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Your Options Trading Coach and Mentor

"Educated options traders become successful options traders."

Life at OTM

Daily routines are check positions and account statements by 7:30 a.m. If there is a news event, have this task completed by 7:00 a.m. The trading platforms are up and running by 7:00 a.m. Look over any breaking news and the trading plan that was written last night.

I generally like to day trade the opening for a few markets. Once the market seems to slow down, my alerts and alarms are set. I generally respond to the markets during their first hour of the day and then only as necessary.

Hopefully, by 10:30 CST our trading strategies are in place and we await any alarms from our computers that require our attention. During this time and until the markets close I hope to talk to mentoring students. I stood in a pit with over 200 people every day. Now I’m staring at a lifeless screen and I’m missing the camaraderie and interaction the pit once provided.

After the market has closed, settle out all positions and prepare daily settlements for tomorrow morning. Finish the day by studying the price charts, volatility charts and set any alarms for overnight markets. I then prepare a trading plan for tomorrow.

Options Mentor Profile

Figy - President

Chris Figy

Founder

With over twelve years of options trading experience I am an established and versatile market maker successful in options and futures trading both in the pit and off floor electronic trading. Throughout my trading years I have held memberships at both Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) and the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT). I have built a trading software application, which I utilized for over 6 years in the SPX pit at the CBOE. I have back tested trading strategies for both commodity and equity markets over decades of data. I have found what strategies work best under certain market conditions and the strategies that with the correct adjustment rules can weather any market condition. With sustainable trading strategies in place, I have enjoyed teaching others these valuable skills.

  • Phone: (312) 772-2344
  • Email: chris@pitsavvy.com

CEO Bio

The seed to the beginning of this program was planted many years ago. This independent speculator and chartist started trading options from off the floor in 1995 to help supplement his income as a college student at Ohio State University. Trading mainly grain options he was able to pay off all his student loans before graduating from OSU.

After graduation it was off to Chicago to venture into the S&P 500 options pit at the CBOE. After several months as an arbitrage clerk in the S&P 500 option pit with one of the largest market making firms on the CBOE floor he learned how floor traders managed their option positions. This trader was ready to begin a new style of trading options.

After trading in a group dynamic for a year Chris began trading and managing his own option position. Having dealt with many inadequate trading platforms, he developed his own trading application. Over the years he has built a superior floor trading software application. This application was tested and utilized for over 6 years in the SPX pit at the CBOE while individually managing an S&P 500 option portfolio.

This software application is one of the most reliable and versatile trading applications for market making in a trading pit. Chris was one of the first market makers to trade in the SPX option pit with delta sheets that could scan all possible retail orders to allow for fast option index arbitrage by lighting up strikes that where bid over and offered under theoretical values. The application supplied multiple traders with identical theoretical values, live option portfolio greeks, and risk management calculations. This allowed traders to understand current option positions and analyze what type and level of trade would be ideal for the current portfolio

Once the rest of the trading crowd in the S&P 500 option pit caught up with his technology and the bid ask spreads began to narrow, Chris started to wonder if it wasn’t time to again become an off the floor trader. Although this time, he would implement together both floor trader and off-floor trader tactics to combine into a powerful trading strategist.

As the bid ask spread narrowed several other advantages start to occur that would again point Chris into deciding to look at off-floor trading. Option commission and fees where lowered to under a dollar for customer accounts. Earlier, one of the great advantages to trading on the floor was the low commissions and fees that floor traders paid. Not anymore, with customers now paying under a dollar an option, this would narrow the benefits for floor traders dramatically.

Another advantage for floor traders was the cross margined portfolio and risk based “hair cuts.” This is just some trader talk for the margin or amount of capital required for the options portfolio. Anyway, this style or risk based hair cut required floor traders to have tremendously less capital in an account to manage a large option portfolio. Today, customers with larger trading accounts can also get this type of margining and it is typically referred to as “Portfolio Margining” in a universal account. So again, what is the advantage for the floor trader?

With current trends leaning to electronic trading and the high costs of leasing a seat to stand on the floor (3,500 to 5,500 per month) Chris decided to begin again trading from off-the-floor. Managing personal income invested in various advanced option strategies. These strategies included well defined risk parameters and adjustment points. Examples include long ATM butterflies & calendar spreads in the SPX balanced with long equity option positions.

With several back tested strategies in place he knew he wanted to share his findings. He has applied the above strategies to help develop an options trading mentorship program. He enhanced several trading plans and adjustment strategies by back testing basic and advanced option strategies and adjustments from 2000 to present.

The program contains recorded Audio/Video Training lesson and developed strategy documentation, lesson plans and corresponding exams for each lesson. He has found educating individuals on basic and advanced option trading strategies enjoyable and looks forward to seeing the resultant trader generate the kind of returns they are looking for.