Optionetics Platinum

Optionetics Platinum
Users Manual
Table of Contents
General Information Before Beginning
Login Information
Free Reports
Start Mode
User Data Settings
Creating, Editing, and Saving Trades
Create a Trade
Quick Create Mode
Editing a Trade
Recalling a Saved Trade
Back Testing a Trade
Profit and Loss Reporting
Closing a Trade
Creating Option Tables
Creating Charts with Platinum
Reading Modern Risk Graphs
Modern Version Risk Graphs
Understanding Volatility on the Platinum Site
VIX – Market Volatility Index
Visualizing Volatility Graphs
Creating and Manipulating Stock Lists
Creating a Stock List
Using Sectors and Industries
Ranking a Stock List
Searching and Scanning Trades
Creating a New Search
Find Trades 1 Searches
Find Trades 2 Searches
Find Trades 3 Searches
Saving and Recalling Searches
Help
Definitions and Glossary
Contact Us
Chapter 1 General Information Before Beginning
In this chapter, you will learn:
Login Information
Free Reports
Start Mode
User Data Settings
1. Getting Started with Platinum
Access through Tabs or
through the log in on the
home page.
The Platinum site can be accessed from the tabs section on the top of the web sit or in the
log in area as indicated above. The Platinum site is Optionetics.com proprietary options
analysis software program that is available for an annual fee. There are many factors and
complexities that need to be understood and analyzed when trading options. This tool
really brings out the power of the personal computer and will make you a much more
sophisticated investor. This software package is self-contained and does not require any
downloads or data feeds. You can access it anywhere all you need is your user name and
password and access to the Internet!
From the Home Page, simply click on the Optionetics Platinum Tab at the TOP, or you
may log in at the logon box built in the Home Page. Buy clicking on the Tab; you have a
few other features to look at.
Click on the Tab that says Optionetics Platinum NOW
Lets go here first
The area shown provides FREE reports each day on stocks and options. Those include:
Expensive
Breakout Hi
Cheap
Breakout Low Call Bot% Dec
Explosive
Highest Vol
Put Top% Inc
Quiet
Highest Open
Put Bot% Dec
Call Top% Inc
Ranker: The Expensive and Cheap links brings up the high and low implied volatility
rankings for the stocks in our database. The percentile IV ranker is used. We do not rank
stocks with a closing price of less than 12.5. We allow stocks with no volume that day to
be in the ranking. Multiple stocks are often at their highs or their lows. The ranking
reverts to ranking by volume for all stocks that have the same implied volatility rankings.
The rankings can be used to form trading strategies based on the fact that volatility
usually returns back to the mean. A simple strategy is to buy options that have
historically low volatility and sell options that have high volatility.
Explosive and Quiet use the highest high and lowest low IV for the ranking. Breakout Hi
and Breakout Low use the Bollinger Bands to determine if the IV is breaking out of a
channel.
Our historical data starts 2 years and 1 month from today's date. The ranking will use up
to 2 years of historical data. We began using full historical 2 year data rankings in Feb
2000.
Each stock name in the tables is linked to go to find a trade for that stock. CLICK the
stock name to go there.
Call Top % Inc finds the option call prices that had the largest 1 day increase and ranks
the options according to the percent increase.
Call Bot % Dec finds the option call prices that had the largest 1 day decrease and ranks
the options according to the percent decrease.
Put Top % Inc finds the option put prices that had the largest 1 day increase and ranks
the options according to the percent increase.
Put Bot % Dec finds the option put prices that had the largest 1-day decrease and ranks
the options according to the percent decrease.
Highest Volume finds the options that had the largest 1-day total trading volume and
ranks the options according to the volume.
Highest Open finds the options that had the largest 1-day total Open Interest and ranks
the options according to the Option Interest.
In the above tables, clicking an option symbol takes you to the risk graph with that option
trade loaded.
Here is an example of cheap options for November 9, 2001. Keep in mind that although
I only have 10 shown here, the report will show the Top 50 for any report loaded.
Now what did this mean? Well it means out of ALL optionable stocks ranked over the
last 1 year of option premiums, these were the cheapest when looking at each ones past.
Lets look at the first two.
Tyco looks pretty cheap at 29.13% volatility but why is Immunex ranked at number 2
when others had cheaper implied volatility today? Because the report ranks each stock
on what IT did for the year, not ranking them against each other. If that were the case,
John Deere would show up on top every day. We want to know when Immunex is cheap
and when it’s expensive. Look at the High IV, Low IV, and Current IV. The Current is
very close to the Low, meaning that its very cheap when looking back over the last year
of trading. Lets look at a picture of Immunex to better understand the report.
This should better explain the report. See what Immunex has done lately in option
volatility? It has dropped like a stone, meaning that the Options are cheap when
comparing the IV over the past.
Being able to rank stocks or options in a single click can save valuable time when trying
to chase down what’s high or low, what’s cheap or expensive, and what’s bullish or
bearish from an option traders point of view.
Creating, Editing, and Saving Trades
Log In Here
Type in user name and password in the boxes provided. Then click LOGIN or hit the
ENTER key.
IF YOU DON’T HAVE A USER NAME OR PASSWORD, CALL OPTIONETICS
AT THE NUMBERS PROVIDED TO YOU.
Start Modes
Creating and
Saving Trades
User
Setup
Viewing and
Updating Past
Trades
User Help
Option
Trade
Searches
Ranking
Stock Lists
When logging on to the Platinum Site, a welcome message will appear. Also, one of 3
Start Modes will appear.
START MODES - Novice traders may wish to use the Standard start, which has a few of
the easier methods, while Advanced Traders will get a more Advanced Start Mode. The
Site Map, shown here, shows everything that the platinum site will do all on one window.
SITE MAP – this mode has several things to see and do, but for this chapter we are going
to focus strictly on Creating, Editing, and Saving Trades and Strategies. To create and
save trades, you simply go no farther than the BLUE outlined above.
For Viewing past trades or Updating any trades that were created earlier, you will go to
the area highlighted in GREEN. Starting on the next page, we are going to create a trade.
Site Map – Your Starting Point
The first area we want to visit once logging on is the User Data section. In this section,
we can:
Set our General Settings to our preferences
Set our Display Settings for trades and reporting features
Set Backtesting Dates
Change our password
Look at rankings
Use the Options Calculator
Click on the General Settings link to begin
General Settings
These settings determine the way the platinum site will be delivering information to you.
Each setting represents a different part of the platinum site.
The tab you are looking at right now is the General Settings tab. It includes settings that
determine what email address you want info sent to, option volume and volatility
settings, and stock list settings.
To change this information, simply click on any down arrow key and choose from the list
available.
Once complete, click on the SAVE button at the bottom. Your settings will be saved.
Search Display Settings
Search Display settings allow the user to change the look of the risk graphs created, as
well as the information reported back on each trade. Depending on what type of trader
you are may depend on how you set up this information. To add information to the trade
results, simply click on any box to activate.
The first set of boxes are for the “My View” display. This is information that goes to the
search output.
The second set of information is simply how you want your default view to look.
As with the general tab, click on the SAVE button when completed. Your information
will be saved.
Backtest Date Display
This is used to set the date of the backtesting function. I like to leave this as todays date,
and set the beginning of the report to when I want to start a backtest. This can be left
alone, and set each time a different backtest is preformed without having to come back to
this tab each time.
Change Password Display
Here is where you will come if you ever need to change your password. All that is
needed here is your current password, along with your new password.
As with the other tabs, click on SAVE to complete this information.
The Calculators - Stock Calculator
This stock calculator is designed to give you theoretical prices on both calls and puts by
simply typing in the information on the left. Once the info has been typed in, click
CALCULATE on the bottom to see the information on the right hand side of the screen.
Remember that these are theoretical, meaning that they are a computer model of what the
price should be. Also, models are best used when using end of day data, preferably the
bids and offers, and not the last price, as last price may be stale depending on liquidity.
Option Calculators are designed to give you an idea of what an option is worth,
theoretically.
The next page shows an Index Option pricing model.
Option Calculator – Index Options
This Index calculator is designed to give you theoretical prices on both calls and puts by
simply typing in the information on the left. Once the info has been typed in, click
CALCULATE on the bottom to see the information on the right hand side of the screen.
Remember that these are theoretical, meaning that they are a computer model of what the
price should be. Also, models are best used when using end of day data, preferably the
bids and offers, and not the last price, as last price may be stale depending on liquidity.
This index calculator is designed for both American and European models. It gives the
trader an idea of the difference between an option that can be exercised at any time
(American), and one that can only be exercised at expiration (European).
Option Calculators are designed to give you an idea of what an option is worth,
theoretically.
Finding a Symbol – Site Map
Ever had trouble remembering a stock symbol when you want a quote, or an option
chain? Using the platinum symbol search can help solve this problem.
From the Site Map:
Click on Symbol Search
Symbol Search
Enter in the name of the company you wish to get a symbol on and click on Name Search
link.
The stock symbol(s) will appear below, which you can add to a stock list or find a trade
from by clicking on GO.
This is the easiest ways to find a symbol and begin creating a trade.