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 Dan Keegan, Head Options Mentor
  Dan started out in the options business in 1978 and worked his way up in the  Chicago tradition. Dan spent five years as a runner, phone clerk, and floor broker for A.G. Becker on the floor of the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE). In 1984   Dan, with backing from legendary trader and adventurer Steve Fossett, ........more

 Bill Gruzynski, Head Futures Mentor
Bill began his futures industry career at the Chicago Board of Trade as a runner and then a grain analyst. He later moved to Rosenthal Collins LLC and ran the firm's Chicago Mercantile Exchange operation until 1980, when he became an independent trader and broker....more
P.J. McCarthy, Managing Partner
 In 1982 P.J. became one of the original members of the Index and Options Market of the CME. He was in the pit on the first day of trading of the Standard and Poor’s 500 Contract, one of the most successful future contracts ever introduced.....more

 Tony House, Options Mentor
  In 1981, Tony joined C.L. Glazer and Co., where he spent six years as general partner and head trader on the CBOE. In 1987, Tony embarked on a nearly 20 year career as an independent floor trader, making markets in both index (OEX) and equity (IBM, MRK and others) options pits.....more

Frank Tabor, Options Mentor
Frank Tabor has over 20 years trading experience in stocks, options and futures as a member of The Pacific Stock Exchange, The Chicago Board Options Exchange, and The Chicago Board of Trade. He has also traded internationally on the Deutsche Boerse in Frankfurt where he acted as the European manager of a large world-wide trading company....more
Judith Joyce Shanahan, Consultant
For five years Judith was a trial attorney with the Securities and Exchange Commission, assigned to the Broker Dealer Regulation Branch. For six years Judith was District Counsel for District No. 8 of the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), the self-regulatory body for the securities industry created under the federal securities laws.....more

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Week of March 8th, 2010

BIDU and MDVN

Last week, our chief options mentor, Dan Keegan talked about straddle opportunities in BIDU, the so-called "Chinese Google". On Tuesday March 9, Dan will explain that strategy further in a free webinar we are hosting, "Trading Straddles in a Volatile Market". Just click HERE to register. This week Dan looks at another stock that has been on the move, but in the other direction. 
On Wednesday, March 3rd some bad news came out for all of those families who have a member suffering from Alzheimer's disease. Medivation's (MDVN-Nasdaq) drug dimebon fared slightly worse than a placebo in testing. This was also terrible news for anybody who was long MDVN. Its price dropped from its closing price of 40.25 on March 2nd to an opening price of 12.88 the next morning. The current at-the-money impled volatility for April calls is 66.3 which is not a big change, while March volatility is trading around 70.00 - less than half its previous level. This anomoly occurs when there is crop report, earnings report, or as in this case, a drug-effectiveness study. These can be a great opportunities to buy time spreads, but in this case the seller of time spreads would be the winner.
    Meanwhile the VIX closed at the bottom feeding region of 17.42. Where will it close this Friday? 
If you sense that there is opportunity in what Dan says, but you don't understand the terminology or the concepts, just take our course and let Dan or one of our other mentors make it all crystal clear.

 

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Futures, options, forex, and securities trading are speculative, involve a substantial risk of loss and are not suitable for everyone.
Past performance is not indicative of future results.