Spread Trading: An Introduction to Trading Options in Nine Simple Steps

CHAPTER 19

Did You Know that There Are a Lot of People Trading Options?

“You guys have done a great job of figuring out how to trade with each other.” The speaker was Nathan (though he usually went by “Nate”), a roommate of Lon’s from college. Lon smiled when he spoke, because his tone said, “I can’t believe my goofy roommate, the one who couldn’t do his trigonometry without asking me for help, has actually managed to figure out the stock market!” Nate was always too polite to say so, but Lon didn’t mind his thinking it. It was true.

Lon had been scouring the Internet for information on investing and had happened across an intriguing site that, to his surprise, had featured his old friend. He knew that Nate had always been sort of an economics whiz, but he had never expected this kind of public profile. Eager to see all that Nate was up to, and to find out what he could learn about investing from him firsthand, Lon had finally made contact. After just a minute of explaining to Nate what he and Shorty were doing, Nate couldn’t help laughing. “You don’t know what you’ve gotten yourselves into,” he had chuckled. “It’s all good, believe me, but you’re stepping into a whole new world. And you’re going to need some help.”

“Oh no, that sounds familiar. Just like when I was taking trig, right?”

“Something like that. Look, Lon, why don’t we get together? I’ll be near Wichita for a conference next month; I can take a couple of extra days and we can catch up. Then I can tell you a lot more ...