and found that many of trading robots around were not up to scratch and did not fully automate things as they should. Often these robots needed extra tweaking to enable then to function effectively.

With this system it is simply a case of installing the software onto the computer and then set it to do the trading for you at you usual times etc. This software claims to be almost one hundred percent accurate in every market condition this is because of the finely tuned formulas and algorithms in the system.

The algorithm in the system is known as Reverse Correlated Time and Price Analysis or RCTPA for short. The developers have spent many years working on this system to enable it to be the best at correctly forecasting the trends in the finance market and trade more effectively.

This automated system will uniquely and accurately predict future market trends by working on the basis of pass market behavior. Another thing is this Megadroids invisibility. Unlike almost every other robot systems this leaves no trace that trading is automated. This is beneficial because in some cases when a broker realizes that trading is being done automatically they will make changes to the spreads which could confuse the system.

The Forex Megadroid software will be a handy investment for traders new and old. This can be of particular help to those who are new to trading or do not have much time for watching the markets. Anyone who is serious about making money on the financial markets will find benefit from this software. A money back guarantee on this product will also allow you to give it a trial run to see all the benefits that a product like this can bring .

View a real money test of forex megadroid on the Forex Robot Examiner site of Rudolf Boquiren.

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