In the new version we have unified the format of the options series codes. Now, the codes are displayed in a unified format for all elements in the interface.

Also we have made minor changes in the what-if scenarios functionality, exchange visibility configuration window and accounts visibility configuration window.

The description of these and other changes can be found in this article.

In our new version, we have changed the principle of pricing models setting. Now the model is defined as a pair of a computation model (Black, Black-Scholes or Cox-Ross-Rubinstein) and volatility model. You can create multiple models for each series of options and customize them in different ways.

In the volatility model settings, you can specify custom volatility values. Also, we have added a user-defined model line on volatility skew built from custom values in the pricing model settings.

Also, there are a few small changes in the positions table, technical support form, etc.

Release 16.11.1268 entirely devoted to fixing errors and improving the functionality of the program. We have corrected more than 30 issues: interface customization, the functionality of the Positions and Fills table, formatting of the data exported or copied from Option desk, etc. We thank you for your valuable feedback!

You can download our new version here.

The question considered in this article might seem too obvious, and one might say that there is nothing to discuss. But our user support experience tells us that often people who are entirely new in options spent excessive time on trying to figure out options payoff profiles. Having a well-developed skill of reading options risk profiles (alternative terms are P&L profiles, payoff function profiles) is essential to successful options trading.

For sure, sooner or later everyone will understand all the details, but we think that with this article we may accelerate this process.

The main change of the new version is an ability to customize the line styles for the volatility skew: model lines and markers. Also we continue to improve the functionality of Option Workshop and fix some bugs.

In the new version of Option Workshop we have improved the fill manager’s functionality: improved working with several fills simultaneously, added new features and fixed some bugs. Also there are minor changes in strategies charts and templates. The details are below.

Fill manager

First of all we have improved its ability to work with several fills and added an ability to:

• drag several fills simultaneously to a target strategy,
• select a range of fills in the table by holding the Shift key.

In our new version, we have added several improvements by request from our users, and fixed some interface bugs, the DDE export bugs etc. The new version can already be downloaded from our website or through the update system.

September is here and we have a whole new major update to talk about. There are several new features that have been added to Option Workshop to help our users trade as efficiently and effectively as possible. Without further ado, I’m going to talk about each of these feature, and what they allow.

In Option Workshop most of the data is displayed in tabular form. For convenience the tables can be customized to your requirements. We’ve made two videos that demonstrate how to do it:

1. The first video is about selecting which columns to display, specifying width and sorting order.
2. The second video is about how to create presets, which are used to quickly switch between different table settings.

With this post we are going to open a category of publications, where we write about our plans to implement new features into Option Workshop. We hope these posts will turn into a dialog with users, so everyone is welcome to comment about these post here at our blog, in our google plus pages or at the support portal/forum.

The need

There are different approaches to options trading. One of them is trading standard options combinations, like butterflies, vertical spreads and so on. Beginners can simply buy/sell one of these combinations with the hope that the price of the underlying will be within a profitable range. Advanced traders will manage the position over its lifetime. But both beginners and advanced traders need to find a convenient way to observe and discover the best opportunities to open any position.

Traders need a fast way to understand all of the following factors: the price, the greeks, the maximum profit and the maximum risk if they opens a spread at a particular strike.

Another need is the ability to create custom templates, for spread trades that are regularly put on. For example, some traders like to trade ‘standard’ butterflies that only have a one strike distance or ‘step’ between the leg and the center. Others trade a ‘wider’ butterfly with a 2 or 3 strike step between the wing and the core. With a custom template, it will be possible to specify the difference between the step, be it a 1, 2 or 5+ strike distance. Additionally, because of it’s flexibility, you could build the butterfly out of calls or puts, or any combination of both.