Where Can I Find Stock Option Charts For Technical Analysis?

Posted by Pete Stolcers on March 9

Option Trading Question

I am relatively new to options and have been searching all over the web for resources to help me learn as much as I can. One of the things I cannot seem to find has been charts of option prices. Is there a site you can direct me to that provides option price charts?

Option Trading Answer

Most charting software will show option prices. You just have to know the required format. Some quote vendors put a “.” or a “+” before the 5 letter acromym. The bigger issue is the nature of your question. There is not much useful information in an option chart. Follow the stock, not the option. The stock price movement is rich with liquidity and information. The technical indicators and and technical analysis studies are valid.

The options are very ill-liquid and the charts have big gaps. The only option charts I look at graph the implied volatility. They allow me to gauge the relative price of the options. I know optionsXpress offers this in their paltform. If you know of a free resource for charting option implied volatility, please share.

Option Trading Comments

On 07/20, Hartwin Rill said:
"There is not much useful information in an option chart”.

I disagree. To gauge or estimate the possible movement of an option I need to know the previous day´s or month´s option movements in regard of the underlying stock.
So I can better calculate the entrance or exit point of my option to generate a satisfying return.

Best
Hartwin
On 07/20, Pete Stolcers said:
Thanks for the comment. I’m not sure how you can find value in a chart full of holes. Many options don’t trade for hours or in some cases days. If you are trying to gauge future price movement, you should use the “greeks” to guide you. Are you familiar with delta and gamma? There are many software programs that will allow you to perform scenario analysis.
On 07/22, Jeff Brook said:
Always check IV charts before buying any option IMO

http://www.ivolatility.com/options.j?ticker=grmn:NASDAQ&R;=0&x;=18&y;=8
On 07/22, Pete Stolcers said:
I agree. You don’t need all of the sophisticated pricing models. All you need is a relative comparison.
On 11/11, Ruffcut said:
I use bigcharts. com and use an = sign in the middle of the chain symbol, like cat=mz.
If the option is liquid enuff like aapl etc, then you may see some trending. BUt, it sometimes is just a quick look at the effects of the IV and the underlying together. A chain could trade for weeks at 25 bucks and then go crazy, up and down between 100 and 300 bucks. It can give a little background into what you might be buying?
On 03/26, Karma said:
Wondering if any option experts can answer my question.

I’m playing a stock that I believe will increase quickly so I bought simple calls on it. The problem is that I want to protect my profits without being whipsawed when I’m ahead.

Should I use a trailing stop, or a contingent order (based on the target price of my stock) to sell my options.

I know that with trailing stops, it is difficult to determine the bailout percentage since their are many variables involved and the chance of being whipsawed is high.

It is appreciated if anyone has some thoughts on this.
TY!
On 03/27, Pete Stolcers said:
I will post a reply in the Q&A;section tonight. It will be entitled, “Option Trading Whipsaw - How Can I Exit and Avoid It?”

Thanks for the great question.
On 07/31, Stock Forum said:
More important than a chart of option prices is a chart of option volatility. Ivolatility.com can provide this.

On 08/01, Pete Stolcers said:
I completely agree. Thanks for the post.
On 09/03, Joan said:
Is it Fine written. Positive certainly comes short, but read on one breathing. Tnx
On 02/26, Mike J. said:
I believe Yahoo finance has stock charts of options. Otherwise, all the pay packages like esignal have option charts. The problem with options is that many aren’t liquid, so there isn’t much to see on the chart.
---
Mike J.
On 10/23, Lewis said:
TOS has IV and HV charts that could be superimpose for comparison but they looked quite different from those found at iVolatility. Does anyone knows if there is any settings that can be set on TOS to reflect exactly the same as those in iVolatility? If it can be done, the time taken to check IV on every possible candidate can be reduced significantly.
On 06/19, fashion jewel said:
I found out after 15 years of option trading, that the more bells and whislels you use, the more you lose you focus.

On 01/01, David said:

Although it is true that charting any option can leave great gaps, it is the history of the options particular trading that is important… which is what I believe was the real reason why Pete wanted option charts. Although looking at the Delta does give a reference for performance in comparison to the underlying stock, it does not tell us what the historical performance. In reality the Delta does not need to be considered to much being that the further in the money you go the closer to 1.00 (or -1.00 for Puts) you get (meaning that the closer to the stock price the option will perform). However, this tells me nothing about the historical value which is important in projecting future value.

I made a dreadful mistake once in buying an put whose stock would constantly drop right on it’s ex-dividend date. Sure enough, the stock did drop by 3% right at the time predicted. But lo and behold, my puts, instead of increasing in value, got cut in half. Later I saw that the Delta was at 0.5+, way to low for stability. Nevertheless, had I had access to the historical information of the Puts performance (relative to the stock price) I would never had bought the Puts.

Thus, any info on how we could get a hold of such data would be greatly appreciated.

On 04/11, Brad said:

I have an April vertical call spread on GOOG that is structured like this:
Bought 610 April Call at $23.47
Sold 615 April Call at $20.87

If I sell the 610 April Call that I bought, assuming anyone would buy it at the $3.40 quote price today, is my exposure limited to filling the 615 April Call I sold if and only if GOOG closes above the Call price of $615 plus the cost of the options trade?

I would like to recover some of my loss but do not want to expose myself to huge risks on the leg I sold?

thanks

On 04/12, Pete Stolcers said:
If you sell your long call, you will be naked short the GOOG $615 calls - the riskiest option position under the sun. Unless you are a qualified investor ($1 million+ liquid net worth) and have extensive option experience, your brokerage firm will not even let you leg out.

The margin requirement alone would be over $100k on the short call position.

if the stock rallies to $700 after earnings in 2 days, you will lose $85,000 on this naked call! It does not get any riskier.

You need to shut down the position and take your lumps if you want to salvage something or roll the dice and hope for a great number. In the second scenario, the options will go to $0 overnight if the stock drops and you will lose the entire $2.60 debit you paid for the spread.
On 04/12, Brad said:
Thanks Pete, that is what I thought, but wanted to be sure.

I will let it ride, risking just the original $2.60.

Brad

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