Lucas Downey is the co-founder of MoneyFlows, and an Investopedia Academy instructor. Samantha (Sam) Silberstein, CFP®, CSLP®, EA, is an experienced financial consultant. She has a demonstrated ...

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 ...

Short dated or daily index options have taken the world by storm. Nasdaq-100 (NDX) index options are one of just a handful of markets with daily expirations. The process behind rolling out daily NDX ...

If you're new to options trading, you might be confused by the many terms, such as vertical options, straddles, and strangles. The following article will introduce you to each type and explain why ...

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 ...

Options trading is the buying and selling of options contracts in the market, usually on a public exchange. Options are often the next level of security that new investors learn about following their ...

Options straddles and options strangles are two advanced options strategies that can be used to capitalize on changes in implied volatility (IV) and stock price volatility. Options straddles and ...

James Chen, CMT is an expert trader, investment adviser, and global market strategist. Gordon Scott has been an active investor and technical analyst or 20+ years. He is a Chartered Market Technician ...

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 ...