Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Re: [TheOptionClub.com] Charles Cottle Presentation

 

--- In OptionClub@yahoogroups.com, "mcatolico" <mcatolico@...> wrote:
>
> I didn't hear the presentation but I can maybe add a comment or two that
> might help understand the "market maker mindset." Mr. Cottle comes from a
> floor tradition. Once upon a time - surprisingly not that long ago - market
> makers had to manage their positions using a basic handwritten carding
> technique. With that method everything traded was resolved into a synthetic
> equivalent call or put unit plus or minus stock (or whatever the underlying
> happened to be) and marked on a trading card like so many notches on a
> chalkboard. Perhaps not so surprising is that this is still a very good,
> fundamental way to manage a dynamic position and to recognize where all your
> risk resides in a momentary glance.
>
> The reason why floor traders decompose positions into flies is that these
> are excellent ways to tell you just about everything you need to know about
> options. If you know how a fly behaves (e.g. how they change based on time
> and/or volatility) and how they are priced relative to each other you can do
> your job as a market maker (i.e. make fair markets without creating
> arbitrage situations or mis-pricings) and you can effectively see ways to
> attack any risk in your current position. further, changes in those
> relative fly prices tells you a great deal about the underlying
> supply/demand characteristics of the market.
>
> example: with abcde at 100 if you have the +95/-100/-105/+110 condor you can
> decompose this into two flies, namely the 95/100/105 and 100/105/110 flies.
> If you recognize that the atm fly is at its max value then you can see what
> is (admittedly obvious) that the 95/100/105 fly is vulnerable to any price
> movement away from the 100 strike. Depending on the market and your net
> position cost, you may want to seize on any opportunity to close that atm
> fly. Further, if you want to hold onto the atm fly in anticipation of
> further theta accumulation, you can look to the cheap outside flies (or
> components thereof) as very easy ways to mitigate the risk of that atm fly.
> e.g. if you can see the put side flies starting to skew up in value, add the
> +90/-2 95/+100 fly to net into a +90/-95/-105/+110 condor if you want to
> protect against some downside threatening movement in the underlying, and so
> on. With the stretched condor you have effectively added some downside gamma
> protection while retained the embedded value of the atm fly to bring in all
> that theta decay.
>
> It takes some getting used to when trying to analyze a position in this
> manner but the old coaching cliché of "drill to build skill" makes the
> effort worth it in my opinion.
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: OptionClub@yahoogroups.com [mailto:OptionClub@yahoogroups.com] On
> Behalf Of Ricky Jimenez
> Sent: Sunday, September 06, 2009 6:11 PM
> To: OptionClub@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: Re: [TheOptionClub.com] Charles Cottle Presentation
>
> On Sun, 06 Sep 2009 17:17:28 -0000, "janzen257"
> <yahoo.to.mj257@...> wrote:
>
> >As for Ricky's request for risk graphs at expiration... I sort of feel the
> same way; I think that this is how most of us envision our trades. But if
> you look at pictures of the CBOE floor, for example, and look closely at the
> hundreds of screens, you don't see any graphics at all -- no price charts,
> no risk graphs, nothing! Clearly that's not how the professionals manage
> their positions. I'm nowhere near ready to give up my training wheels yet,
> but it doesn't surprise me that someone as experienced as CC doesn't have
> risk graphs for his example trades.
>
> So what do you see on the screens? If a trader is always doing the
> same kind of spread, he knows what the risk graph looks like very well
> and can figure out where he is by checking a few numbers.
>
> By the way, I tried to understand what Cottle's dissection algorithm
> is, by reading in his book, and got nowhere. Can anybody here explain
> it? His books get enthusiastic reviews on Amazon but these reviews
> say little about the content.
>
>
> ------------------------------------
>
> The goal of TheOptionClub is to provide a forum for members to work together
> for the purpose of furthering our individual understanding option trading.
> All messages and postings, and any materials circulated are provided for
> discussion and educational purposes only. No statement contained in any
> materials from TheOptionClub should be considered a recommendation to buy or
> sell a security or to provide investment, legal or tax advice. All
> investors are encouraged to consult a qualified professional before trading
> in any security. Stock and option trading involves risk and is not suitable
> for most people. There is no guarantee that any information provided is
> accurate and, may in fact, be wrong. It is understood that the participants
> in TheOptionClub have varying backgrounds and degrees of experience in
> option trading, and that regardless of experience each member is considered
> a student. As such, any information distributed through TheOptionClub
> should be considered with a critical mind and not relied upon as an
> authoritative source.
>
> To unsubscribe from TheOptionClub, send an email to:
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>
Great explanation Mike, I am impressed with your PDFs on Adjustments.
may I post them on my web site?
CC

__._,_.___
The goal of TheOptionClub is to provide a forum for members to work together for the purpose of furthering our individual understanding option trading.  All messages and postings, and any materials circulated are provided for discussion and educational purposes only.  No statement contained in any materials from TheOptionClub should be considered a recommendation to buy or sell a security or to provide investment, legal or tax advice.  All investors are encouraged to consult a qualified professional before trading in any security.  Stock and option trading involves risk and is not suitable for most people.  There is no guarantee that any information provided is accurate and, may in fact, be wrong.  It is understood that the participants in TheOptionClub have varying backgrounds and degrees of experience in option trading, and that regardless of experience each member is considered a student.  As such, any information distributed through TheOptionClub should be considered with a critical mind and not relied upon as an authoritative source.

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