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Saturdays with McMillan: 14 Seminar Home Study Course

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Saturdays with McMillan: 14 Seminar Home Study Course

Saturdays with McMillan: 14 Seminar Home Study Course

Saturdays with McMillan: 14 Seminar Home Study Course

List price: $826.00

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Price: $499.00

A Comprehensive Option Education in Streamable and Downloadable Video Format. 

Containing over 20 hours of educational material spanning 14 topics, this video bundle is the perfect learning tool for traders at any level. Divided into novice, intermediate, and advanced volumes, the 14 Seminar Home Study Course promotes a comprehensive option learning experience in a slide-show seminar format. Instructed by Lawrence G. McMillan, himself, each educational video is more than an hour-long and includes guided audio and visual instruction from Mr. McMillan. Available for streaming or download, purchase the entire 14 seminar set or just the novice, intermediate, or advanced volumes.

  • 14 different topics in separate streamable video files (1-hour plus running time each).
  • PC or MAC compatible.
  • Unlimited streaming from your computer, tablet, or smartphone (with internet connection) for three years after purchase date - no download needed.
  • File downloads available for additional cost. File downloads do not expire.

Click on each seminar Topic below to view the seminar outline

Novice Seminar Set (4 seminars)

Option Basics
  • Definitions: Describing options
  • Option markets
  • Intrinsic value; examples
  • Relationships; examples
  • Factors influencing the price of an option
  • Pricing curves
  • Basic terms: call options
  • Basic terms: put options
  • Time value premium decay
  • Option trading details
  • Mechanics of exercise & assignment
  • Assignment on expiration day
  • Anticipating early assignment
  • Dividends and assignment
  • Symbols, definitions and examples
  • Wraps symbols
  • LEAPS option symbols
  • Stock splits and spinoffs
  • Caution regarding adjustments
  • Position and exercise limits
  • Order entry
  • Considerations for index options
  • Index settlement price
  • Considerations for futures options
Covered Call Writing
  • Positives and negatives
  • Covered writing terms
  • Comparison to owning stock
  • Total return concept
  • Returns in cash accounts
  • Downside protection
  • Returns in margin accounts
  • Covered write calculator
  • Probability of making money
  • Probability calculator
  • Differing philosophies
  • Importance of diversification
  • Follow-up strategies
  • Avoiding a locked-in loss
  • Equivalence to naked puts
  • Writing against stock already owned
  • Rolling for credits
  • A "new" spread strategy
Naked Option Writing
  • Benefits of naked option writing
  • Risks of naked writing
  • Expiring Option Statistics
  • Profit graphs
    Brokerage Firm Requirements
  • Investment Required
  • Equity Option Margin examples
    • In-money vs. Out-of-money
  • Marked to market daily
  • Naked Index Option Margin
  • Naked Futures Option Margin
  • Margin Comparison
  • The Philosophy of Naked Writing
  • Naked Writing Concepts
  • The Strategy of Naked Writing
  • Use Index or Futures Options
  • Sell Expensive Options
  • Use A Probability Calculator
  • The Option Strategist Analysis Tools
  • The Monte Carlo Simulation
  • Allow Enough Margin
  • Have Somewhere To Roll To
  • Strategy Summary
  • Alternative Ratio Strategies
  • Credit Spreads
Speculative Option Buying
  • Important basics of option buying
  • The delta of an option
  • What are realized and implied volatility?
  • Using the Black-Scholes model as an option buyer
  • Which option to buy?
  • Risk Management – how many to buy?

 

Intermediate Seminar Set (5 seminars)

Advanced Spreading Techniques
  • Advanced spread types
  • Butterfly spreads
  • Butterfly strategy
  • Alternative butterflies
  • Selling the butterfly
  • Unbalanced butterfly
  • Box spread
  • Buying the box
  • Selling the box
  • Ratio write
  • Ratio call spread
  • Call ratio follow-up
  • Put ratio spread
  • Delta neutral ratio spreads
  • Backspreads
  • Put backspread
  • Diagonal spreads
  • Diagonal bull spread
  • Writing against LEAPS
  • Reverse calendar spread
  • Reverse diagonal backspread
LEAPS Strategies
  • Basic Properties
  • LEAPS Option Symbols
  • Listing a New LEAPS
  • Pricing LEAPS options
  • Other Important Factors
  • LEAPS Call Pricing vs. Rates
  • LEAPS Call Pricing vs. Dividend
  • LEAPS Call Pricing vs. Volatility
  • LEAPS As Stock Substitute
  • Protecting Stock With LEAPS
  • Speculative Option Buying With LEAPS
  • Buying LEAPS On Margin
  • Selling Covered LEAPS Calls
  • "Free" Covered Call Writes
  • Uncovered LEAPS Selling
  • Writing Short-Term Calls Against LEAPS
  • Other Strategies Using LEAPS
Event-Driven Strategies
  • Direct indicators definition
  • Options as a direct indicator
  • Volume alerts
  • Important patterns to look for
  • Filtering out "noise"
  • The "ideal" pattern
  • Examples of volume predicting takeovers
  • Trading the position
  • Not all news is good
  • Predicting earnings surprises
  • Implied volatility as a predictor
  • Examples of volatility and volume together
  • Up-Down Volume: momentum indicator
  • Examples of momentum breakouts
  • Dangers of expensive options
  • The event-driven straddle buy
  • Playing earnings announcements
Using the Put-Call Ratio
  • Calculating the ratio
  • Overview of put-call ratios
  • Contrarian trading
  • The Equity-only put-call ratios; NYSE and NASDAQ indicators
  • Dollar-weighted put-call ratios
  • $OEX put-call ratio
  • Which option to buy?
  • Considerations for broad market signals
  • Stocks with a good track record of put-call signals
  • Considerations for stock option signals
  • Considerations for sector put-call ratios
  • The best sectors to trade with put-call ratio signals
  • Continuous futures contracts
  • Considerations for futures options
  • Futures with a good history of put-call signals
  • How to identify the signals as they are occurring
  • Trading summary
  • Put-call Ratio chart service
Useful Applications
  • Trading Systems
    • McMillan Volatility Bands
    • $VIX Crossover Systems
    • Realized Vol Sell Signal
    • New Highs vs. New Lows
    • Put-call ratio extremes
  • Seasonal Trades
    • January Seasonal
    • October Seasonal
    • June and Sept expiration trades
    • Post-Thanksgiving Seasonal
  • Review of Systems Previously Covered
    • VIX Spike Peak
    • The Big Short
    • Event-Driven Straddle Buys
  • Comments on Vertical Spreading
  • OOM Backspreads - low cost, large potential

 

Advanced Seminar Set (5 seminars)

Intermarket Spreads
  • Definitions
  • Intermarket examples: futures, stocks, indices
  • Oil & gas index ($XOI) vs. crude oil futures
  • The Option Strategy for intermarket spreading
  • Option strategy profits
  • Determining the proper ratio to use
  • Two ways to make money
  • Gold & silver index ($XAU) vs. gold futures
  • Futures spreads: inter- and intra-commodity
  • Unleaded gas vs. heating oil
  • Eurodollar spread
  • Intermarket spreads involving stocks
  • Cross-ownership of stock
  • Examples of cross-ownership
  • Strategies for cross-ownership trades
  • Pairs trading in stocks
  • Pairs trading strategy
  • Risk arbitrage
  • Risk arb no collar
  • Risk arb with collar
  • Intermarket strategy summary
Insurance Using Derivatives
  • Types of Derivative Insurance
  • Swaps
  • Hedging With Futures
  • Portfolio Insurance With Futures
  • Portfolio Insurance Problems
  • Index Put Options As Insurance
  • Adjusted Volatility (Beta)
  • Cost Of Insurance
  • Summary of Index Put Insurance
  • Problems With Put Insurance
  • Using A Sector Index
  • Using Stock Options As Insurance
  • The "Collar"
  • Collar CAUTION!!
  • An Interesting Trait of LEAPS
  • Generalized "no-cost" collar Table
  • Insuring with Volatility Derivatives
  • VIX futures vs. VIX options
  • How many options VIX options to buy?
  • Insurance Summary
Option Models and “The Greeks”
  • What are "the Greeks?"
  • "Greeks" as risk measures
  • The Black-Scholes Model
  • Other Formulae
  • Other Models
  • Computing Implied Volatility
  • Theta
  • Call Pricing vs. Time
  • Call Pricing vs. Volatility
  • Call Pricing vs. Interest Rates
  • LEAPS Call Pricing vs. Rates
  • Computing the other "Greeks"
  • Gamma
  • Comparing Delta and Gamma
  • Relationships Between "Greeks"
  • Delta As A Function of Volatility
  • Delta As A Function of Time
  • Gamma As A Function of Time
  • Gamma As A Function of Volatility
  • Theta As A Function of Volatility
  • Measuring Portfolio Risk
  • Delta Neutral
  • Problems with Delta Neutral
  • Why Gamma Helps
    Delta & Gamma Neutral
  • More Complex Neutrality
  • Projecting Risk Into The Future
Volatility Derivatives
  • Volatility Indices: $VIX et al
  • Volatility Products:
    • $VIX futures
    • $VIX options
    • Volatility ETFs and ETNs
  • The $VIX calculation
  • The History of $VIX
  • Market signals using $VIX data
  • $VIX spike peak
  • Long-term trend
    • $VIX Futures Details
    • The Term Structure of $VIX futures
  • Why Does Term Structure slope upwards in bull markets?
  • Why do $VIX futures trade at discounts in bear markets?
  • $VIX Term Structure Crossover signals
  • $VIX weekly futures
  • The Construct of volatility derivatives
  • Trading the term structure
  • $VIX options
  • The underlying is not $VIX
  • Weeklys are the best hedge
  • The composition of VXX and other volatility ETFs
  • $VIX/SPY hedged strategy
  • with futures, options, or ETN
  • Calculating the proper ratio
  • Adjusting/Exiting the $VIX/SPY hedge
Trading Volatility
  • Volatility is easier to predict than stock prices
  • Two types of volatility -- historical and implied
  • Calculating implied volatility
  • Refresher on Vega
  • 1st way to trade volatility: trade the skew
  • Volatility Skew -- definition
  • Price Distributions: normal, fat tails, lognormal, 2 skewed vs. normal
  • Markets which often display a skew
  • Trading the Forward Skew
  • Bull Spreads
  • Call Ratio Spreads
  • Put Backspreads
  • Ratio spreads: caution
  • Trading the Reverse Skew
  • Bear Spreads
  • Put Ratio Spreads
  • Using 3 strikes in the ratio spread
  • Call Backspreads
  • A Skewed Position is biased
  • Bullish/Bearish Directional Bias
  • What does the bias mean?
  • Follow-up action
  • Strategy Summary
  • 2nd way to trade volatility – volatility estimate is wrong (statistically)
  • Owning volatility benefits from chaotic market movements
  • Determining if volatility is cheap or expensive
  • Composite implied volatility
  • Strategies to use when volatility is cheap; Examples: general and specific
  • Straddle buying procedures; Detailed example
  • Probability estimates; the Monte Carlo distribution
  • Calendar spreads are a low-vol strategy too
  • Bull/bear Spreads on the other hand are best when vol high
  • Strategies to use when volatility is expensive
  • Volatility Backspreads

Click on each seminar Topic above to view the seminar outline

Viewing Instructions

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Download Instructions

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  1. locate the file and do one of the following:
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  2. Double click the .wmv file (i.e. option-basics.mov) to play the seminar

McMillan Options Mentoring

Performance Results: Past performance results for advisory services and educational products are shown for illustration and example only, and are hypothetical.

HYPOTHETICAL PERFORMANCE RESULTS HAVE MANY INHERENT LIMITATIONS, SOME OF WHICH ARE DESCRIBED BELOW. NO REPRESENTATION IS BEING MADE THAT ANY ACCOUNT WILL OR IS LIKELY TO ACHIEVE PROFITS OR LOSSES SIMILAR TO THOSE SHOWN. IN FACT, THERE ARE FREQUENTLY SHARP DIFFERENCES BETWEEN HYPOTHETICAL PERFORMANCE RESULTS AND THE ACTUAL RESULTS SUBSEQUENTLY ACHIEVED BY ANY PARTICULAR TRADING PROGRAM.

ONE OF THE LIMITATIONS OF HYPOTHETICAL PERFORMANCE RESULTS IS THAT THEY ARE GENERALLY PREPARED WITH THE BENEFIT OF HINDSIGHT. IN ADDITION, HYPOTHETICAL TRADING DOES NOT INVOLVE FINANCIAL RISK, AND NO HYPOTHETICAL TRADING RECORD CAN COMPLETELY ACCOUNT FOR THE IMPACT OF FINANCIAL RISK IN ACTUAL TRADING. FOR EXAMPLE, THE ABILITY TO WITHSTAND LOSSES OR TO ADHERE TO A PARTICULAR TRADING PROGRAM IN SPITE OF TRADING LOSSES ARE MATERIAL POINTS WHICH CAN ALSO ADVERSELY AFFECT ACTUAL TRADING RESULTS. THERE ARE NUMEROUS OTHER FACTORS RELATED TO THE MARKETS IN GENERAL OR TO THE IMPLEMENTATION OF ANY SPECIFIC TRADING PROGRAM WHICH CANNOT BE FULLY ACCOUNTED FOR IN THE PREPARATION OF HYPOTHETICAL PERFORMANCE RESULTS AND ALL OF WHICH CAN ADVERSELY AFFECT ACTUAL TRADING RESULTS.

Testimonials*:  Testimonials are believed to be true based on the representations of the persons providing the testimonials, but facts stated in testimonials have not been independently audited or verified. Nor has there been any attempt to determine whether any testimonials are representative of the experiences of all persons using the methods described herein or to compare the experiences of the persons giving the testimonials after the testimonials were given. You should not necessarily expect the same or similar results.