Advanced Options Trading Course

Lesson 1 • Options Market Participants and Roles

Identifies buyers, sellers, market makers, and clearinghouses. Explains how each participant's behaviour shapes liquidity and pricing.

Lesson 2 • Anatomy of an Options Contract

Defines calls, puts, strike price, expiration, and premium components. Establishes the vocabulary used throughout all subsequent chapters.

Lesson 3 • Regulatory Framework for Options Trading

Outlines account approval tiers, margin requirements, and disclosure obligations. Ensures compliance awareness before live trading begins.

Lesson 4 • Contract Specifications and Order Types

Covers multipliers, tick sizes, settlement methods, and order entry types. Prepares traders to execute accurately in live markets.

Lesson 1 • Binomial Pricing Trees

Builds multi-step binomial trees for American-style options. Demonstrates early exercise valuation unavailable in closed-form models.

Lesson 2 • Dividend and Interest Rate Effects

Quantifies how dividends and risk-free rates shift option fair value. Critical for pricing equity options around corporate events.

Lesson 3 • Put-Call Parity and Arbitrage Bounds

Establishes no-arbitrage relationships between puts, calls, and underlying. Enables detection of mispriced contracts and synthetic construction.

Lesson 4 • Volatility in Pricing Models

Distinguishes historical, implied, and realised volatility roles in pricing. Shows how volatility forecasting directly affects edge identification.

Lesson 1 • Gamma: Rate of Delta Change

Quantifies how delta shifts as the underlying moves. Reveals acceleration risk in short options and opportunity in long gamma positions.

Lesson 2 • Delta: Directional Exposure

Measures rate of premium change per unit move in the underlying. Forms the basis for hedging and position sizing decisions.

Lesson 3 • Theta: Time Decay Mechanics

Measures daily premium erosion from time passage. Connects theta to strategy selection based on holding period and market outlook.

Lesson 4 • Vega: Volatility Sensitivity

Quantifies premium change per one-point implied volatility move. Drives strategy selection based on volatility regime and forecast.

Lesson 1 • Realised Volatility Measurement

Calculates close-to-close, Parkinson, and Garman-Klass estimators. Provides benchmarks for comparing against implied volatility to find edge.

Lesson 2 • Volatility Forecasting Models

Applies GARCH, EWMA, and regime-switching models to forecast future volatility. Directly informs whether to buy or sell volatility.

Lesson 3 • Implied Volatility Surface Analysis

Maps implied volatility across strikes and expirations to identify skew and term structure. Reveals market consensus and mispricing opportunities.

Lesson 4 • Volatility Skew and Its Drivers

Explains why out-of-the-money puts carry higher implied volatility than calls. Connects skew to supply-demand, tail risk, and hedging flows.

Lesson 1 • Calendar and Diagonal Spreads

Exploits term structure differences by selling near-term and buying longer-dated options. Introduces time-spread Greeks and volatility dependencies.

Lesson 2 • Long Calls and Puts

Establishes risk-reward profiles for directional long options. Covers entry timing, strike selection, and exit discipline for buyers.

Lesson 3 • Vertical Spreads: Debit and Credit

Builds bull call, bear put, bull put, and bear call spreads. Defines max profit, max loss, and breakeven for each configuration.

Lesson 4 • Covered Calls and Cash-Secured Puts

Structures income-generating strategies on owned or targeted stock. Connects premium collection to cost basis reduction and acquisition goals.

Lesson 1 • Synthetic Positions and Conversions

Replicates stock and futures exposure using options combinations. Enables capital-efficient positioning and arbitrage execution.

Lesson 2 • Straddles and Strangles

Positions for large moves without directional bias using long or short volatility structures. Connects to earnings and event-driven trading.

Lesson 3 • Iron Condors and Iron Butterflies

Combines credit spreads on both sides to profit from range-bound markets. Covers wing width, probability of profit, and adjustment triggers.

Lesson 4 • Ratio Spreads and Back Spreads

Builds asymmetric structures with unequal leg quantities for volatility and directional edge. Manages undefined risk in ratio writes.

Lesson 1 • Position Sizing Methodologies

Applies fixed fractional, Kelly criterion, and volatility-adjusted sizing to options. Prevents overconcentration and account blowup risk.

Lesson 2 • Portfolio-Level Greeks Management

Aggregates Greeks across all open positions to manage net exposure. Enables dynamic hedging and risk balancing at the book level.

Lesson 3 • Adjustment Strategies and Triggers

Defines rule-based triggers for rolling, hedging, or closing losing positions. Prevents emotional decision-making during adverse moves.

Lesson 4 • Entry Timing and Execution

Identifies optimal entry conditions using technical, volatility, and flow signals. Reduces slippage through disciplined order execution.

Lesson 1 • Building a Complete Trading System

Integrates strategy selection, volatility analysis, sizing, and risk management into a repeatable process. Defines performance metrics and review cadence.

Lesson 2 • Dispersion and Correlation Trading

Sells index volatility against long single-stock volatility to capture correlation premium. Requires understanding of index vs. component vol dynamics.

Lesson 3 • Volatility Arbitrage Strategies

Exploits divergence between implied and realised volatility through delta-hedged positions. Requires continuous rehedging and P&L attribution skills.

Lesson 4 • Tail Risk Hedging Programmes

Designs systematic programmes to protect portfolios against extreme drawdowns. Balances hedge cost against protection effectiveness over time.