Adam Hayes, Ph.D., CFA, is a financial writer with 15+ years Wall Street experience as a derivatives trader. Besides his extensive derivative trading expertise, Adam is an expert in economics and ...

Options strategies can seem complicated, but that's because they offer you a great deal of flexibility in tailoring your potential returns and risks to your specific needs. One interesting strategy ...

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 ...

A short straddle is a two-legged spread that offers an initial upfront credit, but carries the risk of potentially heavy (in fact, technically unlimited) losses. The strategy is intended to profit ...

As the fall season starts, all thoughts turn to two of my favorite things about America, football and market movement. I will not opine upon the best way to play the football season (Go Bears!), but ...

The long straddle is ideal when you're not sure whether a stock is going to move higher or lower -- but you expect dramatic price action nonetheless. Maybe there's an earnings report or product launch ...

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 ...

Please Note: Blog posts are not selected, edited or screened by Seeking Alpha editors. A strangle is a variation on the straddle, and it presents some interesting possibilities in terms of profit ...

Option investors have a unique ability to profit in the market no matter which direction a stock's price moves. A straddle is a great example of this kind of strategy. A straddle is market neutral ...