Professional Options Trader Curriculum
Course Type: On Location
Duration: 5 days, Days are approximately 6.5 hours
Print Curriculum
Overview
Most people who trade Options think they can profit by ignoring price direction, this is why most Options traders
are unsuccessful and lose money. The OTA Professional Options Trader Course incorporates our award winning rules-based
market timing strategy with Options, giving you a powerful edge needed for success. Market Timing is the ability to
identify key market turning points and strong market moves in advance with a very high degree of accuracy. Combining
proper market timing with key Options strategies taught in this course gives the Options trader the best chance at
success, offering very low risk, high reward, and high probability trading opportunities. The Professional Options
Trader Course delivers this strategic edge by combining powerful skill building lessons and hands-on live market
strategy sessions during this five day course. What you will learn in this class you will not find anywhere else
or read in any industry trading books.
Why trade the Options markets?
- Long term / Short term Strategies – Options offer unique strategies that allow you to take
advantage of long and short term market moves. These strategies also offer you the ability to profit when market
prices are not moving over the short and long term
- Leveraged Reward on Limited Risk – Options offer the ability to customize strategies,
offering leveraged reward with limited risk
- Portfolio Protection – Options offer this much needed benefit which is a critical part of
your financial future.
- Time – Options trading is not time intensive
- Income Generation – Certain simple Options strategies offer consistent low risk income generation opportunities
- OTA Core Strategy – Knowing price direction (market timing) is the single greatest edge for the Options trader as your
competition doesn't know how to do this properly.
Audience
This course is designed for students of all experience levels who are serious about becoming a professional Options trader.
Prerequisites
Professional Trader Course, Part 1 and 2. Online Student Orientation and the Platform Orientation are recommended pre-requisites
for this course. No trading experience is required.
Format
- Each day's agenda contains 2-3 powerful and fully interactive lectures led by a professional trader combined with 1-2 live trading
and analysis sessions focusing on market analysis and trade execution.
- Maximum 25 person capacity providing individual attention from your instructor
- Each student is provided a classroom computer where they learn in a hands-on environment
- Students are provided trading workstations with real time data so they can practice strategy execution while under the guidance
of a seasoned trader/instructor.
Course Objective
To clearly understand and properly execute OTA's rules-based Core Strategy in order to attain short term income and long term wealth.
Detailed Course Outline
Day 1
- Why We Use Options
Understand the benefits and fundamentals of risk and reward trading options. Who uses options and why and how we can start positioning ourselves
with the professionals in all of our portfolios.
- Core Strategy Review
This course is built on the foundation of Online Trading Academy’s Core Market Timing Strategy taught in Professional Trader Part 1. This
section provides a high-level review of each of the Core Strategy components.
- Definition and Terminology
You’ll learn the language of options and options trading techniques using a state-of-the-art platform and live streaming data. You’ll
build on the fundamentals before constructing several rules-based strategies for bullish, bearish and neutral markets. We show you how
to choose the best options strategy for the direction the market is taking - giving you a true edge in options trading.
- Call Options and Put Options
In this section you will learn what it really means to be a buyer and a seller of both calls and puts. This will give you an understanding
of the basic building blocks of options trading necessary to start taking advantage of any market environment and will be the basis for
building and managing both simple and complex strategies.
- Moneyness
We’ll give you a better understanding of an options premium relative to its underlying asset. This is the first step to defining how an
option is priced and will start to form a basis for selecting a specific option when building a position. Here we’ll discuss what In the
Money, At the Money and Out of the money means and what that means to you when you enter the trade at an options expiration date and
everywhere in between.
- Profit/Loss Diagrams
It’s imperative that we understand the potential risk and reward of any trade before entering. An options position graph is a visual
representation of just that. Understanding options position graphs, position analyzers and how to use them will give us a deeper
understanding of our risk and reward. You will also learn how to assess the likely profitability and probability of the trade and
identify any unusual characteristics of an options trade using position graphs before you ever enter the trade.
Day 2
- Time Value
Gain deeper insight into how an option is priced using options pricing models. Understanding how pricing models work and the various
components that define an options value is key to selecting not only the right strategy, but the ideal strike prices and time to expiration.
- The Greeks
Getting into any option position is simple. Understanding why options behave as they do takes understanding the options Greeks. Here
we teach you how and why the options react to ever changing market conditions and how to use the options Greeks to construct the right
position for the any market condition. The key to any options trade is to be able to predict the future value of the options. You’ll
now be able to make that prediction and understand how an option is expected to change in value due to time, changes in volatility and
direction of the underlying.
- Volatility Analysis
Options Trading is about having choices. There are many different strategies to choose from but knowing which one is the right one to
choose, takes knowing whether an option is overpriced, underpriced or fairly valued. We must know how to evaluate whether the markets
are in a state of Calm or Panic and we do this through the use of volatility charts. Being on the wrong side of a volatility move can
be devastating. Here we teach you how to time your entry into the market using advanced volatility analysis and how to choose the right
strategy for the current market environment.
- Options Trader Checklist
We don’t want you to skip a beat, or a step. Dive into the markets from the top, down where we’ll give you the proper steps to take when
getting started in the options markets. Having a “blue print” for a simple rules-based plan ensures the consistency you need when selecting
your trades. This will also give us the information we need to analyze your successes and your failures, which is a necessary part of your
business.
Day 3
Now that we’ve covered the individual building blocks in options trading, let’s get on with constructing positions. Today we will walk you
through when and how to trade single and multi-leg positions, both directional and non-directional strategies such as:
- “Naked” Directional
Long and Short Calls and Puts
- “Naked” Non-Directional Options Strategies
Long and Short Straddles and Strangles
Day 4
Spread Building, Anchor Units vs. Offset Units
Spreads limit risk. Here you’ll learn what to do when simple call and put buying or selling just isn’t enough. We’ll show you the benefits of using
spreads, when and how to reduce your exposure to Time, Volatility and Direction when necessary. Here you will learn simple spreads such as:
- Vertical Credit Spreads
- Vertical Debit Spreads
- Diagonal Spreads
Day 5
More Spreads for various market environments such as:
- Directional and Non-Directional Horizontal Spreads
- Complex Strategies
- Complex Non-Directional Strategies
- Complex Directional Strategies
Class Exam and Graduation