KNOWLEDGE BASE
Learn the language of option
Clear, no-jargon guides that turn Greek letters into trade decisions. New guides land here as they are written.
Foundations
Call and put options: the language of options
Right, not obligation. Two contract types, four positions, and every strategy in the rest of this library built from them.
10 min readFUNDAMENTALSMastering the Option Greeks
Every Greek is a dimension of risk a dealer has to neutralise — and every hedge they place is order flow you can read.
9 min readFUNDAMENTALSOpen Interest: mapping the market's conviction
Price tells you where the market last traded. Open interest tells you where it is still standing.
11 min readFUNDAMENTALSMax Pain: where options pain concentrates
The strike where the most contracts expire worthless — a real tendency, a contested mechanism, and not a forecast.
10 min readMECHANICSExpiration day
The last day a contract exists — and the day its time value, its pin risk, and everything hedging it come due at once.
4 min readVOLATILITYImplied Volatility: the pulse of market expectations
The one input to an option's price nobody can look up — so the market solves for it, and every quote carries its answer.
9 min readVOLATILITYVolatility skew and smile: decoding the surface
Same underlying, same expiration, different strikes — and different implied volatilities. The shape of that curve says where the market thinks the risk is.
10 min readVOLATILITYIV Rank: putting volatility into perspective
35% implied volatility is neither high nor low until you know whose 35% it is. Rank is the number that answers that.
8 min read0DTE0DTE: the final countdown
Contracts that expire the day they are traded — now a large share of index volume, and a real force on intraday movement.
5 min readFirst-order Greeks
Delta: how it drives market flow
The first hedge a dealer places, and the most persistent source of systematic order flow in the underlying.
6 min readGREEKSTheta: the price of time
The toll a long option pays to the calendar, whether the market moves or not.
7 min readGREEKSVega: sensitivity to volatility
What an option is worth when the market repriced how much it expects things to move.
5 min readGREEKSRho: the pulse of interest rates
The quietest Greek — and the one that wakes up in long-dated contracts when rates move quickly.
5 min readSecond-order Greeks
Intro to Gamma: what it is and how it is used
How fast delta itself moves — the Greek behind both the market's shock absorber and its accelerant.
6 min readGREEKSUnderstanding Gamma Exposure
Aggregating gamma across the whole chain into the hedging flow dealers are mechanically obliged to execute.
11 min readGREEKSMarket behaviour across gamma regimes
Classify the day before you trade it — regime decides which game you are playing, and direction only decides the entry.
9 min readGREEKSGamma scalping and delta hedging
Turning a long-gamma position into realised profit, one rebalance at a time — if the market moves enough to pay for the decay.
10 min readGREEKSShort gamma strategies: when they work and why
Selling premium pays reliably right up until the regime changes — and skew usually says so first.
7 min readGREEKSHow high volatility disrupts gamma pinning
Pinning is a condition, not a law — and the moment traders reach for it hardest is the moment it stops holding.
6 min readGREEKSManaging gamma risk
Time decay favours the seller right up to the last week — then the gamma trap opens underneath it.
7 min readGREEKSVanna Exposure: the engine behind volatility-driven delta
The cross-Greek that turns a change in implied volatility into directional hedging flow — and the mechanism behind the post-event melt-up.
10 min readGREEKSCharm: the hidden dynamics of delta and time
The one dealer hedging flow that needs no trigger at all — it runs on the calendar.
8 min readGREEKSVomma (Volga): the curvature of volatility
Gamma, but in volatility space — why a vol shock pays a tail hedge far more than a linear estimate says it should.
8 min readDealer hedging
Put volatility through the lens of dealer hedging
A volatility spike does not have a direction of its own. What it does to the market depends entirely on who is holding which puts.
9 min readDEALER HEDGINGTrading below Put Support
A support level made of positioning rather than price history — and what changes in the hedging when it gives way.
8 min readDEALER HEDGINGHedging flows and dealer positioning
Charm gives the direction, gamma gives the destination, and 0DTE flow tells you whether the edge is still there.
7 min readDEALER HEDGINGHow dealer hedging differs between calls and puts
The same three Greeks, two mirrored positions — and hedging flows that push the market in opposite directions depending on which side the dealer bought.
8 min readStrategies
Long Call
The simplest bullish position: capped loss, uncapped upside, and a clock working against you.
4 min readSTRATEGIESLong Put
A way to be short without the unlimited risk — capped loss, and a payoff that grows as the underlying falls.
4 min readSTRATEGIESShort Call
Collecting premium against a rise — and carrying a loss with no ceiling. The riskiest single-leg position there is.
4 min readSTRATEGIESShort Put
Getting paid to agree to buy lower — and what it costs when the market takes you up on it.
4 min readSTRATEGIESCovered Call
Selling upside you already own, in exchange for income you keep either way.
4 min readSTRATEGIESCollar
Financing a floor by selling a ceiling — often for nothing out of pocket.
4 min readSTRATEGIESBull Call Spread
Paying less for a bullish position by selling away the tail you probably were not going to reach.
4 min readSTRATEGIESBear Call Spread
Selling a rise while capping what it can cost you — the credit spread's defensive cousin.
4 min readSTRATEGIESBull Put Spread
Collecting premium on a floor you define in advance, with the loss capped before you open.
4 min readSTRATEGIESBear Put Spread
A cheaper way to be short, with the far tail sold away to pay for it.
4 min readSTRATEGIESShort Straddle
Selling both sides at one strike and betting the market stays still — a race between volatility and time decay.
4 min readSTRATEGIESShort Strangle
The straddle's wider cousin — more room to be right, and less premium for the privilege.
4 min readSTRATEGIESIron Condor
A defined-risk range trade built from two credit spreads — the strangle with its tails bought back.
5 min readSTRATEGIESIron Butterfly
The condor with its wings pulled in: more premium, and a much narrower target to hit.
5 min read