Timing Butterfly Spreads - Trade Options Like a DPM Webinars #11: Butterfly Spreads
The Admiral, a former CBOE Designated Primary Market Maker answers a question during the Q&A session about butterfly spreads. Successful application of butterfly spreads take advantage of market timing, which Fari Hamzei is known for. The Admiral and Fari Hamzei combine their expertise to show how to increase your odds of success with butterfly spreads.
This an excerpt from "Trade Options like a DPM Webinar #11: Butterfly Spreads" - http://www.hamzeianalytics.com/Educational_Webinars.asp
"BUTTERFLY SPREADS" OPTIONS WEBINAR DESCRIPTION (JUNE 29, 2010, 1800 CT)
An option strategy combining a bull and bear spread. It uses three strike prices. The lower two strike prices are used in the bull spread, and the higher strike price in the bear spread. Both puts and calls can be used.
ABOUT "THE ADMIRAL"
The featured speaker, whom we affectionately call "The Admiral," was a Designated Primary Market Maker (DPM) on the floor of the CBOE for five years. Although we're not using his real name (so don't ask!) suffice it to say that we consider him to be one of the most knowledgeable option traders on the planet. As a floor trader in the '80s and '90s he did the opening options rotation for 5-25 stocks the old-fashioned open outcry way—meaning he opened each option strike price for each of these stocks within the first 30 minutes of trading, both calls and puts.
That meant he had to price more than 500 option strikes, plus as a market maker he traded and kept the markets current. As a DPM, technology brought forth auto-quoting of option series, but pricing of those quotes remained his responsibility. Trading 1 million shares of stocks and 50,000 options contracts was a normal day for him. In 27 years at CBOE, he has traded through the crash of '87, the smaller crash of '90 and the tech bubble in 2000. He has traded three-digit volatility and seen every possible market environment imaginable. So, if you're going to learn options, it might as well be from the very best.