By Stan Freifeld, formerly, a floor trader of the American Stock Exchange and a market maker for options*
Posted: Jan 2, 2009

It's times like these when knowing your risks (Greeks) could save the day. Well, prepared options traders should be able to weather the storms quite well and, in fact, look at the increased volatility as an opportunity. Stock traders just using options for increased leverage may experience a different fate.

Remember: There are stock traders, options traders and stock traders who think they are options traders. Each group has a clearly defined yet different mindset. Anyway, let’s get back on track.

(RTTNews) - Crucell (CRXL) has jumped amid heavy volume during the last 10 minutes of trading. The jump comes on reports of a possible deal with Wyeth (WYE).

(RTTNews) - Church & Dwight (CHD) has fallen to a fresh intraday low during the last hour and a half of trading. The stock broke support and is at its lowest level in over a week, down $1.06 at $54.06.

by Hal Masover, President of Crown Futures Corporation, editor of The Crown Value Investment Letter and well-known author

I was listening to a friend talk about how he trades. "People have different definitions of long term, short term and intermediate term. For me, short term is when I get on the phone with my broker and get in and out of a trade before I hang up. Intermediate term is when I get into a trade, hang up and then call right back and get out. A long term trade might be when I get into a trade, get off the phone, go to the john, come back, call the broker and get out."

Posted on January 5th, 2009 at 8:29 PM

In my view, the US equity market is rallying and it is a rally that is within a larger downtrend.  It is tough to be short anything as of this moment.  It seems to me that the market could rally more.  I'd use a target of 1044 on the S&P futures.

Lawrence McMillan is considered by many to be one of the top options educators and experts in the world. His first book on options, Options as a Strategic Investment, is in its fourth edition and is a perennial bestseller among options texts.

Many refer to it as the “Bible of Options Trading”. The 100,000+ readers of this classic who are not familiar with his later work reviewed here (McMillan on Options) might wonder if it is merely a re-write of his first book. The answer is definitely no. McMillan’s first book is academically oriented and is formatted like a textbook that categorically and systematically covers virtually all aspects of options trading.