Track 'n Trade LIVE Futures

Placing Option Orders with the Option Chain

Video Transcript

In this video, we're going to discuss the options chain window. Down in what is generally considered the accounting window, you'll notice that we have an "Options Chain" tab. In the options chain tab, this is where you get all of your options information. You'll notice that you can select which expiration month you want down here, and you'll notice that whichever one you select here automatically reflects up in the upper right-hand corner in the control panel. So, if we select 6 days up here, it will automatically select 6 days down there.

You can also right-click on the header, and you'll have "Column Setup." You can come in and select any number of settings in here that make you happy—things that you want to know about the different options chain capabilities. We've got gamma, theta, vega, rho—all of your Greeks in here, along with all kinds of wonderful statistics available at your fingertips.

As we come in and fill in the things that we need to know about our options chain, you'll notice that at the top, we have additional features available for selection. This is what we call the traditional view. You'll notice the strikes are down the center, and the calls are on the left-hand side, while the puts are on the right-hand side, all lined up based on strike.

If you come across to the next one, you can see just calls alone. This is just the calls, and you'll notice that the strike is down the left-hand side, with a yellow line across the at-the-money section. Anything below the yellow line is in the money, and anything above the yellow line is out of the money, but they're all calls.

We can do the same thing with puts. We have the puts, the strike price on the left-hand side, and anything that's in the money will be above the yellow line, while anything out of the money will be below the yellow line. As we come across, you can see both calls and puts intertwined, with the two yellow lines highlighting the at-the-money call and put.

If we come to the "In the Money" view, you'll notice that on the top side are the in-the-money puts, and on the bottom side are the in-the-money calls, with the at-the-money right there at the yellow line.

One of my favorite settings is the "Out of the Money" view. You'll notice that the center line is yellow—that's the at-the-money—and all the out-of-the-money calls are above in blue, while all the out-of-the-money puts are below in pink. If for some reason you scroll up or down off the window, you can hit "Center at the Money," and it'll automatically bring the yellow line back to center.

Let's come back over to the traditional view. One of the great things about the Track and Trade options chain is that you can trade right off of the options chain itself. You'll notice that if we want to buy that 4600 call, all we have to do is right-click on the call, select "Buy Order," and you'll notice that it places that call on the screen for us automatically. The green highlight indicates that we have the $4,600 call placed into our control panel.

We can move that on the screen by adjusting it, simply by dragging it and placing it in a different location or moving it to a different strike price. You can do the same in the options chain. If we come down and move it in the options chain, you'll notice as I drag it in the options chain, it also moves on the screen.

Let's go ahead and place two options orders on the screen at the same time with this method. We're going to come in here, right-click, and buy the at-the-money call. Then we'll come in, go one strike price below, and buy the at-the-money put. You'll notice that we now have one call and one put, and there's a line drawn between them, meaning they are a single order. They'll go into the exchange on the same ticket, so they will both need to be filled, or neither will be filled.

When you're trading with Track and Trade, you're working with a complex option strategy, meaning you're able to build complex systems and have them all go into the exchange simultaneously. You can build them one leg at a time, so you can leg in and leg out. To place this order, you can bid for it using the bid, the mid, and the ask, or you can just come in and hit a market order. This will send it into the exchange on a single ticket, and both options will be filled at the same time.

Now, you can see that we have a blue marker on the screen, indicating that it's a buy call, and a purple marker, indicating that it's a buy put. Down inside the options chain, you can see that both orders have been filled. We have the highlighted call on the left side and the highlighted put on the right side.

If we now switch over to the "Positions" tab, you can see that we have a parent position, which shows the combined option as if it's a single order. You can also see the individual put and call information.