Increasing Alpha with Options: Trading Strategies Using Technical Analysis and Market Indicators

Introduction.

1 Why Technical Analysis?

Bases.

Fundamentals vs. Technicals.

Tops.

2 The Basics of Technical Analysis.

Understanding Chart Types.

Trend Properties.

The Trend Is Your Friend.

Volatile or Negative Markets.

Primary and Secondary Trends.

First Strategy.

Put Hedges.

Implied Volatility.

Seasonal Trends.

Cyclical Trends.

Moves within Moves.

Nontrends.

Understanding the Properties of Trends.

3 Trends and Their Ends.

Elliott Waves and Common Trend Analysis.

Nesting Patterns.

Continuation Patterns.

Continuation or Reversal?

Opposing Reversal Patterns.

4 Building Strategies around Reversal and Continuation Patterns.

Spotting Reversal and Continuation Patterns.

Confi rming Patterns Using Different Time Frames.

Building Pattern-Based Strategies.

More Complex Patterns: The Double Top.

Continuation Patterns.

An Amazon.Com Example.

5 Oscillators.

Oscillator Types.

Stochastic Oscillator.

Commodity Channel Index.

Bollinger Bands.

6 Oscillators and Strategies.

Technical Indicators.

Relative Performance.

Finding the Strongest or Weakest Stocks.

Money Flow and On-Balance Volume.

7 Relative Performance.

Look at the Board.

8 ETF Strategies.

Pairs.

9 Effi cient Pricing—Mostly.

Exploiting Small Pricing Inefficiencies.

10 The Subprime Mortgage Crisis and Options.

Managing Delta.

Delta Relationships of Stocks and Options.

11 The Other Greeks.

Other Products.

Ex-Dividend Trades.

Getting Information from the Exchange Floor.

12 When Conditions Change.

Routine Changes.

The Extremes.

Meet the New Rules.

13 The Changing Environment.

Controlling Risk, Fixing Problems.

Using Global Markets.

14 Using Options to Protect Capital.

What Doesn’t Work.

Single Security Hedges.

Collar Hedges for Long Stock Positions.

Other Hedges for Offsetting High Volatility Levels.

Stock Replacement Therapy.

15 Hedging the Broad Portfolio.

Reducing Hedge Costs.

Pairing Up.

Hedging Short Portfolios.

Other Hedge Types.

16 When to Invest, When to Trade.

Investors and Investment Markets.

Trading an Investment Trend.

The Trading Market.

Japanese Candlesticks.

Other Investment and Trading Opportunities.

Upcoming Events.

Mergers and Acquisitions.

17 All About Resources.

Abundance of Resources.

Bloomberg Professional Service.

MetaStock Professional Service.

SuperCharts, Worden Brothers, and Others.

Chart Books.

Scanning Techniques.

Options Resources.

Other Helpful Resources from Bloomberg.

iVolatility.

Resources for Smaller Funds.

Risk and Position Monitoring.

Different Funds, Different Vendors.

Other Information Sources.

Appendix: Information Sources.

Index.