Adam Hayes, Ph.D., CFA, is a financial writer with 15+ years Wall Street experience as a derivatives trader. Besides his extensive derivative trading expertise, Adam is an expert in economics and ...

We recently published a performance review of at-the-money (ATM) NDX straddles with between one and five days left to expiration. One finding was that consistent sellers of 3-Day, 4-Day, and 5-Day NDX ...

A few months ago, we explored trying to smooth out performance of consistently shorting straddles with a buying dated long straddle using NDX options. We found that a consistent strategy selling NDX 3 ...

The straddle is an options trading strategy, so named for the shape it makes on a pricing chart; your position literally “straddles” the price of the underlying asset. With the straddle, you trade on ...

A straddle can be considered a volatility spread, as the trader who puts on the straddle is speculating on the volatility, or degree of movement of the underlying, not necessarily the direction of ...

Learning how to trade options helps expand your trading choices. It’s a powerful tool you can use to speculate on and hedge against market moves. But how do you know which strategy to use in a certain ...

Straddles allow traders to cover both sides of a play while still swinging for triple-digit gains Trading options can be a complicated process as a lot of options strategies are available and traders ...

Options allow for greater flexibility when it comes to expressing a wide variety of market outlooks. Implied volatility tends to rise into earnings events, providing options sellers with potential ...

When traders first start using options, they often employ them either as a way to take a directional view on an asset (buying a call if they expect it to rise or a put if they expect it to fall) or as ...

In Wednesday’s unusual options activity, there were 1,025 calls and puts, with Vol/OI (volume-to-open-interest) ratios ranging from 1.24 to 187.91 for NuScale Power (SMR). Among the top 35 options for ...

Jack Daniel’s maker, Brown-Forman, reported Q4 2025 results this morning before the markets opened. The news was not comforting for long-time shareholders. As a result, its shares are down more than ...