IVolatility.com - data and services usage |
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We are opening a new series of newsletters, dedicated to site services and data usage. This first letter classifies and briefly describes the features available. Subsequent newsletters will describe services and features one-by-one, with the examples of using them in realistic trading strategies. |
Broad classification of the site servicesAll the services available on site are divided into the following broad categories:
This classification, although worded a bit differently, is available right on our homepage. Here, we’ll explain each category in a bit more detail. Trading Opportunity FindersThese services allow you to scan stocks / options universe for an attractive trade. There is only one generic stock-level finder, the Advanced Ranker service. It ranks stocks by IV Index, HV, Call/Put IV Index ratio or Correlation to the main market Index. All these values are relevant when trading options or stocks; for example, Covered Call Write on a low IV Index stock might be not a bad idea. Briefly, this Ranker helps you with initial filtering of stocks of interest for further analysis. The other two finders are option-level and designed for concrete option strategies: Strategist Scanner & Worksheets - Naked Put Write, Covered Call Write. Spread Scanner - almost any 2-leg option trade on a single underlying (vertical/calendar/diagonal spreads, straddles & strangles, etc.) The first service (Strategist Scanner) operates in terms of expected profit and risk, and allows playing with input parameters in Strategist Worksheets part. The Spread Scanner, on the contrary, filters by legs’ Implied Vola and premium, as well as by difference/ratio in these values for spread legs. In addition, it contains many stock data filters narrowing the scan. The Risk Matrix feature allows you to see the position P & L over time under different levels of underlying price and Implied Volatility. Analysis ToolsA group of services, useful for analyzing a single stock or stock list. The stock-level analysis tools are Stock Sentiment and Advanced Historical Data. The first one combines technical, historical and implied data to estimate the expected stock performance. Interactive Bollinger Bands calculator and Technical Analysis charts make it even more powerful. This service is a snapshot, while the history of most relevant indicators like IV Index, HV etc., is available in more detail in our Advanced Historical Data service. Advanced Options Page (and its free Basic version) shows all the data you need for the option chain - closing bid/ask, Implied Vola, greeks, volume, open interest etc. The Strike & Time Skew charts allow for visualization of Implied Volatility pattern. The Basic Options Page shows only a limited set of options - nearest strikes and expiries. My Favorites free service gives you an ability to compose stock lists, to be used in other site services. Moreover, you can monitor most important stock characteristics like price, front month IV Index, short-term HV, beta and correlation right here! Finally, Live Calculator (and its free Basic version) allows you to calculate option’s IV and greeks or its theoretical value. You can use both exchange-traded options as well as ones with custom parameters like strike and expiry to price flex options. The difference between Live and Basic is that Live gets 20 minutes delayed stock price feed. Data Access ServicesIf you didn’t find the service, which covers your needs, but have the in-house software, which needs input data - the Data Access Services is probably what you want. There are two services on the site for data access - Data Download Wizard and Daily Updates Wizard. The first one deals with historical data downloads, while second one allows for tuning regular daily updates. Four standard datasets are available in both of the services:
You can find more details on the Data Access topic here: http://www.ivolatility.com/data/individual.html Finally, if you need some custom data, not available through standard datasets, you can always contact us directly by e-mail. If we have what you need in our vast database, we’ll find the way to deliver this to you, sure! How to use the services?This is up to you, of course, but in our imagination it looks like this:
Of course, this scenario is quite simplified, but still gives the idea of how we understand the services usage. In coming letters we would provide the detailed samples of site services usage. What else do we have?We didn’t cover all the services available in this newsletter, due to its limited size. The following features are “off-screen”:
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