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 ...

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 ...

Short dated index options have been all the rage for the past couple of years. The Nasdaq-100 (NDX) option market has been a big beneficiary of widespread use of short-dated options. For example, ...

There are hundreds of option strategies. And they can be vastly different in terms of tactics and desired outcomes. But in fact, there are really only a few basic strategies, and everything else is ...

The S&P 500 Index has been very quiet in recent weeks. In fact, the broad-market benchmark hasn't made a 1% daily move in either direction since July 8, the longest streak of its kind since May 2014.

This options strategy profits from big moves -- in either direction. Options strategies can seem complicated, but that's because they offer you a great deal of flexibility in tailoring your potential ...

Troy Segal is an editor and writer. She has 20+ years of experience covering personal finance, wealth management, and business news. Gordon Scott has been an active investor and technical analyst or ...

The short put spread -- or "bull put spread," as it's also described -- is a relatively conservative option strategy, since the profit potential is strictly capped. In execution, it bears a strong ...