The StockTwits® Edge: 40 Actionable Trade Set-Ups from Real Market Pros

CHAPTER 28

Put Ratio Spread

Jared Woodard, @condoroptions

Trading options demands a deep understanding of markets and a mastery of the subtleties of the relationship between price and time. The incredible thing about Jared is that he is able to clearly communicate such complexities with every nuance still intact. Not surprisingly, he expresses trades with similar elegant precision. Jared, an early StockTwits adopter, has modeled the highest standard. The lessons in this chapter are some of the most challenging to grasp but they are rewarding as well.

IMPORTANCE OF A NONFINANCIAL BACKGROUND

One of my schoolteachers introduced me to finance and investing, and it was a kind of hobby for some time before I started taking it seriously in college and thereafter. In 2007, I started the Condor Options newsletter, because I was really dissatisfied with the level of education about complex option spreads that was available online at the time. We have since expanded to offer custom historical research, a newsletter teaching time spreads, and mentoring and individual education. In 2009, I registered as a licensed commodity trading advisor (CTA) to manage client accounts.

Any financial expertise I have was gained through experience and private study; my academic training is in logic and philosophy, not finance. I've noticed that some of the most creative and effective market participants have backgrounds or interests in other fields—not that there's anything wrong with studying finance in ...