Category: Stock Option Trading News

The CME (Chicago Mercantile Exchange) futures exchange announced it is planning to buy competitor CBOT (BOT) for around $8 billion. For many years futures exchanges have provided farmers, ranchers and other agricultural-product producers the ability to lock in the price they will receive for their products.

Alcoa (AA) kicked off earnings season with a sour note indicating they are experiencing slowing demand and a drop in the price for aluminum. Alcoa indicated a large part of the slowing demand is coming from the automotive and housing construction market segments.

The price of oil and the price of gasoline have decreased significantly in the last few months. The price of oil and gas at the pump are somewhat cyclical as the price tends to rise in the summer months with more vacation driving, etc. (higher demand) and falls in the winter months with less driving (lower demand).

Options for TheStreet.com (TSCM), founded by Jim Cramer, are now available for trading. For investors who really like Jim Cramer, they can REALLY put their money where his mouth is. Using PowerOptions stock options search engine SmartSearchXL, we searched for bull put spreads on October 2, 2006.

You may have been notified by your options broker of a recent change made to the OCC’s Exercise Threshold value for options expiration day. The SEC just accepted a proposal by the OCC to clear all options that are $0.05 In-the-Money at expiration. The previous Exercise Threshold Value had been $0.25 In-the-Money. So, what does this mean for stock options trading?

In a recent article, “Bond ETFs, Calendar Calls and the Business Cycle“, we analyzed a Bond ETF calendar calls spread strategy. We will analyze the strategy once again for stock options expiration in September 2006.

In a previous article, Recession Proof Covered Call Investment Strategy , we outlined a covered call investing strategy focusing on “recession proof” stocks. This strategy exhibited great results for the months of June, July and August returning +3.8%, +4.4% and 4.5%, respectively.

In previous articles, ” Recession Proof Covered Call Investment Strategy” & ” Recession Proof Covered Call Strategy Results for August 2006 “, we outlined a “recession proof” covered call investment strategy. In this article we perform an analysis using the “recession proof” stocks as outlined in the other articles but using calendar spread options instead of a covered call investment strategy.

So you’re tired of the roller coaster ride of the stock market, in some years it’s up like gangbusters, and in other years it’s way down under like Australia. We researched all of the current stock symbols listed on the Nasdaq, NYSE, and American stock exchanges for those with “recession proof” characteristics.

Many options investors who are new to the Iron Condor strategy might question why they should trade the Iron Condor instead of a Short Strangle.