At MarketClub our mission is to help you become a better trader. Our passion is creating superior trading tools to help you achieve your goals -- no matter which way the markets move -- with objective and unbiased recommendations not available from brokers.
The Trader's Toolbox posts are just another free resource from MarketClub.
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"In real estate, they say that the three most important things are location, location, and location. In options, the three most important things are volatility, volatility, and volatility. Often neglected by option rookies, volatility is the cornerstone of an option professional’s trading strategy.In its simplest form, expressed as the annualized percentage of the standard deviation, volatility measures how far a contract can be expected to swing from a mean price. A contract trading at 50 would have a volatility of 10% if it traded between 45 and 55 over a given period of time.
Historical volatility is just that: the volatility calculated (using closing prices) over a given period – 20 days, 20 weeks, one year, etc. Implied volatility is the volatility using current market prices. For example, using four primary option pricing inputs – futures price, settlement price, time until expiration and volatility – would result in a theoretical price.
By plugging in the current option price in place of the theoretical price and working backward, it would be possible to determine the volatility the current market is implying. (It is not mathematically possible to work backward and solve for implied volatility using an equation like the Black-Scholes model, but an approximation can be derived.)..."
Revisit the Trader's Toolbox Post: "Learning Options Part 4 of 4 " here.
Trader's Blog would like to welcome back Bill Poulos from 
"I didn’t join MarketClub right away. I watched for almost a year before deciding to invest in a membership. I watched what the Trade Triangles did during that time with my own securities. They were 100% accurate in predicting market movement. So I joined and now use the Trade Triangles and the other tools that MarketClub provides to help me decide whether to buy or sell. I’m new to trading and investing, but having MarketClub on my side gives me the confidence I need to be successful. The main reason I came to MarketClub was to help me trade in forex. I quickly found out that forex is a very volatile market. I refused to do any trading what so ever in forex until I felt confident in my skills as a trader. MarketClub is the main force behind that confidence. I invested in a forex course that teaches a specific way to trade and that only requires 20 minutes a day. The only problem is… I have difficulty choosing the right time to enter the trade or when to leave the trade. I went back to the instructor with the problem, and he said to practice. Practice is all well and good, but if you’re doing it the wrong way, it’s counter productive. MarketClub makes the decision process easier. I value the membership so much that I will not trade without it." ~ Kathy P., Minnesota