The Winning Way to Play Options During the Holidays

Posted On December 13, 2019 2:28 pm
By: Steve Smith

Back in 1992 when I was a market maker on the floor of the Chicago Board of Options Exchange (CBOE) and Board of Trade, a crazy event occurred; Lake Michigan started pouring into underground tunnels and flooding the city in what became known as great Chicago flood.

Most of downtown, including the exchanges, were closed for three days. For the agricultural futures markets in which Chicago was basically the main exchange, it essentially shut off all trading activity in corn, soybeans, and wheat.

For people like me that had short options positions — in which time decay was your best friend — this was truly a godsend. It was like going into a time machine and dialing the clock forward.

The reason I share this tale is… Continue reading at Stock News

Tagged with: options trading

About author

Steve Smith

Steve Smith have been involved in all facets of the investment industry in a variety of roles ranging from speculator, educator, manager and advisor. This has taken him from the trading floors of Chicago to hedge funds on Wall Street to the world online. From 1987 to 1996, he served as a market maker at the Chicago Board of Options Exchange (CBOE) and Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT). From 1997 to 2007, he was a Senior Columnist and Managing Editor for TheStreet.com, handling their Option Alert and Short Report newsletters. The Option Alert was awarded the MIN “best business newsletter” in 2006. From 2009 to 2013, Smith was a Senior Columnist and Managing Editor for Minyanville’s OptionSmith newsletter, as well as a Risk Manager Consultant for New Vernon Capital LLC. Smith acted as an advisor to build models and option strategies to reduce portfolio exposure and enhance returns for the four main funds. Since 2015, he has worked for Adam Mesh Trading Group. There, he has managed Options360 and Earning 360, been co-leader of Option Academy, and contributed to The Option Specialist website.