Jim Bittman, Senior Instructor, The Options Institute
James (Jim) Bittman, winner of the Traders' Library Trader's Hall Of Fame Award, is the author of four books, Options for the Stock Investor 2nd ed., Trading Index Options, Trading and Hedging with Agricultural Futures and Options, and Trading Options Like a Professional. He teaches courses for public and institutional investors, and he has presented custom courses in the U.S. and around the world.
In 1980, Jim began his trading career as an equity options market maker at the Chicago Board Options Exchange. From 1983 to 1993, he was a Commodity Options Member of the Chicago Board of Trade where he traded options on financial futures and agricultural futures.
Jim received a BA, magna cum laude, from Amherst College in 1972 and an MBA from Harvard University in 1974. Jim also teaches in a Masters’ level Program at The University of Illinois in Chicago.
Books by Jim Bittman:
Session Info: Jim Bittman
The Basics of Options
Friday 9:00 - 10:30 am
Trading options is often compared to learning a new language. Hear definitions of all the basic terms and see how to draw profit and loss diagrams, which reveal how strategies work, when they make and lose money and where they break even.
Unique Uses of Index Options
Friday 2:30 - 4:00 pm
Whether you want to protect your retirement portfolio or speculate on market direction, there are many differences between cash-settled options on indexes and traditional options on stocks and ETFs. Hear about the differences— including potential tax advantages—and how to plan your strategies accordingly.
Risks and Rewards of Time & Diagonal Spreads
Saturday 1:30 - 3:00 pm
For experienced option traders who are looking for a short-term market-neutral strategy that offers potentially high percentage profits with small dollar risk, time spreads might be the answer. Three different ways of trading time spreads, entering spread orders, and price behavior of time spreads are discussed in this interactive session.
Session Info: Peter Lusk
What a Beginner Needs to Know about Planning Option Trades
Friday 10:30 am - 2:30 pm
Option prices do not behave like stock prices. Newcomers to options, therefore, need to understand how changing stock price, changing time and changing volatility might impact an option’s price. Only with this knowledge can traders develop realistic expectations about how and why option prices change the way they do.
Motivations for Trading Debit Spreads
Friday 1:00 - 2:30 pm
Are you worried about time erosion or declining volatility? Are you looking for a potentially high return strategy in a sideways trading market? Debit spreads—both bull and bear—might be just what the trading doctor orders.
Trading Volatility with VIX Options
& Futures
Friday 4:00 - 5:00 pm
Futures and options on CBOE’s proprietary volatility index (VIX) have truly unique characteristics and price behavior. This session discusses what you need to know to trade these contracts.
Session Info: Marty Kearney
Covered Calls Inside and Out
Friday 8:00 - 9:30 am
Writing covered calls is one of the most popular option strategies, and, yet, it is frequently misunderstood. This session will clear up the misperceptions and demonstrate the proper use of this strategy. This session will also discuss strategy mechanics, standard return calculations, and planning for both “good” and “bad” outcomes.
Credit Spreads and Iron Condors
Saturday 9:30- 11:00 am
In volatile markets, “selling premium with limited risk” is an attractive alternative to selling uncovered options. This session reviews how credit spreads work and the factors to be considered when choosing strike prices and expirations. The construction of an Iron Condor position and the appropriate market expectations that lead one to this strategy are also discussed.
Long Stock with Ratio Call Spread
Saturday 11:00 am- 12:30 pm
Option positions combined with stock positions open a new range of possibilities for both conservative and aggressive investors and traders. The ratio call spread added to a long stock position is a unique strategy with an interesting payoff structure. This session delves into the nuances of this little-known strategy.