The Option Alpha "Handbook"

Earlier this year, we launched the Option Alpha Handbook, an incredible free resource for traders. Our goal is to make the Handbook your ultimate reference guide. If you want clear, non-subjective answers to thousands of investing questions, this is your go-to digital encyclopedia for everything trading. 

The Handbook is packed with dozens of sections across multiple topics. Each section is full of visual diagrams to help you learn about options, stocks, markets, portfolio management, and more. And best of all, there are no annoying ads, and the content is 100% free.

On today's podcast, we discuss the origin, history, and future of the Option Alpha Handbook.

Why a Handbook?

One of the most frustrating things for new and experienced traders is the lack of a singular resource for education. The internet is full of unorganized, subjective, inconsistent information.

The Option Alpha Handbook is a source of reliable, non-subjective information that is easy to navigate, free of annoying ads and disjointed content.

Our main goal was to make the Handbook non-subjective. There are no opinions, ideologies, or suggestions.

The Handbook

The Handbook is divided into ten sections:

Options

Learn options basics, options pricing, exercise and assignment, and much more. A comprehensive examination of all things options.

Strategies

36 popular options trading strategies. Each strategy has nine sections, including a payoff diagram and adjustment techniques. Learn how and why to enter and exit each strategy.

Stocks

This section was important to us because stocks are so crucial to derivative options contracts. Learn about common stock, dividends, earnings reports, stock splits, hedging, and more.

Analysis

An in-depth look at fundamental and technical analysis, chart patterns, candlestick patterns, technical indicators, and much more. Learn about the different ideologies used to analyze markets and economies.

Academic

Learn about financial theories, statistical models, and historical market events, including five major stock market crashes.

Portfolio

This section focuses on broad hedging, diversification, asset allocation, performance metrics, margin, and more. Learn about key portfolio management terms, an integral component of investing.

Brokers

Understand the intricacies of brokers, trading platforms, order types, commissions, and how the system works.

Markets

Equities, indexes, and futures markets are all covered. Plus, learn about exchanges, clearing transactions, regulatory agencies, and market hours (after-hours vs. pre-market).

Psychology

We cover a wide range of psychology topics, such as behavioral finance, mental models, risk aversion, investor biases, and more. You can have all the theory and analysis, but we believe you need to have a deep understanding of trading psychology to be truly successful.

Glossary

Search hundreds of terms to receive clear, direct definitions.

The Future of the Handbook

The Handbook is not a completed document; it will be continuously updated, enhanced, expanded, and improved based on users’ feedback.

Your suggestions are very important to us. At the bottom of every page we ask for your feedback about what you like and how we can improve.

Every page also has a collection of FAQs where you can easily find answers to potential questions.

There were over 125,000 words when we launched the Handbook. We've since added over 100 images and expanded every section with more in-depth content.

The Handbook will probably never be “finished.” We hope you will continue to help us with your feedback, ideas, and suggestions so that we can continue to improve the product.

We plan to offer downloadable PDFs for every section of the Handbook.

We also expect to add video tutorials and audio readings that will be embedded into the Handbook.

Trader Q&A:

“Pete: Hi, Kirk. I’m from Clarksville, Tennessee. I've been trading for about a year and a half. On my platform, IV rank is listed for options I want to trade. There's also implied volatility in the options chain. Which of the two should I use when deciding when to enter trades if I'm looking for a high IV rank above 50%? Thank you very much.”