Watch HowardCohodas Trade Index Options Credit Spreads

[timsk]

hi

everyone knows he doesnt know what hes doing so why is his interview still up?

it is bad for him to be trying to teach buts its even worse for the owners to publicise it when its so clear he doesnt understand.

?

Hi DR,
T2W has no vested interest in publicising Howard's course! Our interest is only to make the Articles section as rich and as diverse a resource for members as possible. What Howard is doing - or attempting to do - is a little out of the ordinary and the fact that it's original, 'home grown' content is a plus. His high profile and the amount of attention generated by this thread is evidence of that. As such, he is a good candidate to be interviewed in the Articles section, IMO. By the same token - so are you (and a number of other contributors to this thread) - so why not contact Trader333, Content Editor, and put yourself forward?


Regarding the merit (or otherwise) of Howard's practice, you have expressed your concerns on the comments thread as well as here - along with quite a few other 'heavyweight' members. Although it's possible, it's highly unlikely that a newbie will read the interview and immediately sign up for Howard's course without reading either the comments thread or this one. As soon as they do that, they'll soon discover that Howard's trading approach may not be quite as watertight as he would like to think it is. Additionally, the subject matter is relatively advanced, so a complete newbie that's unable to distinguish their rear end from their elbow is unlikely to fork out money on an options course without first getting some grounding in the subject - and trading in general.

Howard may or may not be qualified to teach his methods. Either way, for the reasons mentioned, the risk of a newbie joining T2W, finding Howard and losing his or her shirt trying to trade his options strategies - is negligible.
Tim.

Howard - apologies for the off-topic post to your thread, but I felt the point raised by DR is an important one that needs to be addressed.

 

[arabianights]

Howard what is that blue spiral of yours?

 

[DashRiprock]

Make you case with examples please.

mate this is like basic basic option theory. your strat is short vols.

if you need examples just look at every trade you made with this strat and look at your vega.

really if you dont already understand this then your sooooooooooooooo not ready to teach (or even trade really!)

 

[arabianights]

Hi DR,
T2W has no vested interest in publicising Howard's course! Our interest is only to make the Articles section as rich and as diverse a resource for members as possible. What Howard is doing - or attempting to do - is a little out of the ordinary and the fact that it's original, 'home grown' content is a plus. His high profile and the amount of attention generated by this thread is evidence of that. As such, he is a good candidate to be interviewed in the Articles section, IMO. By the same token - so are you (and a number of other contributors to this thread) - so why not contact Trader333, Content Editor, and put yourself forward?


Regarding the merit (or otherwise) of Howard's practice, you have expressed your concerns on the comments thread as well as here - along with quite a few other 'heavyweight' members. Although it's possible, it's highly unlikely that a newbie will read the interview and immediately sign up for Howard's course without reading either the comments thread or this one. As soon as they do that, they'll soon discover that Howard's trading approach may not be quite as watertight as he would like to think it is. Additionally, the subject matter is relatively advanced, so a complete newbie that's unable to distinguish their rear end from their elbow is unlikely to fork out money on an options course without first getting some grounding in the subject - and trading in general.

Howard may or may not be qualified to teach his methods. Either way, for the reasons mentioned, the risk of a newbie joining T2W, finding Howard and losing his or her shirt trying to trade his options strategies - is negligible.
Tim.

Howard - apologies for the off-topic post to your thread, but I felt the point raised by DR is an important one that needs to be addressed.

Which is just as well cause more than half the interviews/articles are with/written by retards and/or charlatans

 

[arabianights]

MG has on his plate a different approach from mine to evaluate my strategy.

Back-testing has limited effectiveness in predicting real money performance, but was performed using data from periods with some healthy shocks.

Paper trading has better, but nonetheless limited effectiveness in predicting real money performance, but yielded good results through some pretty high volatility periods.

My paper trading and real money trading and some thought experiments indicates that my real vulnerability is transitions. I'm assuming that's what you mean by healthy shocks. During paper trading (do you think there were healthy shocks during that period?) my worst month was 2.3% increase in my account. My best month was 23.5% increase. I've taken some pretty painful hits, but have yet to experience a losing month. Doesn't mean it wont happen.

Is it informative that some pretty successful gurus (expensive seminars, high priced web delivered recommendations, etc) who teach methods similar to mine did worse than I did in those periods?

Sod your backtesting, do you understand why market makers are buying these condors from you?

 

[Hotch]

Sod your backtesting, do you understand why market makers are buying these condors from you?

I do, they want to give Howard money because they feel sorry for him and don't think the treadmill desk is going to take off (the fools!).

 

[scose-no-doubt]

Sod your backtesting, do you understand why market makers are buying these condors from you?

Because they are obviously unaware that they could be earning theta. Howard has outsmarted them! Such an easy feat for someone who has attended flight school.

Catchy title by the way, Howard.

 

[DashRiprock]

Because they are obviously unaware that they could be earning theta. Howard has outsmarted them! Such an easy feat for someone who has attended flight school.

Catchy title by the way, Howard.

or because howard is moving at 1mph relative to the treadmill but stationary wrt the options market the theta on his Long strike decays slower than the theta on his short strike

LOL

 

[HowardCohodas]

mate this is like basic basic option theory. your strat is short vols.

if you need examples just look at every trade you made with this strat and look at your vega.

really if you dont already understand this then your sooooooooooooooo not ready to teach (or even trade really!)

You continue to disappoint me. You are batting 1000 in failing to answer any or my questions. If you want me to take you seriously, you have to at least once establish your willingness to have a dialog. One conclusion I do not want to come to is that you don't want a dialog at all.

 

[DashRiprock]

You continue to disappoint me. You are batting 1000 in failing to answer any or my questions. If you want me to take you seriously, you have to at least once establish your willingness to have a dialog. One conclusion I do not want to come to is that you don't want a dialog at all.

there is no dialogue at all its just you sticking your fingers in your ears and going "lalalalalalalalalalalala"

Ill say it again. your strat is short vols.

do you know what that means?

 

[counter_violent]

or because howard is moving at 1mph relative to the treadmill but stationary wrt the options market the theta on his Long strike decays slower than the theta on his short strike

LOL

Does the plane take off ?

 

[Hotch]

does the plane take off ?

yes!

 

[DashRiprock]

there is no dialogue at all its just you sticking your fingers in your ears and going "lalalalalalalalalalalala"

Ill say it again. your strat is short vols.

do you know what that means?

probably not so ill explain for you you plonker.

your short strike is more sensitive to changes in implied volatility than the long strike (as its nearer ATM). So with a parallel shift in the volatility smile, the short option price will change more than the long option price.

This is great for you if volatility falls because the short option will depreciate faster than the long option and leave you with a profit. But of the opposite happens, and implied volatility increases, then the value of your short option will increase faster than your long option, and you are left with a loss.

this is a tenet of your strategy, just so you know.

 

[DashRiprock]

Does the plane take off ?

hi

i dont get it.

 

[arabianights]

plane on treadmill... famous on every internet forum... I think it originated on somethingawful

 

[DashRiprock]

plane on treadmill... famous on every internet forum... I think it originated on somethingawful

aah ok i saw that on the telly where they do things from films.

so does howard take off or blow up?

LOL

 

[HowardCohodas]

Sod your backtesting, do you understand why market makers are buying these condors from you?

You are quite well respected here but this comment causes me considerable concern.

1. Selling companion credit spreads to form an Iron Condor is considered an Iron Condor "buy" or long position. Do you know why?
2. As I have stated numerous time, my trading unit is a credit spread not an Iron Condor.
3. Third, trading a credit spread, or even an Iron Condor for that matter, does not imply there is someone on the opposite side of that trade in the sense that each leg must be from the same buyer or seller. Or so I've been told by market makers. Do you know differently?
4. There are hundreds if not thousands of options strategies (if you include variations) each with different pushes and pulls against option price. A vertical spread is only one of them. We could discuss if these effects are primary, secondary or tertiary to other factors such as volatility, time to expiration, price of underlying, etc.

 

[HowardCohodas]

Howard - apologies for the off-topic post to your thread, but I felt the point raised by DR is an important one that needs to be addressed.

No apologizes necessary. I, for one, would be very interested in reading interviews of frequent posters here. We all could learn a lot.

Perhaps you can also invite them to start a public journal to include their trades, their journal entries (why they made the trade), risk analysis, etc. My doing so has certainly taught me a lot. And I could learn from them as well.

Thanks for posting here. I appreciate it.

 

[arabianights]

You are quite well respected here but this comment causes me considerable concern.

1. Selling companion credit spreads to form an Iron Condor is considered an Iron Condor "buy" or long position. Do you know why?
2. As I have stated numerous time, my trading unit is a credit spread not an Iron Condor.
3. Third, trading a credit spread, or even an Iron Condor for that matter, does not imply there is someone on the opposite side of that trade in the sense that each leg must be from the same buyer or seller. Or so I've been told by market makers. Do you know differently?
4. There are hundreds if not thousands of options strategies (if you include variations) each with different pushes and pulls against option price. A vertical spread is only one of them. We could discuss if these effects are primary, secondary or tertiary to other factors such as volatility, time to expiration, price of underlying, etc.

Your comment causes me considerably more concern (well, not really - it actually causes me amusement)... ignoring the condescending attitude, you don't seem to understand the basics of how the market works before we even consider talking about pricing... there's a lot of nonsense to deal with in that post and I'll see if anyone else wants to deal with it first before I bother!

 

[HowardCohodas]

mate this is like basic basic option theory. your strat is short vols.

if you need examples just look at every trade you made with this strat and look at your vega.

really if you dont already understand this then your sooooooooooooooo not ready to teach (or even trade really!)

There are two kinds of teachers. Those who answer a question by repeating what they said earlier, but louder. And those who say it differently because they care to bridge the gap in understanding.