Apple Investment Strategy Guide by Micah Lamar Apple Investment Strategy Guide A simple guide to trading and investing in Apple By Micah Lamar Disclaimer: This document is intended for educational purposes only. Stock and Options trading has large potential rewards, but also large potential risk. You must be aware of the risks and be willing to accept them in order to invest in the stock and options markets. Don’t trade with money you can’t afford to lose. This is neither a solicitation nor an offer to Buy/Sell stock or options. No representation is being made that any account will or is likely to achieve profits or losses similar to those discussed on this web site/video/guide. The past performance of any trading system or methodology is not necessarily indicative of future results. Please consult your financial advisor before investing in stocks and options. Copyright AAPLTrader 2013 All Rights Reserved 1 Apple Investment Strategy Guide by Micah Lamar Micah Lamar The “Apple Investment Strategy Guide” helps you quickly find the perfect investment strategy for any market condition. This guide answers the two most important questions you need to know before getting into a trade. 1. How do I know when to buy and sell? 2. What strategy do I use to maximize profits and limit risk? In the following pages you will learn exactly how to identify high probability trades AND how to choose the correct stock or option strategy to match it. Each chapter includes valuable information and resources to support you in successfully choosing the right strategy for your AAPL Investment. Trade on, Micah Micah Lamar Co-Founder and CEO AAPLTrader Social Network Support@AAPLTrader.com Customer Care: (775) 391-0344 Micah also writes for Seeking Alpha, The International Business Times (IBTimes) and The Wall Street All-Stars. Micah is a Stock & Options Mentor, helping thousands of traders increase their ROI. Micah supports traders in learning technical analysis, option spreads and trading as a business. Copyright AAPLTrader 2013 All Rights Reserved 2 Apple Investment Strategy Guide by Micah Lamar Introduction The Apple Investment Strategy Guide starts you on a path to successful trading and investing by building your foundation for stocks and options. AAPLTrader members receive a unique opportunity to get advanced training beyond the scope of this guide through our flagship certificate programs. Advanced Video Training Programs Stock Certificate Program: Technical analysis video training showing you how to fine-tune your trading accuracy by creating specific if / then rules, using pay day cycles and probability stacking. (Regularly $397 or Free with Pro Access) Option Certificate Program: AAPLTrader’s flagship options course. Responsible for helping thousands of traders become better, more profitable option traders. This power packed video training gives you everything you need to know about trading options in 21 easy to follow video modules. (Regularly $597 or Free with Pro Access) ThinkOrSwim Training: 12 power packed videos showing you how to use TDAmeritrade’s ThinkDesk trading platform. This is the same platform we will be using to analyze stocks in this guide. (Regularly $297 or Free with Pro Access) Copyright AAPLTrader 2013 All Rights Reserved 3 Apple Investment Strategy Guide by Micah Lamar Table of Contents Beginner Stock Market Basics………………………………………………..……5 AAPLTrader Success Formula….……………………………………..8 Intermediate The Foundation…………………………………………………….…...13 Option Basics Risk Graphs Option Chains The Greeks Advanced Bullish Strategies……………………………………………………….30 Buy Stock Buy Calls Bull Call Spread Bull Put Spread Covered Call Naked Put Bearish Strategies…………………………………………………..….43 Sell Stock Short Buy Puts Bear Put Spread Bear Call Spread Neutral Strategies…………………………………………………...….49 Iron Condor Butterfly Spread Horizontal Calendar Spread Bonus #1……………………………………………………………..…..57 Bonus #2………………………………………………………..………..61 Copyright AAPLTrader 2013 All Rights Reserved 4 Apple Investment Strategy Guide by Micah Lamar Chapter 1 Stock Market Basics The quickest and easiest way to become a successful trader is to first build your foundation of knowledge. This chapter will address some of the basic parts of stocks and the financial markets. Once we get through a few of the basics, we will quickly jump into advanced investment strategies. A Bull is a trader who believes a stock, security, or entire market is going to move up. A bull looks for rising stock prices. A Bear trader who believes a stock, security, or entire market is going to move down. A bear looks for falling stock prices. Technical Analysis is a stock market strategy used by traders of investors by using the history of a stock’s volume and price movement to forecast future prices and time specifications. Fundamental Analysis is a stock market strategy used to determine the value of a company by evaluating its financial condition and management. Fundamental analysis is also evaluated with economic factors that are taken into consideration, such as the seasonality. The most successful traders use both technical and fundamental analysis. Copyright AAPLTrader 2013 All Rights Reserved 5 Apple Investment Strategy Guide by Micah Lamar Traders who use technical analysis get to use helpful tools to help them determine good buying and selling points. The four main tools are: 1. 2. 3. 4. Stock Charts Trend Lines Volume Indicators For your reference, each one of these four tools will be highlighted in later chapters. Every time you buy or sell a stock you use what’s called an order. The two most common orders are market orders and limit orders. Limit Order is a contract to buy or sell a number of shares at a specific price or better. Example would be if someone states, “I want to buy 100 shares of AAPL at $500.35 or better.” Market Order is an order a trader puts through a broker to buy or sell a stock at the best available price. This order gets executed immediately because it has no restrictions. The two more advanced orders are Bracket and Contingent orders. Bracket Order is a contract with three orders in one. For buyers the first order is where to buy, the second order is where to take profits and the third order is where to take a loss. These orders help traders organize a plan so that he/she can limit the losses and/or lock in profits automatically. Contingent Order is a contract that gets triggered if a specific price point, time frame or data point is hit. This order is often used with making option trade orders contingent upon stock prices. Copyright AAPLTrader 2013 All Rights Reserved 6 Apple Investment Strategy Guide by Micah Lamar Trading Styles Finding an investing style that suits your personality is going to be one of the biggest factors in determining your success in the markets. Each type of investing style will use very different tools to identify opportunities to make money. In the next chapter we will cover more on the specific tools they use. Here are the four main types of traders / investors: 1. Day Trader: starts and finishes a trade in one day. 2. Swing Traders: in a trade for several consecutive days or weeks. 3. Position traders: in a trade for a few months or longer. 4. Buy and hold: in a trade for years Day traders and swing traders often spend more time in front of the computer screen analyzing stocks and making trades. Long-term investors may only take an hour or less a week to monitor trades and positions. It’s important to understand your personal trading style before you invest in the market. To keep things simple this guide will use the word “trader” to reference all trading and investing types. The three main ways to determine your personal trading style: How much time do you have to trade during the day? How much capital do you have to start with? Personality: are you a conservative or aggressive investor? If you have experience trading, you may already know your preferred trading style. Take a moment and think about it. If you want to make the most money in the shortest amount of time, I would recommend swing trading. Every four to eight on average AAPL swings up and down creating opportunity for swing traders. More about this in the next chapter. Copyright AAPLTrader 2013 All Rights Reserved 7 Apple Investment Strategy Guide by Micah Lamar Chapter 2 AAPLTrader Success Formula The two most important facts you need to know before you trade are: First, that all stocks cycle up and down in price and second, that traders make the most money when they buy and sell at pivot points. The AAPLTrader success formula combines 3 elements together that help you find and trade around these natural cycles and pivots. Trend Analysis shows us which direction the stock is moving and where the stock is in its natural cycle Confirmation indicators stack the probability edge in your favor giving you a higher probability of making money Strategy matching makes sure you use the best available stock or option strategy to make the most money with the least amount of risk Probability Stacking is a process developed by AAPLTrader that uses all three of these elements together to increase a trade’s probability of success. Copyright AAPLTrader 2013 All Rights Reserved 8 Apple Investment Strategy Guide by Micah Lamar The price of all stocks naturally move up and down as Supply & Demand shifts back and forth between buyers and sellers. The price rises when there is more demand (buyers) than there is supply (sellers). The price drops when there is more supply (sellers) than there is demand (buyers). For technical analysis purposes we will call: Demand Pivots: Swing Lows Supply Pivots Swing Highs Identifying a stocks’ swing low and swing high is easy and will help us determine what kind of strategy to use in our trade. Remember the two most important facts? The first one was that all stocks cycle. The second one was that traders make the most money when buying and selling around these cycles. In the following pages you will get two more powerful tools designed to support you in locating a stocks pivot points. Copyright AAPLTrader 2013 All Rights Reserved 9 Apple Investment Strategy Guide by Micah Lamar Tool #1 Trading with the Trend Trend Analysis increases our probability of success by creating simple rules to identify a stocks trend before we buy or sell. The above chart shows a 3-month down trend and up trend. Bearish Trend A Down Trend is when the stock price is making lower highs and lower lows over a given period. Please reference the bearish strategy matrix on page 43 for bearish investment ideas. Bullish Trend An Up Trend is when the stock price is making higher highs and higher lows over a given period. Please reference the bullish strategy matrix on page 30 for bullish investment ideas. Copyright AAPLTrader 2013 All Rights Reserved 10 Apple Investment Strategy Guide by Micah Lamar Tool #2 Heikin Ashi Pay Day Cycles Swing traders make the most money when they buy and sell at pivot points; we’ve already discussed that right? Well, the Heikin Ashi chart that you see above smoothes out the trend of a stock and helps you visually see when a stock is making a pivot. This is another excellent Trend Analysis tool. A Payday Cycle is when a stock rolls up or down for 4–8 days. Swing traders can capture profits every week or several times a month trading pay day cycles up and down. This pattern strategy allows a trader to identify high and low pivot swings to allow them to buy low and sell high very easily. ThinkOrSwim by TDAmeritrade has a fantastic Heikin Ashi chart. Copyright AAPLTrader 2013 All Rights Reserved 11 Apple Investment Strategy Guide by Micah Lamar Tool #3 Finding Repeatable Patterns As stocks cycle they tend to form patterns that repeat themselves over and over again in time. These repeating patterns gives traders an opportunity to identify a stocks possible pivot point days before making a trade. Pattern recognition is a Confirmation Indicator. Let’s take this from the top. We can now identify whether a stock is trending up or down on a 3 month chart using the trend and direction rules. We can also use the Heikin Ashi chart to see when a stock is making a pivot and starting a new 4 to 8 day pay day cycle. If we combine these together then we can increase our probability even more by only entering bullish swing trades that are also bullish on a 3-month chart. When we add in repeatable patterns to the mix we have just stacked 3 elements together to increase our probability of success. Very Powerful. For more information please reference the Stock Certificate Program which includes16 video training modules that go further into trend analysis and confirmation indicators. The rest of this guide will now focus on the third step in the AAPLTrader Success Formula: Bullish, Bearish and Neutral Investment Strategies. But first we need to take a quick look at how and why options work. Copyright AAPLTrader 2013 All Rights Reserved 12 Apple Investment Strategy Guide by Micah Lamar Chapter 3 The Foundation We are about to venture into the options market. Options will help us stack the probability of a trade’s success even more in our favor. However, there is a learning curve with options. This chapter has been divided into 7 parts that give you the most important information you need to successfully trade options. Part 1 The Basics An Option is a contract that gives the investor the right, but not the obligation, to buy or sell stock at a set price on or before a given date. The option contract specifies the details of the option including: the expiration or exercise date, the strike price and the stock, ETF or index associated with the option as well as the number of shares associated with the option. There are two types of options: Calls & Puts Buy Calls if you are Bullish Buy Puts if you are Bearish You can also sell options to get the opposite impact Copyright AAPLTrader 2013 All Rights Reserved 13 Apple Investment Strategy Guide by Micah Lamar Options are traded at exchanges similar to stocks. The Chicago Board of Options Exchange (CBOE) is the world’s largest options exchange. Options are traded in contracts with the smallest trading unit being one contract. Most option contracts control 100 shares of stock. Longer dated options cost more than near dated options because they have more time value. Mini options control 10 shares of stock. Mini options are only available on some of the most liquid stocks like AAPL, GOOG and the GLD. Note: Options traded on indexes (i.e. the SPX) have an option expiration of the 3rd Thursday of the month. For more information, please watch the Option Basics video training inside the Option Certificate Program – receive this program for FREE with Pro Access! What's included in the Option Basics video training: The 2 main option types and how they help investors. Why call options can make you more money than stock. The 4 Secrets to intrinsic and extrinsic value. How to use Put Options to profit in down markets. The 3 types of option valuation. Powerful guidelines for building your option foundation. The fastest way to build your option knowledge foundation - Option Basics provides you with an easy to follow blueprint for trading calls and puts and make money in any market direction. Copyright AAPLTrader 2013 All Rights Reserved 14 Apple Investment Strategy Guide by Micah Lamar Part 2 How to Read a Risk Graph Risk Graph is a tool that helps you analyze the profit and loss potential of your trade(s). The graph above is an example of buying a call option. Understanding how to read a risk graph will be an important skill moving forward because we will be using the risk graph to analyze all of our option strategies. Please take your time and read through the white boxes on the risk graph above. The risk graph allows you to see the probabilities of making or losing money dependant on the movement of price, the passage of time and the change in volatility. Copyright AAPLTrader 2013 All Rights Reserved 15 Apple Investment Strategy Guide by Micah Lamar As a quick example, this is the risk graph of owning stock. Notice the white line showing your profit and loss is in a straight line. Compare this to the risk graph shown in the first example where the white line is curved. An easy way to remember is that the risk graph of owning stock is always straight and the risk graph of buying and selling options is always curved. There are advanced ways to trade options so that the risk graph is straight. We will cover these advanced strategies is later chapters. For more information, please watch the Risk Graphs video training inside the Option Certificate Program – receive this program for FREE with Pro Access! What's included in the Risk Graphs video training: Copyright AAPLTrader 2013 All Rights Reserved 16 Apple Investment Strategy Guide by Micah Lamar The 4 essential elements of a risk graph. How to determine the risk and reward of your trade. The 3 keys to forecasting future profit potential. Secrets to adjusting for time and volatility. Powerful examples of how to combine option trades. How to get the absolute best risk profile. The single best way to analyze your trades - This risk graph-training blueprint shows you exactly how much money you will make on each trade... before you place the trade. The next section goes over the option chain, this will show you a layout with all the option details you need. Copyright AAPLTrader 2013 All Rights Reserved 17 Apple Investment Strategy Guide by Micah Lamar Part 3 How to Read an Option Chain The Option Chain is a layout of option details. It provides you a listing of all the put and call option strike prices and a given maturity period. You can adjust your settings to view each detail about a specific strike price. The expiration period (month or week) and strike prices are running down the center of the option chain. Calls are always on the left and Puts on always on the right. The option chain tells you how much you can buy and sell a specific option for (bid/ask). It also gives you other important information, for example: delta, gamma, theta, Vega, volume, open interest, implied volatility, and lots of other helpful information. Quick review of bid/ask: The Bid is the current market price if you want to sell an option. The Ask is the current market price if you want to buy an option. Here’s a quick tip to remember which is which when looking at the bid / ask spread. The bid is always the lower price and the ask is always the higher price. When you buy, you always need to pay the higher “ask” price. Copyright AAPLTrader 2013 All Rights Reserved 18 Apple Investment Strategy Guide by Micah Lamar Open Interest: (See Picture Above) number of outstanding open option contracts for a specific date and strike price. Volume: (See Picture Above) amount of daily option activity on the strike price selected. Tip: You can use the volume to see how active a specific option is today and use open interest to see how active a specific option has been in the past. Volume and open interest tells you how liquid an option is (easy to buy and sell). Option liquidity is a good thing for option traders. Copyright AAPLTrader 2013 All Rights Reserved 19 Apple Investment Strategy Guide by Micah Lamar Part 4 Calls vs. Stock Stock: represents ownership of a company. Other terms for stock are: shares, securities or equities. Details: If you buy 100 shares of stock, you will make $100 for every one dollar move up in the stock and you will lose $100 for every onedollar move down in the stock. Max Profit: The max profit is unlimited. Risk: The risk in this trade is if the stock price drops below the price you bought the shares. Copyright AAPLTrader 2013 All Rights Reserved 20 Apple Investment Strategy Guide by Micah Lamar Call: Owning a call option gives you the right but not the obligation to buy stock at the strike price you choose on or before the expiration date of the call you bought. Example: Current stock price $615.75. Buy Nov 620 call (as shown in risk graph) Buying call options give you positive delta. This is a bullish strategy. Call options provide you with leverage to the upside. Break-Even Point: The break-even point is the strike price of the call you bought plus the premium you paid for it. (i.e. strike price $620 plus the premium $21.65 = break-even point $641.65) Copyright AAPLTrader 2013 All Rights Reserved 21 Apple Investment Strategy Guide by Micah Lamar Risk: The risk in this trade at expiration is if the stock price moves down or lands at or below your break-even point on expiration of the option. Tip: Buy more time than you think you need. (i.e. if you want to be in a position for one month, you may want to buy at least three months of time.) Bonus Tip: Buying in-the-money call options gives you more delta, and will behave more like stock. Summary: Buying Calls: - Pros: You get more upside for less money. - Cons: You have a given amount of time to be right. Summary: Buying Stock: - Pros: You can hold your shares for years and years and years. - Cons: Owning shares may require a lot of capital. For more information, please watch the Calls vs. Stock video training inside the Option Certificate Program – receive this program for FREE with Pro Access! What's included in the Calls vs. Stock video training: The 3 reasons why calls make you more money than stock. How to analyze your options and know your potential before you trade. Secrets to choosing your strike price and month correctly. The 2 powerful ways to avoid the Call Options worst enemy! What to look for in volume and open interest when buying options. How much money you will make from direction. Next you will learn how to make money when stocks are going down. Copyright AAPLTrader 2013 All Rights Reserved 22 Apple Investment Strategy Guide by Micah Lamar Part 5 Using Options as Insurance A Put option is a contract between two parties, the buyer and the seller. The buyer has the right, but not the obligation to sell a particular stock, ETF or Index to the seller of the option at a specific price “the strike price” on or before a specified date “the expiration date”. The seller or "writer" is obligated to buy the stock, ETF or Index at the strike price of the option should the stock price land below the strike price on expiration. Buying a put is a bearish strategy. Selling a put is a bullish strategy. Copyright AAPLTrader 2013 All Rights Reserved 23 Apple Investment Strategy Guide by Micah Lamar Many traders also buy puts to protect stock they already own. This is called buying a protective put. Protective Put Buying A Protective Put is a when you own stock and you buy puts. Example: The month is July and you own 100 shares of AAPL. The stock is currently trading at $596 and you think it is going to go down for the next few weeks. You can buy an August $500 put. This gives you the right to sell your AAPL shares at $500 no matter how low AAPL goes between now and the 3rd Friday of August. (Monthly options always expire on the 3rd Friday. Copyright AAPLTrader 2013 All Rights Reserved 24 Apple Investment Strategy Guide by Micah Lamar Tip: Buy more time then you think you need. Also notice that the protective put risk graph above looks exactly like the risk graph of a long call position. (This is called a synthetic position) For more information, please watch the Put Options video training inside the Option Certificate Program – receive this program for FREE with Pro Access! What's included in the Put Options video training: The single best way to make the most money with Puts. How to get the best deal (hint: it has to do with volatility) You insure your house and car right? Why not insure your stock? How buying puts insures the stock you already own. How to trade stock without even owning it. The 3 secrets to buying time. This training blueprint shows you the simplest way to make money in a down market. Let's face it, stocks move up and down, why not make money on both directions. This training gives you the skills to make HUGE profits when stocks move down in price. Copyright AAPLTrader 2013 All Rights Reserved 25 Apple Investment Strategy Guide by Micah Lamar Part 6 Trading as a Business and by The Numbers The Greeks are four main numbers used to calculate the price and value of an option. These numbers help you identify the risk and reward before you make a trade. Delta: measurement of risk that tells you how much money you will make or lose dependent upon a one-dollar movement in the stock. Delta is one of the Greeks that help you manage your portfolio. Every share of stock you own, gives you one delta. For example, if you buy 100 shares of stock, you have 100 delta, the ratio is One to One. Delta helps you compare the price of an underlying asset to the derivative. Example: Current stock price $615.75. If you buy 100 shares of stock, you have 100 delta, for every $1 the stock moves up in price, you receive $100. Buying 100 shares of stock will give +100 delta. Selling short 100 shares of stock will give -100 delta. Gamma: the rate of change of the delta. For every one dollar the stock price moves, you make or lose the delta amount. After the first dollar the stock price moves, you add the gamma amount to the delta; In addition, gamma is often thought of as the delta of the delta. Gamma helps you measure acceleration and deceleration. Buying options gives you a + gamma. Selling options gives you a – gamma. Copyright AAPLTrader 2013 All Rights Reserved 26 Apple Investment Strategy Guide by Micah Lamar Example: The price of the stock is $300 and your call option has a delta of 60 and a gamma of 5. If the stock price moves up one dollar to $301 you make $60 from your delta position. If the stock price moves another dollar to $302 you make an additional $60 from the delta (60 x 2 = 120) and you also get to add the $5 from the gamma on that second dollar move up. So the total gain would be $125. Theta: measures the rate of change of an option over time that increases closer to expiration. Theta only effects extrinsic value. When you buy an option you have a negative theta and lose money over time. When you sell an option you have a positive theta and make money over time. Vega: the measurement of how an option is affected by implied volatility. When you buy options you have a positive vega, when you sell options you have a negative vega. High-implied volatility equals more expensive options. Low-implied volatility equals less expensive options. Your vega position tells you how much money you will make or lose dependent on a 1% change in implied volatility. When you buy options you will make the vega amount for every 1% the implied volatility moves up. When you sell an option you have a negative vega and will make the vega amount for every 1% the implied volatility moves down. Vega only affects the extrinsic value of an option. Copyright AAPLTrader 2013 All Rights Reserved 27 Apple Investment Strategy Guide by Micah Lamar Part 7 Advanced Theta Theta: measures the rate of change of an option over time. Theta decay, (also known as “time decay”) increases closer to expiration and only affects the extrinsic value of an option. Buying options gives you a – theta, where you lose money over time. Selling options gives you a + theta, where you make money over time. Theta can be expressed as the passage of time. As time passes, an option either increases or decreases in value depending on whether you sold or bought the option. Theta is one of the main factors in formulating the value of an option. All options are affected by time and all options have an expiration date. The longer dated the option is, the more “time value” or theta value an option has. Copyright AAPLTrader 2013 All Rights Reserved 28 Apple Investment Strategy Guide by Micah Lamar Tip: There is less theta decay on farther dated options and lots of theta decay on the last 30 days of the option. For more information, please watch The Greeks and the Theta video training inside the Option Certificate Program – receive this program for FREE with Pro Access! What's included in this advanced Theta training: Why most beginning traders get this one wrong. The logic behind a Theta curve and where "times" makes you money. Which months to buy and which months to sell. The secrets to why "Theta" makes you money when the market is closed. What to avoid when buying options. Discover how much money you will make from Theta everyday. The passage of time is the only 100% consistent element in the market. We give you the blueprint to make money from the passage of time, and how to avoid losing money from being on the wrong side of the trade (very important and easy to follow guidelines). What's included in The Greeks Video Training: The 4 powerful elements of option pricing (Value). How to leverage the 4 Greeks to make more money. Simple strategies for identifying the most important parts of a trade. The 5th Option Greek nobody talks about. How to use Theta to see exactly how much money you will make every day. Perfect for beginning and advanced traders. This critical training demystifies the Option Greeks: Delta, Gamma, Theta and Vega with simple A to Z training giving you everything you need to master trading by these numbers. Copyright AAPLTrader 2013 All Rights Reserved 29 Apple Investment Strategy Guide by Micah Lamar Chapter 4 Bullish Strategies Here is a quick list of Bullish Strategies. Notice some of the strategies are for neutral to bullish markets and some of the strategies are for very bullish markets. The rows give you additional details of each strategy, including the volatility, time decay and whether each strategy is opened for a debit or credit. Be careful to choose the correct strategy according to your sentiment on market direction, time and volatility. Please reference The Stock Certificate Program for more information on how to rate a stocks trend: Neutral, Bullish or Very Bullish. The following pages will give you powerful details for each of the major bullish strategies. Copyright AAPLTrader 2013 All Rights Reserved 30 Apple Investment Strategy Guide by Micah Lamar Buy Stock Stock: represents ownership of a company. Other terms for Stock: shares, securities. Owning Stock also gives you delta. Delta: a measurement of risk that tells you how much money you will make or lose dependent upon a one dollar movement in the stock. Delta is one of the five Greeks that help you manage your portfolio. Every share of stock you own, gives you one delta. For example, if you buy 100 shares of stock, you have 100 delta, the ratio is One to One. Delta helps you compare the price of an underlying asset to the derivative. Example: if you buy 100 shares of stock, for every $1 the underlying asset moves up in price, you receive $1. Buying 100 shares of stock will give +100 delta. Selling 100 shares of stock will give -100 delta Copyright AAPLTrader 2013 All Rights Reserved 31 Apple Investment Strategy Guide by Micah Lamar Buy Calls Call: Owning a call option gives you the right but not the obligation to buy stock at the strike price you choose on or before the expiration date of the call you bought. Direction: Owning calls is a bullish to very bullish strategy. Break-Even Point: The break-even point is the strike price of the call you bought plus the premium you paid for it. (i.e. strike price $620 plus the premium $21.65 = break-even point $641.65) Risk: The risk in this trade at expiration is if the stock price moves down or lands at or below your break-even point on expiration of the option. Copyright AAPLTrader 2013 All Rights Reserved 32 Apple Investment Strategy Guide by Micah Lamar Buy LEAPS LEAPS or “Long Equity Anticipation Securities” are long term call options. Direction: This is a long term bullish to very bullish strategy. Details: expiration month needs to be a minimum of six months out. Usually January LEAPS are the first to become available. Break-Even Points: The break-even point at expiration is the strike price plus the premium you paid. (example from above: $670 + $71.95 = $741.95) Max Profit: The max profit is unlimited. Copyright AAPLTrader 2013 All Rights Reserved 33 Apple Investment Strategy Guide by Micah Lamar Tip: You can adjust your risk and reward by adjusting the strike price you choose. Deep in-the-money LEAPS can be used as a stock replacement. It is best to purchase LEAPS during periods of low volatility. For more information, please watch the Buying LEAPS video training inside the Option Certificate Program – receive this program for FREE with Pro Access! What's included in Buying LEAPS Video Training: The single best time to buy LEAPS. How to deal on your trade...every time. Why deep in the money LEAPS act more like stock. The 2 simple ways to neutralize time and volatility. Why this is the foundation for all calendar spreads. How to determine your total profit potential and then double it. Why use stock when you can buy LEAPS - This video training blueprint goes over the pros and cons of using LEAPS as a stock replacement. Stock can be expensive; LEAPS provide you with a safer alternative because they cost less and still give you unlimited upside - just like stock. Copyright AAPLTrader 2013 All Rights Reserved 34 Apple Investment Strategy Guide by Micah Lamar Bull Call Spread The single best way to trade bullish markets - the Bull Call Spread provides greater leverage than just buying calls by neutralizing the effects of time and volatility. Bull Call Spread Details: An option spread with two legs. Direction: This is a bullish to very bullish strategy. Details: use same expiration month for both legs. Buy one in-the-money call Sell one out-of-money call (See Example Graph Above: Buy Nov 645 and sell Nov 650) Copyright AAPLTrader 2013 All Rights Reserved 35 Apple Investment Strategy Guide by Micah Lamar Break-Even Points: The break-even point at expiration is the strike that you bought plus the premium you paid. In this example, the break even points are $645 + $2.65 = $647.65. Max Profit: The max profit at expiration is when the stock expires at or above the strike price you sold. Risk: The risk in this trade is if the stock price expires at or below the strike price you bought. Tip: You can change your break even and profit potential by adjusting your strike prices. For more information, please watch the Bull Call Spread video training inside the Option Certificate Program – receive this program for FREE with Pro Access! What's included in the Bull Call Spread video training: The 4 Secrets to squeezing risk out of bull call spreads while making more money. Why buying and selling options give you the most (and safest) leverage. The 2 powerful ways to lock in profits and reduce risk. Amazing keys to neutralize effects of time and volatility. This training is perfect for beginning and advanced traders! The blueprint for getting the absolute best deal on your trade... Guaranteed. This training video gives you clear guidelines and rules to value your bull call spread, making sure you get the best deal possible in bullish markets. Copyright AAPLTrader 2013 All Rights Reserved 36 Apple Investment Strategy Guide by Micah Lamar Bull Put Spread Bull Put Spread: an option spread where you buy and sell two puts at different strike prices. Direction: This is a neutral to bullish strategy. Details: Sell one at-the-money put (615) Buy one a little further out-the-money put (610) (See Example Graph Above: Buy the Nov 610 put and Sell the Nov 615 put) Max Profit: The max profit at expiration is at or above the strike price of the put option you sold. Copyright AAPLTrader 2013 All Rights Reserved 37 Apple Investment Strategy Guide by Micah Lamar Break-Even Point: The break-even point at expiration is the strike price you sold less the premium received. (i.e. $615 - $2.05 = $612.95) Risk: The risk in this trade is if the price expires at or below your break-even point. Tip: The farther out-the-money you sell and buy, the more room you have to be right. For more information, please watch the Bull Put Spread video training inside the Option Certificate Program – receive this program for FREE with Pro Access! What's included in the Bull Put Spread video training: How to target the best stocks to use for bull put spreads. The 3 rules to guarantee you get the best deal on the trade. The logic behind the bull put spread's large profit area. Why this trade is more profitable than a bull call spreads in neutral markets. The 2 keys to timing your trade with implied volatility. How to manage this trade like a market maker. The best way to make money in neutral to bullish markets - the Bull Put Spread is a favorite amongst option traders because of its high probability of success. Use this video training to gain the skills required to trade this strategy in the market. Copyright AAPLTrader 2013 All Rights Reserved 38 Apple Investment Strategy Guide by Micah Lamar Covered Call Covered Call: When you buy or already own stock (100 shares minimum) and you sell a call against your shares. The call you sell is “covered”. Direction: This is a neutral to bullish strategy. Details: Buy 100 shares of stock (min.) Sell one call (See Example Graph Above: Selling a Nov 620 call against your 100 shares of stock) Copyright AAPLTrader 2013 All Rights Reserved 39 Apple Investment Strategy Guide by Micah Lamar Break-Even Point: The current price of the stock from when you bought the option, less the premium you collected. (i.e. $616.67 – $21.50 = $595.17) Risk: The risk for this trade is if the stock dropped in price past the break-even point. Max Profit: The max profit at expiration is at or above the strike price you sold. Tip: Selling a deeper in-the-money call gives you more protection to the downside, but can also reduce your max profit. For more information, please watch the Covered Calls video training inside the Option Certificate Program – receive this program for FREE with Pro Access! What's included in the Covered Call video training: 3 ways the covered call increases your probability of success. Why this trade makes money as time passes (even on weekends). 4 essential keys to place and analyze your covered calls. How to make more money by rolling your calls up and out. The pros and cons of using the covered call strategy. How to determine exactly how much daily income you will make. Often the very first option trade people learn - the Covered Call is the easiest way to rent your stock out for monthly or weekly income. This video training gives you simple and quick steps to make more money on stocks you already own by selling covered calls. Copyright AAPLTrader 2013 All Rights Reserved 40 Apple Investment Strategy Guide by Micah Lamar Naked Put Naked Put: an option spread with one leg. Direction: This is a neutral to bullish strategy. Details: Sell one at-the-money put (See Example Chart Above: Sell a Nov 625 put) Break-Even Point: The break-even point at expiration is the strike price less the premium. Max Profit: The max profit at expiration is when the stock price lands at or above the strike price you sold. Copyright AAPLTrader 2013 All Rights Reserved 41 Apple Investment Strategy Guide by Micah Lamar Risk: The risk in this trade is if the stock price drops past the breakeven point at expiration. Tip: Selling a further out-the-money strike price gives you more protection to the downside, but also reduces your max profit. For more information, please watch the Naked Puts video training inside the Option Certificate Program – receive this program for FREE with Pro Access! What's included in the Naked Put video training: How the naked put makes money as time passes. The 3 rules to guarantee you get the best deal on the trade. 4 essential guidelines to place and manage your puts. How to make more money by rolling your put up and out (explained inside). The logic behind synthetic positions and covered calls. Why the naked put gives you the absolute most room to be right. Selling cash secured puts is considered by most professionals to be the highest probability trade in the market. We give you the guidelines to successfully place and manage the naked put. Plus, powerful insights to making money in up, down or even sideways markets. Copyright AAPLTrader 2013 All Rights Reserved 42 Apple Investment Strategy Guide by Micah Lamar Chapter 5 Bearish Strategies Here is a quick list of Bearish Strategies. Notice some of the strategies are for neutral to bearish markets and some of the strategies are for very bearish markets. Notice the impact volatility and time decay has on each strategy. Be careful to choose the correct strategy according to your sentiment on market direction, time and volatility. Please reference The Stock Certificate Program for more information on how to rate a stocks trend: Neutral, Bearish or Very Bearish. The following pages will give you powerful details of the three most popular bearish strategies. Copyright AAPLTrader 2013 All Rights Reserved 43 Apple Investment Strategy Guide by Micah Lamar Put Options Put: an option contract between two parties, the buyer and the seller. The buyer has the right, but not the obligation to sell a particular stock, ETF or Index to the seller of the option at a specific price “the strike price” on or before a specified date “the expiration date”. Direction: This is a bearish strategy. The seller or "writer" is obligated to buy the stock, ETF or Index at the strike price of the option should the stock price land below the strike price on expiration. Buying a put is a bearish strategy. Selling a put is a bullish strategy. Many traders also buy puts to protect stock they already own. This is called buying a protective put. Copyright AAPLTrader 2013 All Rights Reserved 44 Apple Investment Strategy Guide by Micah Lamar Bear Put Spread Bear Put Spread: An option spread with two legs. Details: use same expiration month for both legs. Buy one in-the-money put (650) Sell one out-of-money put (645) (See Example Graph Above: Buy Nov 650 and sell Nov 645) Description: This is a bearish strategy that profits if the stock price moves down. Break-Even Points: The break-even point at expiration is the strike that you bought less the premium you paid. In this example, the break-even point is $650 - $2.85 = $647.15 Max Profit: The max profit is when a stock expires at or below the strike price you sold. Copyright AAPLTrader 2013 All Rights Reserved 45 Apple Investment Strategy Guide by Micah Lamar Risk: The risk in this trade is if the stock price expires at or above the strike price you bought. Tip: You can change your break even and profit potential by adjusting your strike price. For more information, please watch the Bear Put Spread video training inside the Option Certificate Program – receive this program for FREE with Pro Access! What's included in the Bear Put Spread video training: The 3 secrets to determine what options to buy and sell. Secrets to taking advantage of big moves down in the market. What it means to buy in the money and out of the money. The 2 powerful ways to lock in profits and reduce risk. How to get the absolute best deal on your trade. This training is perfect for beginning and advanced traders! The single best way to short any market - the Bear Put Spread is safer and provides a greater ROI than just buying put options. Stocks move down way faster than they generally rise; this training gives you the unique opportunity to make the most amount of money possible from these down moves. Copyright AAPLTrader 2013 All Rights Reserved 46 Apple Investment Strategy Guide by Micah Lamar Bear Call Spread Bear Call Spread: an option spread where you buy and sell two calls at different strike prices. Direction: This is a neutral to bearish strategy. Details: Sell one at-the-money call Buy one a little further out-the-money call (See Example Graph Above: Sell the Nov 620 call and buy the Nov 625 call) Max Profit: The max profit at expiration is at or above the strike price of the call option you sold. Copyright AAPLTrader 2013 All Rights Reserved 47 Apple Investment Strategy Guide by Micah Lamar Break-Even Point: The break-even point at expiration is the strike price you sold plus the premium received. (i.e. $615 - $2.05 = $612.95) Risk: The risk in this trade is if the price expires at or above your break-even point. Tip: The farther out-the-money you sell and buy, the more room you have to be right. For more information, please watch the Bear Call Spreads video training inside the Option Certificate Program – receive this program for FREE with Pro Access! What's included in this training: How to target the best stocks to use. The 4 keys to why bear call spreads make money in neutral markets. 3 powerful ways to analyze and adjust to lock in more profits. The logic behind Theta and making money over time. The 2 simple ways to timing your trade with implied volatility. Timing is everything, when to get in and how to scale out This power packed blueprint covers everything you need to know to make money in sideways to down markets using the Bear Call Spread. With this resource rich training you can make more money trading this strategy. Copyright AAPLTrader 2013 All Rights Reserved 48 Apple Investment Strategy Guide by Micah Lamar Chapter 6 Neutral Strategies Here is a quick list of neutral Strategies. Going across the row of each strategy you can see the impact volatility and time decay has. Be careful to choose the correct strategy according to your sentiment on market direction, time and volatility. Please reference The Stock Certificate Program for more information on how to rate a stocks trend: Very Bearish Bearish Neutral to Bearish Neutral Neutral to Bullish Bullish Very Bullish The following pages will give you powerful details the three most popular neutral strategies. Copyright AAPLTrader 2013 All Rights Reserved 49 Apple Investment Strategy Guide by Micah Lamar Iron Condor Iron Condor: An option spread with four legs. Direction: This is a neutral strategy. Details: use same expiration month for all four legs. See Example Graph Above. Sell one out-the-money put (610) Buy one further out-the-money put (605) Sell one out-the-money call (680) Buy one further out-the-money call (685) Break-Even Points: The break-even point at expiration is at the strike price you sold plus or minus the combined credits. (i.e. 680 + 2.80 = $682.80 and 610 - 2.80 = $607.20) Copyright AAPLTrader 2013 All Rights Reserved 50 Apple Investment Strategy Guide by Micah Lamar Max Profit: The max profit is when the stock expires in between the two strike prices you sold. Positive theta makes you money every day you have the trade open as long as the stock is in-between the breakeven points. Risk: If the stock price moves to quickly in one direction and/or the implied volatility rises. Tip: You can change the iron condor into a slightly directional trade by adjusting the strike prices you choose up and down. The Iron Condor is one of the most famous option spreads. With this powerful strategy you can make money even while a stock goes completely sideways. We give you the blueprint to make it easier for you to make consistent money trading the iron condor. Get the video training free with Pro Access. Copyright AAPLTrader 2013 All Rights Reserved 51 Apple Investment Strategy Guide by Micah Lamar Butterfly Spread Butterfly: An option spread with three legs Description: This is a neutral strategy. Butterfly Call Spread: use same expiration month for all three legs Buy one In-the-money call Sell two at-the-money calls Buy one out-of-money call Butterfly Put Spread: use same expiration month for all three legs Buy one In-the-money put Sell two at-the-money puts Buy one out-of-money put Copyright AAPLTrader 2013 All Rights Reserved 52 Apple Investment Strategy Guide by Micah Lamar Break even Points: The break even points at expiration is at/ around the strike price of the legs purchased. In this example, the break even points are $415 and $435. Max Profit: The max profit is when a stock expires right at the strike price of the short option. In this example, max profit is at $425. Tip: You can change the butterfly into a slightly directional trade by adjusting the strike prices you choose up and down. The butterfly has positive theta when the stock is inside the legs you bought. Positive theta makes you money every day you have the trade open as long as the stock is in-between the break-even points. The Butterfly Spread is the single best way to make money on neutral stocks. This strategy is popular because of its low cost and HUGE potential returns. This Butterfly Spread video training shows you how to maximize profits and take this traditionally neutral strategy and make it bullish or bearish. Copyright AAPLTrader 2013 All Rights Reserved 53 Apple Investment Strategy Guide by Micah Lamar Horizontal Calendar Spread Calendar: An option spread with two legs. Description: This is a neutral strategy. Details: use a different expiration month for each leg but the same strike price. Buy one at-the-money call expiring further out (645 for Dec) Sell one at-the-money call expiring closer (645 for Nov) (See Example Graph Above: Buy Dec 645 and sell Nov 645) Risk: The risk in this trade is if the stock price moves too far in either direction. Max Profit: The max profit at expiration is when the stock expires at the strike price you have chosen. Copyright AAPLTrader 2013 All Rights Reserved 54 Apple Investment Strategy Guide by Micah Lamar Tip: You can change the directional bias of this trade by changing the strike price. It’s best to enter during periods of low volatility. For more information, please watch the Calendar Spread video training inside the Option Certificate Program – receive this program for FREE with Pro Access! What's included in this Calendar Spread training: The #1 best time to use this trade. 3 powerful ways to make money from time. A blueprint for trading calendar spreads. The 3 Keys to trading high and low volatility. How this trade makes money when stocks do nothing. Most important time not to use this trade. The Calendar Spread allows traders to profit from the passage of time by selling near term options against long term options. We give you the blueprint to make this trade bullish, bearish or neutral so you can make money in any market. Copyright AAPLTrader 2013 All Rights Reserved 55 Apple Investment Strategy Guide by Micah Lamar Complete Strategy Matrix Use this matrix as a quick resource to identify the impact direction, time and volatility have on each strategy. Please reference The Stock Certificate Program for more information on how to rate a stocks trend: Copyright AAPLTrader 2013 All Rights Reserved 56 Apple Investment Strategy Guide by Micah Lamar Bonus #1 Advanced Option Spreads Broken Wing Fly: An option spread with three legs. Direction: This can be a bullish or bearish strategy. The example above is using Out-Of-The-Money puts to form a bullish strategy. Out-Of-The-Money calls can be used to form a bearish strategy. Details: use same expiration month for all three legs. Buy one out-of-money put Sell two out-the-money puts, but a little further out-the-money Buy one out-the-money put even further out-the-money (See Example Graph Above: Buy 1 Nov 630, sell 2 Nov 625, and buy 1 Nov 615) Copyright AAPLTrader 2013 All Rights Reserved 57 Apple Investment Strategy Guide by Micah Lamar Description: This is a bullish strategy that profits if the stock price moves up; In addition, this trade can make even more money when the stock price moves slowly towards your short options. Max Profit: The max profit at expiration is when the stock expires at the strike price of your short options. Risk: The risk in this trade is when the options you sold go in-themoney too fast. For more information, please watch the Broken Wing Fly video training inside the Option Certificate Program – receive this program for FREE with Pro Access! What's included in this Broken Wing Fly video training: How and when to place this trade. Powerful secrets to getting paid on the buy and the sell. Why the Broken Wing Fly is better than a credit spread. The 4 ways to turn a butterfly into a broken wing fly. How to analyze your trade and make adjustment for maximum profits. The 3 Keys to maximize profits. The Broken Wing Butterfly Spread is unique because you can get paid to place the trade and get paid even more to close it. Often thought of as a better alternative to traditional credit spreads. This training gives you the blueprint to one of the most powerful ways to trade options. Copyright AAPLTrader 2013 All Rights Reserved 58 Apple Investment Strategy Guide by Micah Lamar Double Diagonal Double Diagonal: An option spread with four legs. Direction: This is a neutral strategy. Details: use two different expiration months and four different strike prices for calls and puts. Sell one out-the-money put Buy one out-the-money put, closer strike price and different month Sell one out-the-money call Buy one out-the-money call, further strike price and different month Max Profit: The max profit at expiration is when the stock expires at one of the strike prices you sold. Copyright AAPLTrader 2013 All Rights Reserved 59 Apple Investment Strategy Guide by Micah Lamar Risk: The risk in this trade is when the stock price moves too far in one direction. Tip: You can adjust your Max Profit points by changing the strike prices you choose. It is always best to enter during periods of low volatility. For more information, please watch the Double Diagonal video training inside the Option Certificate Program – receive this program for FREE with Pro Access! What's included in this Double Diagonal video training: How to find the best entry points. 4 ways to increase your probability of success & profit zone. A blueprint for trading combo calendar spreads. The 3 Keys to trading high and low volatility. How this trade makes money when stocks do nothing. The 2 most important times not to use this trade. The Double Diagonal Option Spread combines two calendar spreads providing you with more room to make more money. This training will get your creative juices flowing and have you think about options in a whole new light. Copyright AAPLTrader 2013 All Rights Reserved 60 Apple Investment Strategy Guide by Micah Lamar Bonus #2 Delta Hedging Basics Stock: represents ownership of a company. Other terms for Stock: shares, securities. Owning Stock also gives you delta. Delta: a measurement of risk that tells you how much money you will make or lose dependent upon a one-dollar movement in the stock. Delta is one of the five Greeks that help you manage your portfolio. Every share of stock you own, gives you one delta. For example, if you buy 100 shares of stock, you have 100 delta, the ratio is One to One. Delta helps you compare the price of an underlying asset to the derivative. Copyright AAPLTrader 2013 All Rights Reserved 61 Apple Investment Strategy Guide by Micah Lamar Description: Buying shares of stock will give you a positive delta, which is a bullish strategy. Selling shares of stock will give you a negative delta, which is a bearish strategy. Example: if you buy 100 shares of stock, for every $1 the underlying asset moves up in price, you receive $1. Buying 100 shares of stock will give +100 delta. Selling 100 shares of stock will give -100 delta. Covered Call: When you buy or already own stock (100 shares minimum) and you sell a call against your shares. The call you sell is “covered”. Details: When you sell a call, you get negative delta (this makes you money as the stock goes down). By combining the ownership and Copyright AAPLTrader 2013 All Rights Reserved 62 Apple Investment Strategy Guide by Micah Lamar stock with the selling of a call you get a “hedged” position. Selling a call with negative delta counters the positive delta in your stock. Delta Hedging: when you place an additional trade that counters the delta of your current position(s). Benefit: The benefit of hedging your delta is that it protects your portfolio during uncertain times in the market. Having a 50 delta instead of 100 delta gives you less risk. For more information, please watch the Delta Hedging video training inside the Option Certificate Program – receive this program for FREE with Pro Access! What's included in this Delta Hedging training: 3 secrets to lock in profits on winning trades. How to easily manage your trades by the numbers. The 2 keys to making delta adjustment to maximize profits. A blueprint for trading as a business.. 4 ways to turn a losing trade into a winner. This powerful training makes option trading easier for you to trade by giving you incredible insight into how a market maker (professional option trader) uses delta hedging to manage risk, make more money and reduce potential risk. Copyright AAPLTrader 2013 All Rights Reserved 63 Apple Investment Strategy Guide by Micah Lamar Congratulations You’ve completed 30% of the AAPLTrader Curriculum for Trading Success The Apple Investment Strategy Guide AAPLTrader members receive a unique opportunity to get advanced training beyond the scope of this guide through our flagship certificate programs. Advanced Certificate Programs Stock Certificate Program: Technical analysis video training showing you how to fine-tune your trading accuracy by creating specific if / then rules, using pay day cycles and probability stacking. (Regularly $397 or Free with Pro Access) Option Certificate Program: AAPLTrader’s flagship options course. Responsible for helping thousands of traders become better, more profitable option traders. This power packed video training gives you everything you need to know about trading options in 21 easy to follow video modules. (Regularly $597 or Free with Pro Access) ThinkOrSwim Training: 12 power packed videos showing you how to use TDAmeritrade’s ThinkDesk trading platform. This is the same platform we will be using to analyze stocks in this guide. (Regularly $297 or Free with Pro Access) Copyright AAPLTrader 2013 All Rights Reserved 64