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

CHAPTER 29

Know What You Don't Know

Adam Warner, @agwarner

Adam is one of the most experienced options guys on StockTwits. He has seen it all and knows the nuts and the bolts of countless options strategies, the names of which I can't even remember. Adam's generosity with students and good causes has earned our deep respect.

OPTIONS TRADING WAS A BIT OF A FAMILY BUSINESS

I have traded options for almost half my life now. (Wow, scary thought.) I started as a market maker on the American Stock Exchange (AMEX) in February 1988. We stood in trading crowds with only our buy and sell pads to protect us. We got a roughly 300-pound package of position and valuation sheets each day that we got from our clearing firm. And unless you could commit it all to memory, you carried them with you all day.

Trading was not the career I had planned. My dad had traded options on the AMEX in the 1970 s and early 1980 s, and one of my brothers-in-law soon followed, so it was a bit of a family business. After a couple of summer jobs on the floor, I took the GMAT and applied for all sorts of Wall Street jobs, and ended up working for a firm called the Options Group. They provided a (then) state-of-the-art online options pricing system for predominantly nonequity options. The firm was terrific, but my job (tech support) was not. My dad suggested I trade on the AMEX. It was 1988, and while I had intended to take my career in another direction.

I didn't take to the trading life at first, but grew to love ...