Box Spread

What is an Option Sweep? An option sweep is basically when a big trader breaks up a large order into small individual trades. This is usually done in order to get filled fast or to conceal a large order.  The common thinking is that a sweep usually means a big trader knows something and is…

This is basically a big change in Implied Volatility [IV]. IV gaps higher when the market expects the underlying Stock/ETF to make a big move in the short term. IV can gap lower when an important event, like an earnings report, has passed. The big gap up in the IV can cause the premium of…

When the price of the underlying stock is equal to the strike price of the option, the contract is At The Money. In the image below you can see that the current price of APPL is 139 and the red rectangles are highlighting the fact that the JUL 15th 139.00 Calls & Puts are currently…

These are the Options with the most time left until expiration. Or, simply, the most distant expiration months. As you can see in the image below, the Jan 2024 and the Jun 2024 expiration would be considered the “back months” because they have 570 and 724 days to expiration, respectively.

This is the idea that says that the price of the underlying asset will gravitate towards the point where the most options expire worthless. Some option traders will “trade around” or “trade off of” these levels by Selling Puts or Calls against it.

Front Month contracts are options contracts that have the least amount of time remaining before expiration. For example, on the 1st of August, the front month contract would the contract that expires in the Month of August. Similarly, on August 31st, the front month contract is the September contract is the front month contract because…