By Lawrence G. McMillan

I was recently asked what guidelines I generally follow in my option trading. This is actually a rather thought-provoking question, especially when it regards something one does almost every day. In our feature articles, many useful general strategies have been given, but not assembled all in one place. After giving the matter some thought, it seemed like it might be beneficial to list some of the "rules" that we follow, either consciously or sub-consciously after all these years.

By Ryan Brennan

Naked put-selling is a very popular and potentially profitable trading strategy, but choosing what puts to sell can sometimes be a guessing game.  McMillan's Probability Calculator Software is a very helpful tool for analyzing potential put-sales since it can estimate the chances of making money in your positions.

By Lawrence G. McMillan

This market is becoming the ultimate in defying bearish opinion. Since June 1st, $SPX has advanced almost exactly 150 points and is nearly back to the yearly highs -- and therefore at a post-2008 high. Yet, bearish opinion is still rather rampant.   

$SPX remains within the rising trading channel that extends back to early June (see Figure 1).  It is near the top of the channel, so in that sense, it is "overbought."

Equity-only put-call ratios continue to remain on buy signals.

Watch McMillan's Traders Expo educational video interviews on portfolio protection, option strategies for high volatility environments and "90% days" at the money show website.  Click on the links below to watch each video topic.

In this video recorded at the TradersExpo Las Vegas, Lawrence McMillan, founder of McMillan Analysis, explains what he means by a "90% day," and why it can provide important signals for both traders and investors.

Click here to visit MoneyShow.com and watch the video

Released: 11/29/2011 
Focus: STOCKS 

Options for Volatile Markets:  Managing Volatility and Protecting Against Catastrophic Risk, the follow up to Richard Lehman and Lawrence G. McMillan's New Insights on Covered Call Writing, is finally available on our website.  Considering the current market conditions, the timing couldn't be more appropriate.

By Lawrence G. McMillan

With the current uncertainty in the stock market, the $VIX index has once again received a lot of financial media coverage.  Last week we recommended the purchase of $VIX calls as a hedge for your portfolio.  We received numerous comments from people who took our advice but didn't seem to understand how $VIX options price.

A Bloomberg article published today on Gary Cohn mentions that the Goldman Sachs president and COO used Lawrence G. McMillan's Options as a Strategic Investment to initally learn about options.

In this video recorded on June 17th at The TradersExpo Dalls, Larry McMillan discusses the predictive power of the put-call ratio indicator and predicts the rally at the end of June 2011.  Larry also talks about the rare CBOE equity only put-call ratio signal and the total put-call ratio and what they mean for the market.  

Click to visit Moneyshow.com and watch the video now

Did you miss Larry McMillan at the Traders Expo Dallas 2011?  Well if you did, you're in luck because you can view a recording of Larry's "Using Option Data as a Forecasting Tool" seminar for free at Moneyshow.com.  All you have to register for the site and you will gain access to Larry's talk along with videos from many of the other speakers at the event.